Holiday Shopping....at work, watch out!

We all know that Black Friday is just around the corner. For most of us, however, we will still be getting up and heading into the office as per usual...I requested the day off to visit a friend in Washington but for the REST of you is status-quo.

Retail stores aren't the only shopping outlets busy that day, so are their websites. That means people at their desks are browsing Apple's website and not their TPS reports. Shoppers are expected to spend $54.5 BILLION dollars online alone this holiday season.

So watch out on your productivity this holiday season, but the REAL potential problem is the use of company bandwidth. While most employees may be shopping on their personal laptop or phone, they will still be using the company network.

Before you get too stringent on your employees keep this in mind: allowing workers a bit of flexibility in time management actually HELPS productivity. Letting people take the occasional break from work tasks to read a quick article, check up on Brangelina, etc., helps prevent burnout and people feeling too repetitive which actually diminishes productivity considerably. It needs to be within reason of course!

So here's the question: is the occasional personal browsing affecting your bandwidth? That may just point to another problem - your ISP. You may need an upgrade in bandwidth or speed.

There are a few things to figure out BEFORE you upgrade anything  Do you have several employees streaming music on Pandora or Youtube? That's a HUGE reason for bandwidth consumption. I don't even get to stream Pandora from my office network. Nix that in the bud and you'll have a TON of free bandwidth.  

So what IS my point exactly? Well first, Holiday shopping is bound to happen. Make sure that it is within reason. if you are noticing a slow down of your internet speeds look for the causes. Too many people streaming? Too many people shopping? Or maybe it's time for an upgrade in your internet service. If that's the case we can help! Give us a call and we'll see how to improve your speeds...maybe even talk to your employees about the proper use of bandwidth :)