Companies crack down on Facebook at work

You can barely go to a party - or visit the water-cooler - without hearing about it. But there was bad news for Facebook-obsessives yesterday, after increasing numbers of bosses were revealed to be in pursuit of those easily distracted on to the online social network.

In London, two-thirds of companies are banning or restricting use of the famous website, while some have made it clear that visiting the sites at work is a sackable offence. City firms, including Crédit Suisse and Dresdner Kleinwort, have taken the lead in the crack-down, following similar bans in America and Canada.

British Gas, the Metropolitan Police and Lloyds TSB were among organisations named as having installed internet filters preventing access to the site.

Facebook was set up in 2004 by students in the US and boasts more than four million users in the UK alone.Now it appears work-place gossip and reflections on the weekend's escapades may return to their traditional place by the water-cooler.