Wasting time at work? You're not alone: survey

[Sporkman]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070726/tc_nm/work_time_tech_dc_1



Wasting time at work? You're not alone: survey

1 hour, 12 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans who feel bored and underpaid do work hard -- at surfing the Internet and catching up on gossip, according to a survey that found U.S. workers waste about 20 percent of their working day.

An online survey of 2,057 employees by online compensation company Salary.com found about six in every 10 workers admit to wasting time at work with the average employee wasting 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour working day.

Personal Internet use topped the list as the leading time-wasting activity according to 34 percent of respondents, with 20.3 percent then listing socializing with co-workers and 17 percent conducting personal business as taking up time.

The reasons why people wasted time were varied with nearly 18 percent of respondents questioned by e-mail in June and July said boredom and not having enough to do was the main reason.

The second most popular reason for wasting time was having too long hours (13.9 percent), being underpaid (11.8 percent), and a lack of challenging work (11.1 percent).

"While a certain amount of wasted time is built into company salary structures, our research indicates that companies with a challenged and engaged workforce can expect more productivity in return," said Bill Coleman, chief compensation officer at Salary.com.

While the amount of time wasted at work seems high, Coleman said the numbers have improved, with the amount of time wasted dropping 19 percent since Salary.com conducted its first annual survey on slacking at work in 2005. Then workers reported wasting 2.09 hours of their working day.

"I think (the decline) is really a result of the economy and that there's more business, more work available and less time to sit around wondering what you are going to do with your day," Coleman told Reuters.

[arsenic23]

And when you fire people for this they look at you like your crazy.

I blame modern American schooling, where if you are slower on the uptake then other students they require less out of you. No, that is not how it works in real life! People who are at a disadvantage need to work harder to compete with those that arn't. What we end up with is a set of people who have learned that life becomes easier the less effort you put in, and another set who have grown used to large chunks of woolgathering in their day as the others 'catch up'.

Anyway, back on topic: I don't know where people get the idea that you can just goof around and read (or soemthing) when your being paid to do something else. I've always been taught that no matter what you get paid or what you are doing you are requirred to work 100% of the time you are being paid for, sans lunch. I have no idea who tells people they can slack off because they arn't getting paid what they 'deserve' or some other such crazy notion. If you deserve more, get a job that pays you that much. If you can't, then you need to work harder.

Sorry for the tone of this post, you can tell its a subject I'm heavily opininated upon.