Snapchat In The Workplace: Is It A Good Thing?

I’m guilty of it, and you probably are too – we Snapchat in the workplace. We can’t help it. We have this need of showing others our boredom and our frustration. Additionally, we simply just want to amuse others and amuse ourselves at the same time. Snapchat is a way to show off our achievements with our friends, and a way to commiserate with them while we sit on mute on 4 PM Friday afternoon conference calls.

Furthermore, Snapchat is the fastest growing social network. As of July 2015, it has an estimated 200 million monthly active users and 100 million daily active users. Over 400 million snaps are sent per day. The numbers speak for itself, but is this “new” social media channel suitable for the workplace? Is Snapchat in the workplace a good thing? Let’s explore this question together.

Pros

It provides a much-needed break.
Breaks at work are important. We need to look away from what we’re doing for a bit in order for us to be able to come back to it with a fresh perspective. Snapchat allows us an entertaining, quick little break from the work we’ve been focusing for so long on.

Companies are using Snapchat professionally.
More and more companies and organizations have their own work Snapchat accounts. By being on Snapchat in the workplace, you can be contributing to and supporting their efforts regardless of whether you work in the social media department or not.

Use Snapchat for business purposes.
Don’t just use Snapchat to share funny things with your friends, but use it for business purposes as well. MakeUseOf.com shares five different reasons why Snapchat is excellent for the workforce. These reasons range from using Snapchat as a walkie talkie to using it to replace memos.

It’s changing the workplace.
Millennials are changing the workplace; we’ve known this. It makes sense that Snapchat changing the workplace would be a pro for millennials as well. Ryan Jenkins of Business 2 Community explores how Snapchat will redefine workplace communication. He states that using Snapchat will lead to stronger storytelling, as well as increased mobile video and multimedia. Change is a good thing, right?

Cons

It’s distracting.
I don’t know about you, but I could easily lose track of time while on Snapchat, especially once I start playing around with filters. This distraction is obviously not a good thing when it comes to being in the workplace, especially if you have things you need to get done.

You could get caught.
I don’t mean this in a “you can get caught and be punished” way, I mean this is a “your boss can be walking by and see you with your arms extended holding your phone and making faces into your camera” kind of way. The last thing you want is for your boss to catch you blatantly not doing work and instead sticking your tongue out to turn yourself into a dog for your new Snapchat story.

It’s solely on your phone.
No one wants to be caught using his or her phone at work, and unfortunately as Snapchat is solely a mobile app, so in order to use it, you need to be on your phone. You don’t want to be known in the office as the worker who’s always on his or her phone, and you most definitely don’t want your boss to think so.

What do you say fellow millennials? Do you use Snapchat in the office? I’m guilty as charged, and would love to know if you are too. Tweet us @PloymintHQ to let us know!