United States workers are goofing off for two hours a day, trawling the internet or jawing with co-workers, costing their employers $759-billion a year, according to a new survey.
Forty-four percent of 10 000 respondents to the poll by America Online and Salary.com said the most popular way to while away time in the office was through personal internet use, including e-mail, instant messaging and chat rooms.
Another 23% of those polled preferred running down the clock by socialising with co-workers.
Other ways of frittering away time included making personal phone calls, running errands and an activity described as ”spacing out”.
Two hours of frittered-away time adds up to about twice the slacking off that employers expect.
”A certain amount of slacking off is already built into the salary structure,” says Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com.
”Our survey results show that workers, on average, are wasting a little more than twice what their employers expect. That’s a startling figure,” he said.
The survey found that US workers were wasting 2,09 hours per day, not including a lunch break.
The biggest time wasters were young people born since 1970, while older people still in the workforce were much harder working.
Employees in the insurance sector did little to redeem their unflattering public image, clocking up 2,5 hours a day in frittered-away time, the survey said.
Based on the average yearly annual salary of $39 795 per year, all of that wasted time adds up to $759-billion.
”It’s interesting to note that the internet was cited as the leading time-wasting activity,” said Samara Jaffe, director of careers/AOL Find a Job, America Online. ”It goes to show how integrated it has become to the daily functions of our personal and professional lives.” – Sapa-AFP