Are YOU GUILTY as charged?? Exposing "The World Wide Waste of Time"

[Radio_Lady]

From: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12200B7MICTK

Let's discuss this one, assuming you're NOT at WORK...

I'm retired, but admit at my last telephone job in 2001, I was so bored that I spent tons of time on the Internet and playing solitaire... Anyone else willing to CONFESS?



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The World Wide Waste of Time
By Elizabeth Millard
September 26, 2006 10:26AM

As the use of the Internet and the spread of Wi-Fi hotspots makes the Web even more ubiquitous, it's likely that companies will need to look at their internal culture, current usage levels, productivity goals, and even employee habits to determine what type of Internet restrictions are necessary.

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Many employees spend most of their work day tapping diligently at their computers and looking intently at their screens -- but how many are updating their blog or sending funny e-mails instead of typing up that important memo, or responding to customer requests?

Some studies have suggested that the wealth of digital diversions have put a number of non-work options at employees' fingertips, and companies foot the bill for their play time.

Last year, Internet management software firm Burstek surveyed over 10,000 employees about their business and personal use and found that across all industries, workers spent around 20 percent of their Internet time on personal business or for entertainment. For some employees, all Internet use was purely personal.

Study Time

In the Burstek study, online shopping was the biggest time-waster for employees using the Internet for personal reasons, followed by entertainment sites, personal e-mail, sports, chat rooms, job searches, and game playing.

About 8 percent of the sites visited could pose potential legal liability to employers, such as sites that offer pornography or gambling.

Government agencies have the highest incidence of employees accessing sites that contained spyware and malicious code, but industry wide, about 19 percent of employees visited these questionable Internet regions.

"Productivity will vary from one organization to another," says Beverly Lambright, Burstek director of operations. "Sometimes, a special event like March Madness will bring some companies to a screeching halt."

MORE AT LINK ABOVE ----->

[AnnieBW]

1. Does That Include

Reading DU instead of working? :blush:

[Radio_Lady]

2. Well, you be the judge.

In my opinion, I'm afraid it does...

We could be curing cancer.

We could be exploring space.

We could be exercising.

We could be doing other things.

But we aren't.

We've turned into a generation of "mouse potatoes" -- fused to our computers, and for some of us, taking money for our (ahem) "work" while doing so.

[Blackthorn]

3. Yeah, we could be.

But we aren't. Why does it have to be a bad thing?

[Radio_Lady]

4. The point of the article is that people are SURFING the 'net and getting

paid for DOING SOME OTHER KIND OF WORK -- which they are not doing.

Ya think?

Thanks for your comments.

[Blackthorn]

9. I'm doing that right now.

HOWEVER, I'm not putting off any work that I need to be doing in order to surf the net.

[Radio_Lady]

30. Obviously, we all slip in a little DU time now and again -- but after

watching a show on addictive Internet use, I wondered about this subject.

Thanks, Blackthorn.

[Stardust]

11. Realistically, I'm only capable of doing 2 of the things you suggested

but I'm tired and I'm getting smarter. That's not an altogether bad thing.

[Radio_Lady]

31. OK. You're allowed to get smarter, especially when you're tired.

Classy response... I accept.

[pitohui]

15. who are "we" kidding?

this "we" could not be curing cancer or exploring space, society long ago decided that they could dispense with my services -- roughly in the era that they reluctantly concluded the moon wasn't made of green cheese after all

look, you're a nice lady, but in reality most jobs are worthless and most of what people do is a waste of time and the environment

a woman of my class and background and age and handicaps was NEVER going into space and was NEVER going to cure cancer

no more than the mockingbird in my yard is going into space or curing cancer

so i'm going w. my mockingbird's plan and enjoy life for what it is

work, for most people, is stealing our time to give us money -- if we are of the right gender/class/race combination to be even given THAT privilege


if "we" could be doing other things, go do them, most of us don't have that option

[hfojvt]

17. we could be watching TV or reading People magazine

or Playboy, but to be fair, there are some good articles in Playboy :evilgrin:

I cannot access the web in my job which provides me with more excercise than I want. Even on this, my day off, I spent over an hour working on my porch, I cut the grass (and put up a yard sign for Nancy Boyda), I fed and played with my dogs and bicycled to the County headquarters and worked two hours there. I also took steps to set up a website for the local party. Some of my 'web work' is genealogical research which I like to think is useful in remembering the ordinary people of history and in showing our connectedness. Plus reading, typing and arguing on DU is good intellectual exercise.

