Employees admit to wasting 2.09 hours a day in survey

[BurtWorm]

Tsk tsk.

http://newswire.salary.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=dfi,15kk,55,bxf2,c4za,4qme,jlly

For many American workers today, time's a wastin' - literally. According to a new survey by America Online and Salary.com, the average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per 8-hour workday, not including lunch and scheduled break-time. As a matter of practice, companies assume a certain amount of wasted time when determining employee pay. However, the America Online / Salary.com survey indicates that employees are wasting about twice as much time as their employers expect. Salary.com calculated that employers spend $759 billion per year on salaries for which real work was expected, but not actually performed.


Top Time-Wasting Activities (%)
1 Surfing Internet (personal use) 44.7%
2 Socializing with co-workers 23.4%
3 Conducting personal business 6.8%
4 Spacing out 3.9%
5 Running errands off-premises 3.1%
6 Making personal phone calls 2.3%
7 Applying for other jobs 1.3%
8 Planning personal events 1.0%
9 Arriving late / Leaving early 1.0%
10 Other 12.5%

[Squatch]

1. I spend about 6 hours a day on the net.

My job sucks.

[HughBeaumont]

2. Currently wasted about 1.5 hours today

thanks to our brain surgeon IT department not getting me what I need to develop this damned app.

[Misunderestimator]

3. I hate this kind of thing... Who knows how valid it is... but you can be

sure that companies will use this as an excuse to be even more invasive and big-brotherish. Lovely.

And what idiots would answer a survey saying they fritter their time away anyway? Anonymous or not, it doesn't really serve them well to admit it.

[BurtWorm]

6. I'm willing to bet people were erring on the side of making themselves

look good, as is usual in these kinds of surveys. I "waste" many, many more hours than just 2 each day. I can't believe I'm atypical.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. If I had been surveyed,

I would have said I wasted 8 or 9 hours a day, just to throw the survey results off. :)

[SoCalDem]

8. BINGO.. there's no other "reason" to even do such a 'survey'

It's just leverage so the bosses won;t feel that gulity when they lay people off (they were slackers anyway) or demand wage give-backs..

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. I have great faith in the American workers' ability to fritter away time.

Having been one for most of my life I have, and seen my fellow-workers, screw the bosses with great creativity and boldness of spirit.

Hell, they have to take pride in something.

[napi21]

4. It depends on where you work and who you work for, but that

sounds about right.

Always remember when you're dealing with averages, that there are some workers who don't waste ANY time (assembly line, Customer Service phone reps, etc) and some waste at least half of their day!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. They're amateurs. If I couldn't "waste" at least 4 hours I felt guilty.

Of course, I figured about 95% of the time spent working was a waste.

Retired now and can do interesting and productive things. Like reading a good book and taking a nap.

[prodigal_green]

7. they forgot

11. Answering surveys 5.2%

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. I wonder how much the bigshots, politicians, and military brass waste?

Unfortunately, they don't waste enough time to have a positive effect on the proles.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Missouri is #1 !!

It's about time the show me state came in first in something.

[Matariki]

12. this has always been my argument for a 30 hour work week.

there's just not that much for all of us to do except pretend to be busy. i'm at work right now - waiting for something to do ;-)

[Matariki]

13. this has always been my argument for a 30 hour work week.

there's just not that much for all of us to do except pretend to be busy. i'm at work right now - waiting for something to do ;-)

[quiet.american]

14. What's "Other"? :) n/t

[marions ghost]

15. one of my (non-scientific) theories is that

often people in low-paying jobs waste time and do personal biz at work to make up for being exploited.

If people in higher paying jobs don't have enough to do, then it seems their jobs just might really be in jeopardy...(personally all I know about is jobs where your ass is run ragged no matter what the pay). There must be some cushy jobs out there, if this poll has any validity.

[H2O Man]

16. O, that's nothing!

I'm retired and I waste way more time than that every day.

[Deja Q]

17. Ivent more pills and force us to take them. Give us lobotomies then. CEOs

also spend the most time being unproductive, with the amount of golfing tournaments and meetings they engage in...

People are people, not programmed robots.