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.
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
"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
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"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)
I can agree that almost everyone wastes time on the Internet as opposed to being productive and I think it is true that everyone may need a break on occasion to re-focus. From the business financial standpoint, do these findings include the overtime and/or unpaid hours that people may put into these assigned tasks from jobs? I.e. like taking home their work. Could that potentially balance out some of the mis-use during work hours?
ReplyDelete-Chantrice Hill
In response to your question, I did a bit research and I do not think these findings include what you are asking. In my opinion, I think that being able to take home work in order to balance out the misuse time at the workplace depends on where you work, what work do you do, how your work is being done. For instance, a professor is able to bring their work such as papers in terms of grading however, an accountant may not able to bring home their work possibly due to confidentiality issues of clienteles. Hopefully this answers your question. -Jackie Som
DeleteAll of these statistics were very interesting. It does not surprise me at all that almost 50% of the time wasted is spent browsing the internet. The way that jobs are these days, most of them include sitting in an office or in a cubicle working on a computer. I'm sure that we all can agree that if we had to spend 8-9 hours a day doing work on a computer, that we would slack off and do a little browsing. While this is not necessarily accepted at work, I do not think that it is such a terrible thing. Employees could be doing something much worse to be wasting time at work.
ReplyDeleteYes...employees could be doing something much worse. However, think about it in the company's perspective. They are paying people, like us, to do something for them. They want us to be productive at all times. While the clock is ticking, the company is losing money that could be earn for every minute spent not being productive in other words "time wasting." So, to an employee wasting a little time mean much but to a company it means losing a bunch. -Jackie Som-
DeleteEmployers are 100% aware of how much time we waste online, socializing with others around the office, and doing "unproductive" activities throughout the day. I believe most employers do encourage a little "time wasters" throughout the day. They are constantly monitoring employee activities. At a previous job, my boss would comb through your work email account looking for "suspicious" emails and also seeing conversations I had with fellow employees. They also monitor the websites you visit. I would assume that as long as you show up for work and actually put in a few hours of actual work per day, employers would choose this option over paying employees for a full days work for vacation time!
DeleteYes, I do believe employers are completely aware of how much time is wasted in a workplace. However, I just think it depends on the view of the employers to what extent they believe the workplace environment should be. For instance, an uptight manager would not tolerate any distractions whatsoever. Then a more, laid back manager may create an easy going atmosphere. So depending how your employers controlled the environment where you work places a factor on how you behave. -Jackie Som
DeleteI agree it is ridiculous of how much time we waste at work doing activities other than the job we are hired to do. Unfortunately, it seems to just be the habits of the day-to-day lives we as Americans live. Due to the fast paced lifestyles, increase in technological availability, and the need for having to be doing something at all times we all get easily distracted and the normal 10 minute breaks don't cut it anymore. I personally don't take any of my breaks when at work because I feel that I waste enough time doing such things you discussed above to count as my breaks. It really just comes down to self-interest and ethics.
ReplyDeleteI have definitely dealt with 'internet misuse' while studying, but not so much while at work. The job I have now is relaxed in the fact that I can have my phone, but I know that I have a job to do and that I have certain tasks that I must get done. I occasionally look at my phone, but I would say it only amounts to 5-10 minutes throughout an 8 hour shift. At my workplace, it seems as if every year they cut hours and require more tasks to be done. As a part of the management team, I really strive to get everything done, and this requires a lot of effort and no time for wasting time on phone/internet. It definitely bothers me when I see others doing it for long periods of time (not during breaks), because I just don't think it is ethical.
ReplyDelete