Enhancing Workplaces with Constructive Online Recreation

Background

Issues concerning the boundaries between work and play have provided continuing struggles for managers and employees. Workplaces have become more “porous” and permeable— integrating more influences from the outside world— as individuals engage in such online diversions as trading stocks, playing games, or viewing images of their children in daycare. Everyday workplace life is becoming more diverse and chaotic. Although many organizational roles today demand high levels of creativity and mental flexibility, they can also fail to provide the means through which individuals can gain fresh perspectives. In the “information age,” playful, exploratory, and spontaneous interaction can also facilitate the exchange of ideas for tackling workplace problems. Managers who expect employees not to use the Internet for some amount of off-task activity severely misjudge the nature of workplace life— which is solidly infused in online interaction. Depriving employees of opportunities for Internet recreation in some cases excludes the possibility of nearly any form of diversion from assigned responsibilities.

Workplace use of the Internet for activities that are not directly authorized by management is often considered as the “theft” of human and computer resources, while construed as a just reward by employees (Lim, 2002). Even though many managers consider the personal use of the Internet as an ethical lapse (Greengard, 2000), the “moral high ground” concerning these issues is not entirely clear. Much of the rhetoric and advertising copy associated with workplace computing incorporates recreational imageries and motifs, which can send misleading signals to employees. A number of individuals have already had significant experience combining work with online recreation; convincing them that hard work cannot be combined with online play is thus a tough sell. Telecommuters returning to organizational settings are often not entrusted with the autonomy to engage in online breaks at appropriate times— latitude they take for granted when doing the same tasks in their home offices. Many young people became comfortable with computing through video games and online interpersonal interaction and took online breaks during their demanding college studies (Colkin & George, 2002). Individuals must find ways to cope psychologically with increased pressures on the job (Weil & Rosen, 1997) and management should explore creative but feasible ways to assist them in these efforts.

Wireless Internet applications add more complexities, further increasing the porousness of organizations and making employees’ access to recreation less dependent on systems controlled by their managers. Daniels (2000) reports how wireless technologies (such as PDAs with Internet access) are used within meetings to amuse and distract participants, often resulting in productivity losses. Since wireless technologies are still in the early stages of adoption in many organizational contexts, placing severe restrictions on their use (and penalties for misuse) could be counter-productive. Personal computers became familiar workplace additions in the 1980s in part because of their use for gaming, an activity that encouraged employees of a variety of ages and backgrounds to explore the various dimensions of the devices and to become more comfortable with them.