What a waste

HRinNH

Workers Say They Waste 2 Hours a Day

U.S. workers say they squander over two hours a day at the workplace, with surfing the Web, socializing with co-workers and simply "spacing out" among the top time-wasting activities, according to a survey released on Monday.

Most U.S. companies assume about an hour of wasted time, but workers admit to actually frittering away more than twice as much time at a cost of $759 billion in annual paid salary that results in no apparent productivity, an online survey conducted by America Online and Salary.com showed.

Wasted time did not include the standard lunch hour.

Of 10,044 employee respondents, 33 percent said they engaged in time-wasting activities because they didn't have enough work to do. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed said they squandered their work hours because they were underpaid.

Men and women wasted an equal amount of time at work, but older workers were significantly more attentive than younger workers, the survey showed. Workers over 55 years old wasted an average of just 30 minutes a day, according to the survey.

Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com, said some time-wasting activities -- such as personal use of the Internet -- can be positive, resulting in new business ideas or a happier work environment.

"There is such a thing as creative waste," said Coleman. "Not all wasted time is bad."
*******************************************

So I'll take out my crossword puzzle book and see if any new ideas come to me...Cheryl C.

mushroomHR

I check the Forum many times during the day. I don't consider that a waste. To me that's being attentive to business. You never know what you can learn here. As for other things such as personal phone calls, e-mails or surfing--not on company time for me. I have way too much work to do to waste my time on personal tasks while at work.

LarryC

But Barb, since we're in the joke section of the forum, aren't we now wasting time according to the survey?

Forum people, can you move this topic to another section so that we don't feel guilty responding to it? Thanks.

Gillian3

I would like to point out that you just wasted time, but I'll save you the additional time wasted - me too. Perhaps you could put the saved time to good use.

DeidreFR5

I admit, I do waste time at work. I also do some personal items at work. Additionally, I do work at home, at night and on weekends. I check in daily on vacation, and make it known if someone has a question to call me. I still think (and I think they agree) its a fair trade.

AK NSTI HR

This article states that we squander 2 hours, but all of the Human Resources books and fliers that I have read all state that you should have some of that going on so that people get to know each other on a more personal level. I know that I go around and socialize with the employees just to see how moral is going, if there is any assistance that I can provide for them, so on. I do not believe that any of that is a waste of time or money... I pride the fact that our employees are open and willing to talk when I ask how things are going. The only way that I can keep them open is to continue to "waste company time". Our company does not expect our employees to spend the whole day chatting, but everyone spends our slow times getting to know each other for we do spend 1/2 of our awake time with this creative group of people.

On that note, I will finish reading through my HR-deharhar and see if I can find anymore useful information that our company might need x:-) x}>

Angie B.

Hunter1

'Management by walking around' Good Theory. Not wasting time.

I remember my first job which wasn't doing actual physical work - I wrote technical inspection manuals. At first, it bothered me a lot to have my boss walk past my cubicle and see me "doing nothing". I might have been deep in thought about how to compose my next instruction, but he had caught me doing nothing, and I'd worry about it the rest of the day. Now, I've rationalized all of that And I sleep better at night, but, then, I'm one of the over 55 employees who don't waste a lot of time on the job.