Internet Rules at Japanese Companies
Posted 04-08-2008 at 03:43 PM by WebBilling.com
What Japan Thinks http://www.whatjapanthinks.com recently observed that the Trade Union Congress in the UK had called for workers to be allowed some MySpace time, and many people have the impression that in the USA the ability to use company resources for personal Internet access and private telephone calls is a fundamental human right.
But what of Japan? A recent report from japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research, Inc. into employee Internet access management sheds some light on this topic.
In January, 330 people from the JR Tokai Express Research monitor pool employed in private enterprises or other organizations as directors, senior management, personnel, or in other management or planning roles completed a private Internet-based questionnaire.
Most workplaces (43.5%) had policies in place regarding employees' use of the Internet, but in the 40.9% that had no formal policy there were still “unwritten rules.” Only 15.1% of workplaces had no policies at all. Rules were usually imposed by the personnel or human resources department (59.3%) or by IT (37%). The overwhelming majority of respondents (78.5%) had observed other employees making private use of the Internet at work.
Ken Y-N, editor of What Japan Thinks, shares a few observations about his own workplace—which seems about typical:
*Many of our policies are sensible on paper but the justification they add is often laughable. My favorite is their restriction on writing to bulletin boards; apparently someone wrote over 20 messages one day to a train-spotter message board and the owner complained about being flooded with traffic…
*My pet hate is that Skype is forbidden, even though for people on business trips it can be the cheapest way to keep in touch with family (and the office), because of the paranoia about file-sharing and flooding the local network if it becomes a hub - both these options can be turned off.
*I did consider renaming notepad.exe to skype.exe or winny.exe just to put the wind up the MIS department, but I suspect they don’t have a sense of humor. Oh, and they also forbid Opera 9 due to the risk of the inbuilt BitTorrent client leaping into life and sharing the whole hard drive.
But what of Japan? A recent report from japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research, Inc. into employee Internet access management sheds some light on this topic.
In January, 330 people from the JR Tokai Express Research monitor pool employed in private enterprises or other organizations as directors, senior management, personnel, or in other management or planning roles completed a private Internet-based questionnaire.
Most workplaces (43.5%) had policies in place regarding employees' use of the Internet, but in the 40.9% that had no formal policy there were still “unwritten rules.” Only 15.1% of workplaces had no policies at all. Rules were usually imposed by the personnel or human resources department (59.3%) or by IT (37%). The overwhelming majority of respondents (78.5%) had observed other employees making private use of the Internet at work.
Ken Y-N, editor of What Japan Thinks, shares a few observations about his own workplace—which seems about typical:
*Many of our policies are sensible on paper but the justification they add is often laughable. My favorite is their restriction on writing to bulletin boards; apparently someone wrote over 20 messages one day to a train-spotter message board and the owner complained about being flooded with traffic…
*My pet hate is that Skype is forbidden, even though for people on business trips it can be the cheapest way to keep in touch with family (and the office), because of the paranoia about file-sharing and flooding the local network if it becomes a hub - both these options can be turned off.
*I did consider renaming notepad.exe to skype.exe or winny.exe just to put the wind up the MIS department, but I suspect they don’t have a sense of humor. Oh, and they also forbid Opera 9 due to the risk of the inbuilt BitTorrent client leaping into life and sharing the whole hard drive.
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