[JackRiddler]

33. Well...

On the other hand...

We could be filing files.

We could be making plastic puke.

We could be building bombs.

We could be dealing derivatives.

We could be coming up with new marketing schemes for selling fatty foods to children.

Some work just needs to be shirked.

[Subdivisions]

5. Fortunately, I work on the web and I work at home, so....

I decide whether or not my internet time is a waste or not.

But, I can say this: I try to make every minute online count! I'm either working or learning. I rarely play games or read jokes.

[Radio_Lady]

7. Thanks for your comments. I admire your stick-to-it-tive-ness, or

whatever you call it. Singlemindedness of purpose.

Then, there are those of us who are like bees -- we flit from flower to flower -- subject to subject. I don't play games or gamble or go to those porn sites.

I'm just a "media person" and the message becomes secondary. Oh, well. I worked from age 15 1/2 to age 62. Now my time is pretty much my own and the DU fills some kind of a need for me. I volunteer, help my daughter with her two kids, try to be a competent wife and a better cook, etc. etc. And, of course, we spend time on travel.

I appreciate your candid expression.

In peace,

Radio_Lady in Oregon

[skids]

6. Two issues here.

One is the use of employer bought time. Personally if I am billing a client for time they are not going to spend it on my personal web browsing; it's unethical. However so is our 40 hour workweek and economic disparity here in this country, frankly, so some slack is appropriate.

However, aside from that issue, browsing the web is not necessarily a waste of time. There are productive uses. Mainly learning, and teachning. Moreover, our society's inclination to categorize any activity that is not monetized as "personal" even though that may involve being genuinely helpful to other people out of pure good nature severely understates the value of such activities to our economy. Take wikipedia as an example -- people don't get paid to build it, but it is undeniably a thing of value. The same applies to all those on forum and blogs that provide everything from consumer reports to political analysis to art to companionship. All those are too things of value, and what drives Internet use -- nobody would visit the greater Internet if all it held was advertising.

The only question to ask if you provide these gratis services to your fellow man is "am I being effective at either learning or teaching?" -- supposing of course you care whether or not you are, and are not just doing it purely for pleasure (there are much more pleasurable activities, mind you, so other than leaching porn most people are at least looking to feel like they have done something of consequence.)

[Radio_Lady]

8. Very well expressed, Skids. Just out of curiosity, if 40 hour work weeks

trouble you, what should an ideal work week look like?

My son, for example, is in food service at a restaurant. He regularly works 60 to 90 hours a week. Divide his hours by his salary and you get a pittance...

Forty hours doesn't seem like much anymore, particularly when I see people all over the place conducting business in airports, during lunch, even on the toilet (!) --- one phone call recipient quoting sales prices from the next stall! Pretty unique, don't you think?

In other words, the nature of "time at work" and "personal time" has changed radically just in the past few decades. The line has completely blurred.

[skids]

10. Pretty scary.

I'm all for hustle, but only if the rewards are proportionally distributed. Note that does not mean I do not think that assuming risk by loaning or investing should not net a profit. Nor do I think there should be no redistribution even from the workers to those that add value to society but have no monetization mechanism -- one has to recognize that cash as currency has an effective monopoly on several essential commodities, and lack of a monetization strategy should not separate anyone from fulfilling their essential needs, nor separate those engaging in productive activities from reward and privilage.

I know what it's like to put in long weeks and sacrifice personal time, sometimes even uncompensated, for organizational goals. To answer your question if we were able to work our ass off and through doing so fully own a small house in under two years, that might be equitable (the total labor involved in building a house in terms of man hours without accounting for materials cost is well under 2000/1000 square feet -- with a 40 hour workweek a solid year. Materials I don't have an estimate for equivalent value.)

As it is, though, these people are running their asses off so their CEO can pull in millions and millions. Not smart. Not conducive to healthy society. People are way too generous with their labor in the face of this disparity. Unfortunately there are plenty of destitute and desperate who will accept even worse terms than what Americans will, so it is hard to create bargaining power. As such our dignity has evaporated. Most don't seem to notice -- these days you have to read about it in books to get a sense of what dignity is.

Some perspective: http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/~rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html

In the words of Ozzy: "Killing yourself to live"

[blogslut]

12. But you know, Bob,

...that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

OFFICE SPACE :)

Bob Slydell: You see, what we're trying to do is get a feeling for how people spend their time at work so if you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you?

Peter Gibbons: Yeah.

Bob Slydell: Great.

Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh - after that I sorta space out for an hour.

Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?

Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.

