LONDON, September 9 /PRNewswire/ --     British employers are the strictest in Europe when it comes to allowing
employees to surf social networking sites, according to a report by 3 mobile.
Experts have coined a new term to describe a generation of Europeans who surf
social networking sites at work: 'Social Notworking' which has reached
endemic proportions - but not so much in the UK.

A pan European survey commissioned by the mobile network provider reveals
that despite UK employees being the workaholics of Europe**, UK businesses
aren't permitting any kind of time out via 'Social Notworking'. 35 per cent
actually have official restrictions on accessing social networking sites such
as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. A further 15 per cent, whilst not feeling
strongly enough to monitor it, still 'frown upon' employees catching up with
friends in this way. Spain has the second biggest ban on 'Social Notworking'
with 19 per cent of companies imposing official restrictions.

UK    Spain Germany France Italy

    Businesses with official      35    19    17      17     16
    'Social Notworking' policies
    Businesses without an         15    27    20      17     25
    official policy but that
    frown upon 'Social
    Notworking'
    Businesses without an         29    40    41      44     31
    official policy
    Unsure respondents            21    14    22      23     28



So, how many of us sneak a cheeky peek at our friends' status' at work?
Showing a traditional work-horse ethic, we Brits are the best behaved in
Europe with just 35 per of the UK workforce logging onto social networking
sites at work, behind 42 per cent of Spain, 53 per cent of France, 56 per
cent of Germany and a huge 58 per cent of Italy.

David Bolchover, author of The Living Dead, an examination of the
workplace and employee motivation, thinks that any attempt by companies to
ban access to social networking sites is following a dangerously outdated
pattern of management.

"In a large company, it's quite easy to hide the fact that you're not
working," says David. "If you ban access to networking sites, workers who
want to take a break will easily find another way.

"Too many managers are still living in the factory era where productivity
increases with time spent working a machine. For the modern knowledge worker,
productivity has nothing to do with long hours on the job, but flows from an
active and motivated mind. This motivation is sure to plummet by being
treated like a naughty schoolchild."

3 believes a little bit of play, everyday is a good thing and results in
a more motivated workforce. Social networking is proving so popular, 3 has
made it available on all handsets. The latest phone, the 3 Skypephone S2, has
Skype fully integrated into the handset so you can call and message your
friends for free. Facebook, YouTube and Windows Live Messenger have been
brought to the front of the phone making it even easier to stay in the loop
with all your friends, family and contacts.

"Social networking is here to stay. People have found the practicality
and convenience of having their friends at their fingertips and are now
accustomed to that connectivity," says Charlotte Blandford, head of product
and services at 3.

"As mobiles allow easier, more varied and cheaper means of staying in
touch with friends, the banning of websites is becoming a pointless move. If
companies want to manage staff productivity, they're going to have to embrace
technology trends or they'll waste more of their time trying to resist them."

This is echoed by Britain's army of employees with 26 per cent believing
that 'Social Notworking' helps to give them a healthy work life balance.

Use of social networking sites via mobile phones is proving increasingly
popular. Latest 3 stats show that 27,000 unique UK users check out Facebook
on their 3 mobile each day, viewing an average of 31 pages. On top of that,
there are more than 80,000 unique users of Windows Live Messenger each day,
sending close to 25,000,000 messages every week.

**Eurostat 2007 and TUC report 2008 - The Return of the Long Hours
Culture