With the exception of David Letterman, we all know that business and pleasure don’t mix.  But the line drawn between personal and business social networking keeps getting fuzzier everyday.  We’ve all seen our outgoing co-workers’ embarrassing party pictures on the same Facebook page they promote client news on.

For this, and many other reasons, I’m not surprised by the results of a recent survey by Robert Half Technology.  According to the survey of 1,400 CIOs, 54 percent said their companies completely prohibit employees visiting social networking sites while at work.  Fair enough.  What really interested me was that 19 percent permit employees to use social networks for business purposes only.  Good luck with that.

The Robert Half survey came one day after Deloitte’s 2009 Tribalization of Business Study found that 94 percent of enterprises are looking to maintain or increase investment in social media and communities.  Only 6 percent plan to make less of an investment.  The survey included more than 400 companies.

So, we know there is a gap between letting on-the-clock employees use social networks for personal or business use.  Can’t we all just get along?  That may be a long ways away.  If an employee is tweeting about his radical beer bong attempt on Saturday night, I can understand how that kind of communication may be prohibited during work.  On the other hand, forcing business-only rules on a channel meant for social expression and networking is kind of harsh, no?

Anybody remember the University of Melbourne study that found workers are more productive if allowed to surf the web for leisure?

Be careful, you might get caught reading this blog post at work!