[Radio_Lady]

18. Blogslut, my husband "decorated a desk" for eight months while --

the company he was "working" for was spiraling into insolvency.

His work day was comprised of driving from Portland, OR to Vancouver, WA (to folks not familiar, this was about a 45 minute drive). This was a fairly large company with main offices in Menlo Park, California and Vancouver, Washington was an auxiliary office which had maybe 60 -- 100 employees.

He started his job as a computer analyst in January 2001. At work, he began at 8 AM with nothing to do. He asked his boss if there was anything he could do that day. The answer from the boss was, "We'll get back to you when we have work." He was there until 5 PM, as I said, "decorating a desk." So, he tracked our finances from his office and did other personal stuff. He felt bad about taking their money, but nobody said anything. He looked for other work, but at that time, the technology field was hemorrhaging everywhere, and nobody wanted to talk with him.

There were a series of "cutbacks" at the company in February and again in July. Surely, they were going to let him go. But, no, the arrangement stayed exactly the same until mid-August. Someone from HR came in and told him the company was insolvent, and was going to be closing down on August 31.

They closed up shop, taking their "self-insured" medical policy with them. He was forced to retire at that time.

[Initech]

13. I'd rather go online than watch TV these days...

[Radio_Lady]

23. Eoo, I completely agree. Adding in movie and book previewing for

Oregon Public Broadcasting, and that pretty much describes my week.

But I am not earning money anymore, and I still worry about "wasting time."

Guess it's a heritage I got from my parents and upbringing. I am a perfectionist to a fault and wish I were more laid back.

Have a good day!

[pitohui]

14. al gore had not invented the internets last time i held a job EOM

.

[Radio_Lady]

24. Pitohui, do you remember doing anything personal on company time?

I took some personal telephone calls and may have composed a snail-mail letter or two to a friend or family member.

But my supervisors were always around and it was harder to hide personal ventures.
I certainly tried to give each employer their money's worth.

[REP]

16. When I Worked, I Worked. Period. No Net Surfing.

I could have done it, but I didn't. I was there to work, and my job was not compatible with net surfing. I had had other jobs where I was free to read or whatever in downtime, and even then I did was mostly work-related reading.

[Radio_Lady]

25. REF, thanks for the report. You have nothing to be guilty for...

Most of my time was spent in broadcasting, some of it in production, and some of it as "talent" on the air. So, if you had to be at work at 10 AM, that meant you had to be ON THE AIR at 10 AM. Quitting time was 2 PM when I got OFF THE AIR. Preparations were complicated -- had to meet with producer, give my approval to guests, read or at least "skim" their books and biographies, and read several newspapers. There were also public appearances in the evenings (not a money-maker, at least not for me).

In the early years, I worked six days a week -- including Saturday. That means I was TALKING on the radio for 24 hours a week, four hours a day.

But I had to support two kids as a divorcee, then got married again and was involved in a merged family with five kids and two full-time jobs.

Not much of my time was wasted, I'll say that.

[Red Right and BLUE]

19. At my last job I was on DU alllll day long.

I was bored out of my mind, but it wasn't my fault. I was tethered to the desk and my main job was answering the phone. I did filing but there just wasn't much of it.

[Radio_Lady]

26. I feel badly for you, RR&B. I've had temporary jobs like that...

they were deplorable, but they paid the rent. Some of my last jobs in Boston before moving to Portland in 1998 -- were just like that.

I tried to invent things to do in the next building so I could just get up and walk around.

Are you doing better now?

[Red Right and BLUE]

35. Sweet of you to ask.

:hug:

Goal #1 for me is more school. Fortunately I don't have to work right now. Sounds lame, maybe, but I just can't do that again. I got SO FAT and it just made me unhappy. More education!!

[Red Right and BLUE]

20. It's sad that many of us are stuck wasting time in order to make a living.

I did all of our bills and personal stuff at work; I had nothing else to do. Only some more education and experience is going to take me into a job in which I'm not being paid a paltry sum to waste most of my time somewhere. It's a goal of mine; I'm just waiting my student loans to be cleared up. :)

[Radio_Lady]

27. Big hugs to you. I remember a particular saying in Miami --

There was a landmark on Route 1, Biscayne Boulevard -- the Mayflower Donut Shop. I had to drive by it almost daily when I was working in college.

This was the optimistic ditty on their advertising:

"As you wander on through life, brother,
Whatever be your goal
Keep your eye upon the donut
And not upon the hole."

Particularly appropriate when Dunkin' Donuts began to make money by selling "donut holes"!

