U.S. Workers Say They Waste 2 Hours A Day
 

U.S. Workers Say They Waste 2 Hours A Day
Personal Internet Use Ranks As Top Time-Wasting Activity

The average U.S. worker admits to wasting more than two hours a day at the workplace, according to a new survey conducted by America Online and Salary.com.

The survey found that the wasted time was double what employers expect and costs U.S. companies up to $759 billion a year.

How are workers spending that wasted time?

Top 10 Time-Wasting Activities

1. Surfing Internet (personal use)
2. Socializing with co-workers
3. Conducting personal business
4. Spacing out
5. Running errands off-premises
6. Making personal phone calls
7. Applying for other jobs
8. Planning personal events
9. Arriving late -- Leaving early
10. Other

According to the survey, most workers -- 44 percent -- used the time for personal Internet use, such as emails, message boards and chat rooms.

About 23 percent said they wasted time socializing with co-workers.

Other popular time-wasting activities cited in the survey included conducting personal business, "spacing out," running errands and making personal phone calls.

Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com, said employers build a certain amount of slacking off into the salary structure.

Coleman said employers expect workers to waste about an hour a day -- plus lunch.

"Our survey results show that workers on average are wasting a little more than twice what their employers expect. That's a startling figure," said Coleman.

But Coleman said in some cases, the wasted time turns into something positive for the company.

"Although in some cases this extra wasted time might be considered 'creative waste' -- time that may well have a positive impact on the company's culture, work environment, and even business results. Personal Internet use and casual office conversations often turn into new business ideas or suggestions for gaining operating efficiencies," he added.

According to the survey, the most popular excuse for wasting time at work was not having enough work to do.

Nearly a quarter of those surveyed said they squandered their work hours because they were underpaid.

Top 5 Excuses for Time-Wasting

1. Don't have enough work to do
2. Underpaid for amount of work I do
3. Co-workers distract me
4. Not enough evening or weekend time
5. Other

The survey found that men and women waste about the same amount of time per day at work, despite the fact that most HR managers surveyed suspected that women waste more time than men.

The survey also found that older workers tend to waste less time at work than younger workers.

Workers over 55 years old wasted an average of just 30 minutes a day, according to the survey.

America Online and Salary.com interviewed 10,044 workers in the online survey.

Top 10 Time-Wasting States

1. Missouri -- 3.2 Hrs/Day ROFL
2. Indiana -- 2.8 Hrs/Day
3. Kentucky -- 2.8 Hrs/Day
4. Wisconsin -- 2.8 Hrs/Day
5. Nevada -- 2.7 Hrs/Day
6. Oklahoma -- 2.7 Hrs/Day
7. Virginia -- 2.7 Hrs/Day
8. Pennsylvania -- 2.6 Hrs/day
9. Connecticut -- 2.5 Hrs/day
10. Idaho -- 2.5 Hrs/day

We're not wasting time. We are just terribly efficient at our jobs and get the work done early. :D

7 probably sounds awfully familiar to Rainman.

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.

now I know how some of these guys got 30 to 40 thousand posts

I'm way over 3.2 hours wasted a day.

Good thing no one around here was surveyed, that % would have gone up as well as the amount of time spent.


:):)

I think Missouri's ranking is gonna drop now that I started my new job on 7/1 and don't have time to surf the net anymore at work.

Chiefsplanet is going to Fug that Curve up.

The Rest of the state is probably at .25hrs/day

Those are definately office workers. No one in production (including us supervisors) have internet access. I would say we waste just as much time though. Between going to the bathroom umpteen times, swapping CD's with a neighbor, switching out CD's, stopping work in order to turn and talk to a neighbor, coming in late, leaving early, etc. There are other job specific ways to waste time (like setting up stations, choosing batches to work, etc). Not on our shift though. We're cutting down cuz the two supervisors are real bitches. :evil:

I shouldn't be posting on this thread...........I'm not @ work yet.

Amateurs....
I can easily waste 5 or 6 hours of the workday... :D

Wuss - more like 8 for me. ;)

europeans get like 2 months off a year and dont work 40 hours.
**** this study.

I waste more time answering the damn phone from upper management. One of them will call with a "priority" job, and as soon as I hang up (sometimes even before I hang up), one of the other ****ers that work right across the hall from the jackass I'm talking to - calls. ABOUT THE SAME DAMN JOB. Finally I got pissed and asked the higher rank of the two if any of them up there EVER talked to each other. Because I wasn't getting a damn thing done as long as they were bothering me.

I've seen worse than two hours a day.