Wasting time at work? Join the club!
Filed under: Technology, Career
You might think that, with a recession going on, people would be likely to work harder. After all, jobs just aren't as plentiful as they were a year ago, and it seems like this would be a good time to knuckle down, put your nose to the grindstone, and give it your all.Have you ever noticed how many work-related cliches there are?
At any rate, you would be wrong; in point of fact, the recession actually seems to be reducing productivity. According to a recent survey by Leadership IQ, a Washington DC-based business consulting firm, employees are wasting 44% more time than they were a year ago. The study queried 6,000 workers and discovered that, by their own admission, employees are currently goofing off for about 25% of their work day. The slowing economy and depressed job market seems to be imbuing workers with an increased sense of lassitude and is actually reducing their dedication to their jobs.
Another interesting thing that the study revealed is the changing face of time wastage. In February 2007, the top five time wasters were shopping on the internet (17%), surfing the internet for entertainment (15%), writing and answering e-mail (10%), chatting with co-workers (9%) and daydreaming (9%). This February, on the other hand, the top five time wasters were surfing the Internet for career improvement (21%), surfing the internet for personal finance (17%), worrying about various problems (12%), chatting with co-workers (9%), and surfing the internet for entertainment (7%).
I work for an internet site that focuses on personal finance and occasionally delves into career improvement, so I have to admit that I'm not too depressed about the changing face of office time wastage. On the other hand, I have to believe that this all-encompassing fear of failure can't be a good thing, either for the economy or the workers in it. For that matter, the sharply dropping numbers of internet shoppers and entertainment surfers is a pretty bleak indicator of the current state of the economy.
Is it odd for me to find myself wishing for the happy, wasteful days of yesteryear instead of the depressed, even-more-wasteful days of tomorrow?
Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. Luckily, this survey didn't include him, as he would have definitely skewed the results. Websudoku, anyone?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-17-2008 @ 6:59AM
George said...
I think eventually alot of companies are not going to tolerate wasting time and are going to pay people for production only, not hourly or salary. And alot of offices are going to have people work from home, thereby telecommuting will be a wave of the future. If people were paid by production I bet there would hardly be time wasted and the companies bottom line would improve.
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6-17-2008 @ 7:07AM
poor and anonymous said...
What about those of us who have a job with almost nothing to do? The biggest challenge of my day is trying to figure out how to entertain myself for 8 hours. The money is good and I'm in my last 10 years in the workforce, so I stay. Sometimes I feel that I am nothing more than a placeholder in the budget for somebody's legacy.
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6-17-2008 @ 7:34AM
Warren Gyurk said...
1. I'd go out and get a new job where I could be productive.
2. If you can't find work, send the position here. I'm retired and could use the income.
6-17-2008 @ 8:30AM
packerJ said...
to poor and anonymous:
wow! where do YOU work? I wish I could sit and do nothing and get paid for it.
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6-17-2008 @ 8:59AM
Cathy said...
Boy, I'd love to have a passive job, for once in my life. I really screwed things up. I get paid by the page, I don't have health insurance, I'm an independent contractor but the state legislature sets the page rates, and I don't get paid when a job sucks and it takes me longer to do a page. When I don't work I don't get paid.
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6-17-2008 @ 9:39AM
Dot said...
Hi Cathy,
You get paid by the "page"? What type of work do you do? I am curious because I get paid by the page as well.....I am a court reporter. The difference is that I don't have a set amount by a legislature on how much I receive per page.
I make a good living, but it can be stressful.
6-17-2008 @ 9:19AM
Pat said...
I work for Tupperware. If I want to work at it I can be paid a lot. I get back what I put into it. Part-time or Full-time it fits my schedule not someone else's. www.my.tupperware.strickpa
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6-17-2008 @ 9:53AM
SV said...
And I thought I was the only one! I work in the mortgage industry, wrapping up 8 yrs total. In the past 6-8 weeks, I've done (total) about 4 hrs of work. The remaining time is spent paying bills, working on budget, printing coupons, and reading about our credit/economy all while thinking that "Today could be my last". I just have to keep the faith and live day to day.
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6-17-2008 @ 9:53AM
missmanipulator0 said...
I'm totally in this situation as well. I'm at work 8hours a day and I actually work about 30minutes total for the whole day most days. I don't have anything to do except surf the internet and smoke ciggerettes all day. A lot of the time I leave work feeling not accomplished because I don't have anything to do!
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6-17-2008 @ 9:55AM
pam t said...
On one hand: You get what you pay for. Employers have become very cheap. I understand the cost of operating is more, but the only way to stop some of the b.s. going on, is to let some of the high management go. It all comes down to the higher management continuing to get the normal pay checks, along with all the little extra fringe benefits, and they continue to spoil in the bonus's, etc. I dont see them hurting. Corporate America is nothing but a bunch of traders and crooks, and it continues to go on. They are not hurting, is the normal lay person that is hurting, and they could care less, as long as they get that almight dollar.
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6-17-2008 @ 9:56AM
LucyLou said...
I need a job.
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6-17-2008 @ 10:15AM
Terry said...
I design houses with state of the art 3D modeling software that allows me to design all the way through production plan documents and rendering products for marketing. I do it on a laptop computer so that my commute to work amounts to a walk across the hall from my bedroom or my office can be anywhere my laptop is. (Seat 9F on a 757 works really well) So my work amounts to playing on a computer where ever I happen to be. But I don't get paid unless I do it.
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6-17-2008 @ 11:46AM
Eric said...
There is not a recession. A recession is defined as 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP. Our GDP has grown for 27 straight quarters.......
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6-17-2008 @ 10:39AM
William Gonsalves said...
Eric, you're right, this is not a recession, but people are under a lot of stress right now. They're barely making ends meet, it feels like a recession. Workers are not going to take on more responsibilties at the workplace under these conditions, they are going to due just what is required of them. Moreover, workers want less stress in the workplace,therefore, they will do less not wanting to be responsible for more deadlines, or production numbers.
6-17-2008 @ 11:51AM
renee said...
I agree with all of you and probably shouldn't be here but I thought I could add a suggestion for employers this might apply to. I do field biology and my seasonal employer recently asked me if I would work per plot instead of per hour as we have in previous years. When I probed, I found that my work efficiency was of concern...
Suggestion- For a win-win with a good trusted employee, the employer needs to invest in helping the employee improve. For a lose-lose, condemn them for this and find another warm body and start over.
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6-18-2008 @ 2:00AM
fdtate said...
Reminds me of the old Soviet Russian saying, "They pretend to pay me so I pretend to work." Either that or a shortage of work to actually be doing.
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