cyber-slackers

In an ideal world everyone would be 100% productive at work, live in a gorgeous house with a white picket fence on Sunny Blvd. and always say "please" and "thank you."

Pa-pam! Back to reality, the place where looking at photos of passed out drunks covered in magic marker and shaving cream is a groovy thing to do on company time. A study conducted by compensation specialist Salary.com and Web portal America Online proved just how commonplace loafing at work really is!

CNET News.com:
Through a Web survey involving more than 10,000 employees, the report found that personal Internet surfing ranked as the top method of cooling one's heels at work. It was cited by 44.7 percent of respondents as their primary time-wasting activity, followed by socializing with co-workers (23.4 percent) and conducting personal business (6.8 percent).

The average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per day, not counting lunch, according to the report. That's far more time than the roughly one hour per day employers expect the average employee to waste, the report said.

And now for a shockingly huge and equally meaningless figure the bean counters pulled out of their magic hat. All that unproductive time adds up to $759 billion in annual salaries. Let's watch big business try to recover some of that money from employees without gunfire breaking out.

Average hours wasted per person, per day, were highest in the insurance industry, at 2.5 hours per day. The public sector (excluding education) was second at 2.4 hours per day, followed by research & development at 2.3 hours a day. The "Software & Internet" industry ranked fifth, at 2.2 hours a day.

If research & development is near the top of the list, one must wonder how much time was wasted while all this research was being conducted.

Here's a statement without a whole lot of insight:

"It's interesting to note that the Internet was cited as the leading time-wasting activity. It goes to show how integrated it has become to the daily functions of our personal and professional lives," Samara Jaffe, a director at America Online, said in a statement. "Today, there are so many useful tools and Web sites on the Internet that have enabled people to become more efficient with accomplishing multiple tasks in a shorter amount of time."

It sounds like Samara Jaffe hasn't visited eBaum's World, Fark.com, or My Space. We're not talking about people being efficient here. When people watch streaming video on Break.com, the only multitasking that goes on is adjusting the volume to keep inconspicuous.

Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com was much more in-tuned to the benefits of "hardly working." He had this to say:

"In some cases this extra wasted time might be considered 'creative waste'--time that may well have a positive impact on the company's culture, work environment, and even business results," Coleman said in a statement. "Personal Internet use and casual office conversations often turn into new business ideas or suggestions for gaining operating efficiencies."

Now get back to work!

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Study proves that surfing the internet at work is a common way to take a breather.

Em português:

O estudo prova que isso surfing o Internet no trabalho é uma maneira comum fazer exame um respiradouro.

En français:

L'étude s'avère que cela surfer l'Internet au travail est une manière commune de prendre à un reniflard.

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