Why employers should let workers surf the web

Farhad Manjoo from Slate writes:

…There’s no empirical evidence that unfettered access to the Internet turns people into slackers at work. The research shows just the opposite. Brent Corker, a professor of marketing at the University of Melbourne, recently tested how two sets of workers—one group that was blocked from using the Web and another that had free access—perform various tasks. Corker found that those who could use the Web were 9 percent more productive than those who couldn’t. Why? Because we aren’t robots; people with Web access took short breaks to look online while doing their work, and the distractions kept them sharper than the folks who had no choice but to keep on task.

Corker’s finding fits in with a long line of research that shows distractions can sometimes be good for the mind. Doodling, for instance, helps us stay more alert at meetings. Indeed, Daniel Pink, the author of the upcoming Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, has pointed out that some of the world’s most innovative companies are also the most relaxed about goof-off workers. At Google—which, like most big tech firms, imposes no restrictions on workers’ computers—people are encouraged to spend time doing stuff that is unrelated to their jobs. Everyone at Pixar is allowed to spend many hours every week attending classes on filmmaking, painting, drawing, creative writing, and other subjects. And Netflix has no vacation plan—people can take as much time off as they like as long as their work gets done.

There is a jargony HR phrase that describes these forward-looking firms: They’re called “results-only workplace environments,” where people are judged on what they produce, not how. As Netflix CEO Reed Hastings once told a reporter, “I want managers to come to me and say, ‘Let’s give a really big raise to Sally because she’s getting a lot done’—not because she’s chained to her desk.” This jibes with Pink’s argument that it’s a sense of autonomy—rather than money—that drive employees to work hard. People work best, he argues, when they feel they’re being left alone to do their jobs. But it’s hard to feel that way if your computer is constantly throwing up roadblocks in your path.

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