IT Leaders Forum: Banning Facebook at work is 'strange' says Microsoft chief

Maurice Martin, director of server and cloud platforms for Microsoft UK, told delegates at Computing's IT Leaders Forum that blocking sites like Facebook at work is "prohibitionist" and might deter the best and brightest staff from joining the company.

"I was with the top 30 systems integrators in the UK recently, and I almost fell off my chair when 50 per cent of them told me that they do not permit Facebook or Twitter at work," said Martin.

"I was genuinely shocked," he added.

Martin's point was challenged by an IT leader in the audience who suggested that Facebook was "not a business app" and his company banned it due to the amount of bandwidth it was taking up.

"I had assumed that if you want to be a leading technology department you are going to want to hire the best talent possible," responded Martin.

"To do this you want to provide them with a flexible interactive environment where they can communicate in the way they do at home. I'm afraid this is done on Facebook," he added.

"I find it strange that the kinds of IT departments that are trying to attract the best talent would be so traditionalist. It's an old prohibitionist approach, and it's an old way of thinking about our problems.

"If you turned off Facebook at Google or Microsoft, I think half the staff would revolt."