8 Websites You’ve Never Heard of That Your Employees Are Wasting Time On

Let’s face it, the internet has an absolutely hypnotic effect on people. Many employees sit at an internet-connected computer all day. Only the most disciplined can steadily do their work and keep from straying into endless internet abyss.

They don’t call it the World Wide “Web” for nothing!

Many organizations lock out popular websites through centralized network controls and filtering. There are two basic ways of accomplishing this. An on-premises hardware device such as a barracuda web filter will give you lots of lock-down controls on web surfing. The second option is software that sits on each employee’s computer, again pretty much providing the same web-surfing “handcuffs.”

If your organization isn’t doing some sort of web filtering, talk to your network administrator about implementing such a plan. It just makes good sense. You pay your people to do work, after-all, and NOT to binge on YouTube Fail videos all day.

The professional web filters can block sites by category (e.g. banking, shopping, etc.), but you can also add web addresses one-by-one in ad ad-hoc manor. Below is a list of lesser-known websites that still get a TON of daily traffic. If you aren’t blocking these sites, think about adding them to your list.

Instagram – OK, so you have probably heard about this website. Just know that Instagram has broken the top 50 most visited websites on the planet. It’s difficult to imagine a business use-case for this site. Block!

Reddit.com – You might have heard of this one too. It’s mind-numbing and yet hugely popular. You don’t want your staff spending even a minute on this one!

Diply.com – You’ve never heard of this website, yet it gets over 7,000,000 unique visitors DAILY. Pure distraction.

Indeed.com- You certainly don’t want your employees looking for their next job on YOUR dime! Of course, recruiters and HR folks might need this one for professional purposes.

Slickdeals.net – Mindless discount-hunting on this site.

Bleacherreport.com – If you’re already blocking ESPN and other popular sports sites, your rabid-fan employees are likely to find this one. Some folks just can’t go an entire work shift without checking in on scores

Retailmenot.com – A “Coupon” site with a database of over 50,000 stores. Pure time-wasting death for a bargain hunter!

The good news? It’s relatively easy to block time-wasting websites from your network. You just need to be working with the right network administrator. As a shameless plug, working with an experienced Managed Services Provider is probably the easiest way to implement a “blocking” policy with little trouble. We do it all the time.

By the way, you might notice that I've only listed seven websites above. So what's the eighth? I challenge you to poll your own employees. Earnestly ask them, "What's a website you visit every day from work, that I've never heard of." Most people love sharing obscure favorite websites. You just might be surprised by the response.