Page 172 - Essencials of Sociology

Group Dynamics 145

Sociology and the New Technology

Cyberloafers and Cybersleuths: Surfing at Work

ew people work constantly at their jobs. Most of us take employees have deleted, every word they’ve erased. What
breaks and, at least once in a while, goof off. We meet some workers forget is that “delete” does not mean erase.
Ffellow workers in the “break room,” and we talk in the Hitting the delete button simply pushes the text into the
hallway. Much of this interaction is good for the company, background of our hard drive. As if revealing invisible ink,
since it bonds us to fellow workers and ties us to our jobs. cybersleuths can expose our “deleted” information with
Sometimes our personal lives cross over into our workday. a few clicks. It’s like opening a hidden diary for anyone
We check in with our child’s school to read. It was the company’s cyber-
or make arrangements for a baby- sleuths who investigated “Bob” and
sitter. Bosses expect such personal found out how he really spent his days
calls from the office. Some even at work.
wink as we make a date or nod as Then there are the social media
we arrange to have our car worked sites, from Facebook to LinkedIn.
on. Bosses, too, make their own When you delete a rant at the world
personal calls. These are the norm, or against some individual, is it gone?
the expected. It’s the abuse that Or when you delete a photo that you
gets people fired. posted solely for your close friends,
Using computers at work for does it disappear? So you might think.
personal purposes is called cyber- But they aren’t gone. They seem to
slacking. Many workers download exist somewhere forever. Programs
music, gamble, and play games at can seemingly grab them from back in
work. They read books, shop, ex- time and expose them for the world
change jokes, send personal e-mail, to see.
trade stocks, and post messages in For whatever reason, some people
chat rooms. Some visit porno sites. get a kick out of posting photos online
Some cyberslackers even operate of themselves drunk, naked, hold-
their own businesses online—when ing guns, or doing obnoxious things
they’re not battling virtual enemies (Barrett and Saul 2011). These photos
during “work.” prevent many otherwise qualified ap-
plicants from landing a job. Let’s sup-
The master cyberslacker is a pose that an interviewer has done a
programmer who has become little online searching. When he or she
somewhat of a folk hero (Poole looks at the eager new college gradu-
2013). “Bob,” as he is known, ate with the solid academic record sit-
outsourced his own job to a Candidates for jobs are sometimes rejected when ting on the other side of the desk, can
the prospective employer finds negative images or
company in China. Bob paid the information on social media sites. you see why images of bongs, exposed
Chinese one-fifth of his salary and breasts, or drooling, spaced-out looks
spent his “work days” online. In his little cubicle, he would will come to mind—and how those images can torpedo that
visit Facebok and eBay and watch cute cat videos. Bob’s job interview?
supervisors were pleased with Bob’s work. He produced
“clean code” and was always on time. Bob was even voted
the best coder in the building. For Your Consideration

Cyberslacking has given birth to cybersleuths. Inves- ↑ Do you think that employers have a right to check what
tigators use software programs that can recover not just prospective employees have posted online? How about
every note employees have written but also every Web checking what their employees are doing with company com-
site they have visited and even every keystroke they have puters on company time? How about checking on what their
made (Tokc-Wilde 2011). They can bring up every file that employees are doing on their own time?

surface. Let’s consider how even the size of a group makes a difference and then exam-
ine leadership, conformity, and decision making.
Before doing so, we should define small group, which is a group small enough so small group a group small
that each member can interact directly with all the others. Small groups can be either enough for everyone to interact
primary or secondary. A wife, husband, and children make up a primary small group, directly with all the other members