The business playground

Earlier this week, I was lucky to head over to Griffith to talk about digital citizenship with local school kids and their parents.

The concept of “digital citizenship” is pretty simple – your behaviour online should be no different from how you’re expected to conduct yourself in the playground or business world.

When talking to some of the parents about the issues their kids face, it stuck me just how seriously most of the concepts like being accountable for your behaviour, safe computing and avoiding bullying are as applicable as much to business as the schoolyard.

Bullying in the workplace is pretty common and – as the tragic case of a young waitress who killed herself after being bullied at a Melbourne café shows – employers are directly responsible if they don’t control it.

While the Melbourne case didn’t have a digital aspect, what employees put up about their co-workers on social media sites or on blogs or in emails can be bullying as well.

Making things worse when social media or the web is involved is that most of the evidence is in writing and difficult to erase.

Safe computing, such as creating strong passwords and not sharing them, is one important part of being safe online. 

Just as kids get into trouble by sharing their passwords with their friends, so too do businesses that common login details for their key systems and services.

Some weeks ago there was the story of a Texas waterworks that was hacked because their systems had a simple password.

No doubt the login was kept simple to make things easy for staff and management, just like a 12-year-old sharing their Minecraft or Moshi Monster accounts with their big brother or best friend.

Being accountable for your behaviour is probably something both kids and business people struggle with; just as kids don’t understand that taunting their friends through a Facebook page has real life consequences, many managers and entrepreneurs forget that laws and professional standards apply online as much as they do in any other area.

Of course in business, it’s not just ourselves that can cause problems – our staff can get us in trouble too. Employees need to know that upsetting co-workers, customers, suppliers and competitors is unprofessional and can cost them their jobs.

Having a staff acceptable computer use policy makes it clear employees are responsible for work related comments they make even on their personal accounts outside of working hours is now essential for all enterprises.

In many ways, business is just like being in the playground. It’s usually fun, but when things go wrong it can be painful in many ways.

Just as schools are on the look out for digital trouble among students, watch out for similar pain points among your staff.

Paul Wallbank is one of Australia’s leading experts on how industries and societies are changing in this connected, globalised era. When he isn’t explaining technology issues, he helps businesses and community organisations find opportunities in the new economy.