January
6
2011

Goldman Sachs Invests $450 Million in Facebook, but still blocks it

by Erik Qualman

According to Fast Company’s Austin Carr, Goldman Sachs has invested $450 million in Facebook, yet the social network is still blocked for Goldman employees.
Goldman isn’t alone. A study commissioned by Robert Half Technology found only 10 percent of 1,400 CIOs interview said their companies allow employees full access to social networks during work hours.
According to Fast Company, back in 2007, one Goldman Sachs employee reportedly received the following message from the IT department:
“It has come to our attention that you have been spending a considerable amount of time on a website known as ‘The Facebook.’ This is unacceptable since firm regulations do not permit usage of social networking sites,” the warning read. “Your combined total usage time over the past six months has now exceeded 500 hours (the equivalent of over four hours daily), which we feel would normally be sufficiently high to render us duty-bound to inform your manager.”
54 percent of U.S. companies outright ban the use of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and the like during working hours. Do you think we have the right to access these tools during the day? Isn’t it similar to when companies banned Google ten years ago?
Close
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN BAMBOO.
PLEASE FILL OUT THE FORM, AND WE WILL GET BACK TO YOU TO SCHEDULE A DEMO.
Fields in red are required.
Company Revenue

Less than $ 1 Million

$ 1 - 10 Million

$ 11 - 50 Million

$ 51 - 100 Million

More than $ 100 Million

[ close ]