Shel Holtz reports that more employers are now restricting access to RSS and podcasting at the firewall level, citing reasons ranging from excess bandwidth consumption to work productivity issues. Holtz is very critical of their approach. First, he argues, if the employee is expected to work overtime and take some work home, then by the same token some of home may be brought to work. Second, procuctivity is measured by how much work is getting done, not by how much time is spent on non-work-related activities. Third, RSS and podcasting are essential tools for keeping the employees up-to-date in their areas of expertise, and are not inferior to offline forms of employee training. Finally, he concludes, monitoring the workers’ computers or placing further access restrictions is bound to send a message that they can’t be trusted, which can be devastating to staff morale, in turn triggering diminished productivity.

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