Time Waste and Productivity

Wasting time at work!!! You do it, I do it, everybody has done it.  So is it good or is it bad?  Lets take a minute to think about it.  Pretend that you're an accountant for an international firm.  You have a budget deadline to meet in the next few days for an important client.  Any mishaps will cause you to loose this valuable client.  Right now, you're crunching in so many numbers that you're starting to make mistakes and are about to collapse.  Momentarily, you take an online break, do a little online shopping, watch a couple YouTube videos, or whatever else to relieve some stress before returning to the task at hand...is it so bad that you wasted paid minutes or is it okay since you were still able to meet the deadline?

Let's look at the pros and cons for time-wasting.

Pros:
Employees can get refreshed

May Enhance Productivity

"People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration," researcher Dr. Brent Coker told Ars Technica's Jacqui Cheng. "Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a day's work, and as a result, increased productivity." (Rebecca Greenfield)

Cons:
Procrastination Habits
Compromising Network Safety
Loss in Productivity


(http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/business-studies/comments/time-wasters-of-the-world-unite/)



"Internet misuse in the workplace costs American corporations more than $178 billion annually in lost productivity. This translates into a loss of more than $5,000 per employee per year," reported Reuters in 2007. (Rebecca Greenfield)

Time-wasting has grown into a problematic issue and needs to be addressed.  Just how much time exactly is wasted?  And what is time wasted on?  According to Dan Malachoski, the top ten time wasting activities include...

Surfing the Internet (personal use) 44.7%
Socializing with co-workers 23.4%
Conducting personal business 6.8%
Spacing out 3.9%
Running errands off-premises 3.1%
Making personal phone calls 2.3%
Applying for other jobs 1.3%
Planning personal events 1.0%
Arriving late / Leaving early 1.0%
Other 12.5%

Articles of Interest:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/08/keep-wasting-time-online-work-its-better-productivity/41547/ (For it)
http://www.davidsonstaffing.com/articles/salary/wasted-time/ (Against it)

An Overview of Internet Misuse

 As use of the internet is becoming more common in the workplace, businesses are growing more concerned about the prevalence of internet misuse and abuse.  Still a broad and not entirely defined issue, internet misuse is clearly costing firms a loss in productivity and creates many and various problems.  The scope of internet misuse is wide, including; internet addiction, cybersexual internet abuse, social abuse, online information abuse, criminal Internet abuse, and other miscellaneous misuses.  Difficult to identify, prevent, and correct, internet misuse is a growing topic of debate for businesses.
(Griffiths, M. (2003), Internet abuse in the workplace: Issues and concerns for employers and employment counselors. Jnl of Employment Counseling, 40: 87–96.) article 

http://www.techhum.com/social-networks-trap-our-personality-turns-users-violent-and-antisocial/

Some of the topics we will discuss in this blog will be:

• Time Wasting and Productivity
• Legal and Financial implications
• Social Media Misuse
• Criminal Internet abuse
• Prevention and Controlling