According to a survey on Salary.com, employees admit to “wasting” approximately 2.09 hours of each work day. How do they waste the time? Surfing the Net, chatting with co-workers, making personal phone calls, and running personal errands.
Here’s how the time wasting break down:
- Surfing the Internet — 44.7 percent
- Socializing with co-workers — 23.4 percent
- Conducting personal business — 6.8 percent [Bowers' note: I'm not sure if this means calling your hairstylist to schedule an appointment or running a dry-cleaning business out of your cube.]
- Spacing out — 3.9 percent [Bowers' note: How, exactly, would you measure that?]
- Running errands off-premise — 3.1 percent
- Making personal phone calls — 2.3 percent
- Applying for other jobs — 1.3 percent
- Planning personal events — 1.0 percent
- Arriving late/leaving early — 1.0 percent
- Other — 12.5 percent [Bowers' note: Other? What's left, dare I ask?]
Also according to the survey, the way in which time is wasted also varies by age:
- 58-77 years old: 0.50 hours per day
- 48-57 years old: 0.68 hours per day
- 38-47 years old: 1.19 hours per day
- 28-37 years old: 1.61 hours per day
- 22-27 years old: 1.95 hours per day
(Wonder how much time is “wasted” in meetings or poor communication between departments?) Do you think these numbers are about right? How do you “waste” time?
