Last week Kate asked
Do you hide Twitter from your boss? Or is it ok for you to be Twittering while working? Do you (honestly) think it hurts your performance?
Not many people answered her on Twitter or FriendFeed, maybe it’s because it was an odd week, between Christmas and New Years or maybe because they didn’t want to answer, I don’t know. So I’m asking again –
- Do you Tweet at work?
- Do you hide it from your boss?
- Do you think it’s ok to Twitter from work?
- Do you think it hurts your performance?
I’ll even answer them myself first.
- Yep!
- Nope, in fact I sometimes point him to particular Tweets or conversations on Friendfeed.
- Yes, I do. Not all the time not every day, but yes I do. For me its no different that water cooler talk with coworkers who I see face to face. I get valuable information and feed back from both sets of people but in the middle we talk about trivial stuff, tv shows, lunch, etc.
- No I don’t, like all things I do it in moderation, some days more some days less. With my job, like so many, focusing on technology etc, I can work from just about anywhere with an internet connection and I do (coffee shop, laundromat, public library etc). This means I don’t’ remember my last 8-5, straight 40 hour work week because the line between personal and professional time blends.
- Additionally some of the best ideas I’ve brought to my library in the couple of years have come from my online connections. As I am the only person in my library who does what I do, they are my colleagues, my network, troubleshooters, sounding boards, naysayers and supporters. I’d say in many ways it improves my work.
Librarian by Day 
1. Do you Tweet at work?
Yes as does my boss.
2. Do you hide it from your boss?
Nope.
3. Do you think it’s ok to Twitter from work?
Yes. Keeps me up on the latest things happening in the library world since I follow many library related folks (also new organizations)
4. Do you think it hurts your performance?
No, keeps me up on things. Matter of fact I’ve sent several interesting things found or inspired by Tweets to our Marketing dept. who has been grateful for the links. I don’t tweet all day – just check from time to time. Less time spent than reading emails.
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Ha! I hope more answers come here than they did when I originally asked. And I realized that I never answered my own question.
I do not hide Twitter from my boss, and have referred to it a few times when talking with her, but I still get a feeling that it is frowned upon.
But, I do feel that the way I currently use Twitter has hurt my productivity and I’m working on that. Maybe that guilty conscience is what makes me feel like it’s frowned upon at my workplace.
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1. Do you Tweet at work?
Oh yes, for me, 80% of the reason I even use Twitter is the virtual watercooler it creates at work. And I don’t even have to get up from my desk, or break my workflow to throw up a quick tweet.
2. Do you hide it from your boss?
No! My boss has her own Twitter account and there’s been times shes @ replied to something I wrote right after I posted it. And she was sitting next to me at the front desk!
3. Do you think it’s ok to Twitter from work?
Yes. Like I said, after 6,500 tweets and figuring that 80% of those are work/library related or replies to work/library related tweets from others, then I’ve had 5,200 conversations with the Twitter world. Of that world, a great deal of them are librarians who I’ve learned much from and, according to them, they’ve learned stuff from me. That wouldn’t have happened without Twitter.
4. Do you think it hurts your performance?
That’s not just a no, but a HELL no. Being a computer nerd, I can do several things at the same time on a computer without breaking my workflow or productivity. Indeed, it’s helped my performance. There have been a few times here and there when a tweet from a friend clued me into something I REALLY needed to know.
Twitter is a fantastic tool and toy. When I was a kid, I liked to hammer nails into boards. As I got older my dad let me more of that, except I was helping him build something. It was the same thing- just hammering nails into boards. Yet at the same time it was a fun activity it was also helping to build something bigger. I see that Twitter has something in common there.
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I tweet at work. I feel that if it’s work-related, it’s ok. I don’t have many co-workers using Twitter yet, so haven’t got a sense of whether it’s approved or not. My supervisors do not tweet, afaik. I have, however, had productive tweet exchanges with colleagues in other cities.
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