US Workers Waste a Quarter of Working Day

The average US worker admits to frittering away two hours a day - with the Internet the number one distraction, according to research from Salary.com. It's not always down to laziness, though: a third say they just don't have enough work to keep them busy.

Nearly half (44.7%) of the 10,000-plus workers polled cited web surfing as their primary distraction at work. Socialising with co-workers came in second at 23.4%. Conducting personal business, 'spacing out', running errands, and making personal phone calls were other popular activities, while 1.3% admitted they applied for jobs on company time. Other employees said they brought Game Boys or needlework to the office to while away the time.

However, employees say they aren't always to blame for wasted time. A third (33.2%) of respondents cited lack of work as their biggest reason for wasting time. Nearly a quarter (23.4%) said they purposefully wasted time at work because they feel underpaid, while 14.7% are distracted by colleagues.

According to a follow-up survey of HR managers, companies assume that workers waste around an hour a day, and build this into salary calculations. Yet, even taking this into account, Salary.com calculates that employers spend $759 billion a year on salaries for which work was expected but not performed.

The biggest time-wasting industry is insurance, with an average 2.5 hours wasted. Public sector, research & development, education, and software & Internet sectors also rank in the top five.

America Online and Salary.com, a provider of salary data, software and services to small businesses and individuals, conducted research among 10,044 respondents. Respondents were asked how much time they wasted in an average working day, assuming a working week consisting of five eight-hour days.

The company's web site is at www.salary.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.