Nearly three quarters of UK workplaces (74%) restrict their employees’ access to the Internet, according to a recent survey by office design company Maris Interiors. 71% of offices surveyed have a filter for pornographic websites, with 52% of employees unable to access social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook and 48% of employees unable to access their personal e-mail.

YouTube was blocked by 30% of employers and news websites by 27%. 9% of offices only allow access to certain specific sites and 4% only allow staff to use the company’s intranet – not even allowing search engines such as Google. 

Of those employees who have restrictions in their Internet access 30% claim they say this makes their job more difficult – and 82% say it makes their job more boring! Only 6% of employees surveyed said that they actually think it helps with their productivity at work.

Maris Interiors Chairman, Michael Howard said: “It’s a difficult decision about blocking websites in the workplace, by doing so you have to balance employees’ productivity against their morale. At our company we block access to pornographic sites – hopefully this doesn’t affect their morale too much!”

260 people participated in the survey, conducted in March 2011. 

Summary of percentage of employees, by restrictions:

1. Any restrictions – 74%
2. Pornographic sites – 71%
3. Social networking sites – 52%
4. Personal e-mail – 48%
5. eBay – 48%
6. Gaming websites – 44%
7. Online dating – 41%
8. YouTube – 30%
9. Specific list of allowed sites – 9%
10. Intranet only – 4%