(No, I don't eat donuts or donut holes anymore ... but just thought about it!)

[LWolf]

21. Not guilty here.

I have to steal a few moments once a day to run to the restroom. My time and attention is fully engaged the entire time I'm at work, including when I hold a fork in one hand and a pen in the other during lunch. :shrug:

[Radio_Lady]

28. Sorry to hear this. You don't even have 1/2 an hour for lunch? That's

absurd! Is this a one-person situation? Is it YOUR CHOICE to stay in for lunch?

Everybody needs at least one short break -- anything else is more like prison time than working. I hope things improve for you LWolf.

In peace,

Radio_Lady in Oregon

[LWolf]

34. I get a 30 minute "off duty" lunch.

Of course, if I actually close the door, I have to provide some time before or after school for extra one-on-one time with students who need me. Since I'm already at work 10 hours a day, and don't want to extend the day any longer, I leave the door open. I'm there from 7am until 5pm unless I have a doctor's appt or something after school; then the work goes home to finish after dinner. I'm busy all of that time. There is never a time that I'm not actively engaged in some task, except once or twice a day when I run for the bathroom. Even then, I check the mailbox and pick up messages on the way, lol.

[Skidmore]

22. Closest thing I used to get to vacation at my old job

was bopping in and out of DU for a few minutes each day. The work load was such that there was never a good time to take the days off, plus I worked weekends and double shifts some days too. If they want us there 24/7, then they need to cut workers some slack.

[Radio_Lady]

29. Skidmore, I sincerely hope your present job gives you more time

for other activities. The previous schedule sounds like a killer to me.

[lukasahero]

32. Well, let's see, I started work at 7:30 this morning

It's after 9 pm now and I'm still working. I'm not billing the client because I'm sitting here waiting for someone else to do their job (which they didn't do at 7:30 am) so I can do mine and yes, I'm reading DU. When he comes online, tells me he's done his part, I will do mine, bill the client for the 15 minutes of my work tonight plus the actual 11 hours I worked today. I will not bill for the half hour I spent reading DU. I do bill for surfing for answers to that are job related.

The work world has changed. We don't start our day at 8 and walk out the door leaving work behind any more. As a result, the "work day" finds me surfing - generally before I start work, during lunch and when CommonDreams.org is updated around 3 pm. I don't bill the client and I give them more than my share of effort. I like working for clients treat me like a grown-up.

[Radio_Lady]

36. You have a very long day, no matter how you slice it.

Not sure what business you are involved in (you didn't reveal it in your personal profile) -- but do you frequently have to wait such long hours for another person to fulfill his/her part that is then linked to your job?

OT: My husband is from Brockton, Massachusetts and we lived in Sudbury for almost 30 years before moving to Portland, Oregon. I miss the Boston area quite a bit, especially in the fall.

Peace,

Radio_Lady/Ellen

[lukasahero]

37. Hey (former) neighbor!

I live in Hudson, MA - Sudbury is the next town over. Nice town. :) And yes, this is unquestionably the best time of year to be in New England.

Back on topic, I work in IT and I'm an engineer for a very well-known financial services company. I support our production environment which means all my colleagues and I end up working long and strange hours. New installs cannot go into production during business hours so we end up doing things like working over night. Unfortunately, we also have to be available to address production issues and do the new development during business hours. So yes, these hours are not uncommon. I've been working hours like this since I got into IT back in the late 90's. It's just the way it is these days.

My dad was an engineer in IT back in the day. I don't know how they managed to do it but he worked 9 - 5 for most of his career. Things have just changed now and I don't see them going back any time soon so many of us, and many businesses, have come to a compromise between what are "working hours" and what is "personal time".

[Radio_Lady]

38. Hi Lukasahero! I actually worked in Hudson in 1994 - 1995, for a

small marketing-promotion agency on Main Street, on the second floor, overlooking the Town Hall front lawn. Can't remember the exact number of the building, but I was there during the summer (very hot) and the following winter (quite beautiful and cold). You're bringing back memories of the drive over from Sudbury to Hudson. In 1997 and 1998, I worked temporarily for Digital Equipment Corporation in Stow. That's before they got engulfed by Compaq -- they had a couple of buildings out near Rt. 495, besides the main location in Maynard, Massachusetts.

I don't know what happened to the man who ran that Hudson agency, a former W.R.Grace employee. I'll have to look him up on the Internet!

Thanks for the memories.

In peace,

Radio_Lady/Ellen in Oregon