Wasting Time At Work - It's Getting Worse
From the Eye on the Workforce Blog
by Joe Wynne
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Salary.com has just publicized the results of their annual Wasting Time at Work Survey. I love this survey because it is deceptively simple, and very instructive. See if you can identify the way that most of respondents waste time at work.
a. Personal phone calls
b. Conducting personal business
c. Socializing with co-workers
d. Internet use
If you could not choose the correct answer, perhaps it is because of your age. Different age groups waste time in different ways. Those 50 and over conduct personal business more often than other groups. Those over 50 also report wasting less time than other workers.
In the survey overall, 73% indicated that they spend part of their day on activities that are not work-related. This is a 10% increase over last year. More people are wasting time, which is interesting because you would think they are heads down trying to appear the least likely to be laid off. (More about this in a future post.)
The items above are actually listed in reverse order. Internet use is how most repondents waste time. Nearly half waste time in this way. A third reported socializing and nearly another third reported conducting personal business.
Lesson learned: There is great opportunity to improve productivity in your project by reducing time wasted at work in the areas listed above. Avoid incorrect assumptions about who is wasting time how, as you could be wrong because of your own age-based biases.
There is much more to learn from this survey, so check future posts.
Posted on: November 26, 2008 11:30 AM |
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Comments (2)
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 | barryns |
WTAW, the above are all valid but I''m sure that the vast majority of meetings are a serious waste of time.
Harlan Bridges
Consultant, Coach, Trainer, Speaker, Program Manager, Project Manager| Entrepreneur
Seguin, Tx, United States
Interesting.
But think on this, studies have shown that the companies with the highest level of productivity encourage their employees to "waste time" going so far as to expect their employees to spend as much as 90 minutes a day in playing, yes playing... basketball, NURF shootouts that involve the entire office, video gaming, etc.
The reason why this works? Because people are only able to effectively focus on any task for approximately 45 minutes before their productivity begins to decline markedly. So slip 10 to 15 minutes of play time in to break up those periods and productivity rates increase.
Grab your NURF gun and shoot your cube mate!!
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