Facebook Costing Businesses $264 Million Daily in Lost Man Hours

by Terrence O'Brien on September 12, 2007 at 03:30 PM

Workers Can't Stop Wasting Time on Facebook

Vanishing staplers aren't the only employee-related phenomena bleeding the corporate world dry. According to a new study by U.K.-based employment law firm Peninsula, roughly £130 million (or about $264 million U.S.) is lost per day by British corporations due to office workers dillydallying on Facebook. That's the equivalent of 233 million employee hours per month. And British companies aren't the only ones suffering: Australian security firm, SurfControl, conducted a similar study of its own and found that Facebook was swallowing $5 billion (Australian) a year, or the rough equivalent of $4 billion U.S.

The loss of cash and man hours is starting to garner attention amongst businesses, which are looking for a way to deal with the social networking phenomenon. Many companies have already started blocking the site in an effort to regain lost productivity and discourage employees from wasting of time. Several companies in America already block sites such as Facebook and MySpace and sometimes even block access to personal e-mail. They consider these measures ways of preventing information leaks and maintaining a productive working environment.

Gabbing around the water cooler is dead. In its place is updating your Facebook status.

From the BBC and Reuters

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Tags: breaking+news, companies, facebook, myspace, networking, productivity, social, top, waste

Comments

SusieSep 12th 2007 5:22PM

Neutral

I wholly agree that any business should be blocking these websites and any personal email sites. This would cut down on the problem immensely without the loss of respect, trust, work productivity and other issues. It would make the day so much easier for the employees, not having it available prevents the sometimes overriding desire to peak at their page. I would love it if they did this at 2 of my kids' work places, as I see that is what they do all the time and know one day it will be discovered, and it will negatively affect their job in one way or another.

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SusieSep 12th 2007 10:30PM

Neutral

YOU AND YOUR KIDS ARE DUMB.

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LiaSep 13th 2007 4:07AM

Neutral

Boo hoo for those businesses. Their workers are bored, tired and schlepping around a pitiful office all day while the upper management enjoys far more perks than the lowly office worker ever spends on looking at Facebook.

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SteveSep 13th 2007 8:17AM

Neutral

I'm a network admin, and we block all those type of sites. Yes, I get a lot of pissed off fellow co-workers saying thats it all my fault even when the order comes from the CEO of the computer.

Guess they don't realize their job is to accounting/marketing and mine is to keep our networks running smoothly.

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EstebanOct 26th 2007 7:42PM

Neutral

One thing for certain is that there are two differences in our lives. One is personal and private and the other is work and paycheck. The two do not coincide ever! The young group thinks they can do whatever they want both personally and professionally (yeah right!) anytime. Businesses should block certain websites from those lazy asses who already have too much time on their hands and also cut their hours back because it seems they aren't productive getting the job done. Everyone knows you have to earn it getting paid and it isn't something that includes "goofing off" and milking the clock. I got time to do what I want before or after work. I don't mix my private affairs with my work affair. I don't want Big Brother watching over my shoulder or accessing my personal affair online from work. So for those of you get a life and prioritize your responsibility or work for yourselves.

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qtrapchic8Dec 28th 2007 9:17AM

Neutral

I AM (was) Facebook!
When Facebook was introduced in its early stages, it was only for college students. Even more, it was only given to a few select schools. My University was one of the first, and I was a Junior at the time. So yes, I was one of those early adopters.

BUT - and its a big but - I am SO GLAD my company blocks facebook. It's a nice little website for keeping in touch, looking at/sharing picture, etc. But there's no place for it in the workplace.

I had the unfortunate experience a year ago of being left in charge of an office and the intern in it. He was my own age, we went to the same school and I just happened to graduate a year earlier. He spent those entire days, 8 hour stretches, on facebook. It seriously made me ill; made me lose sleep.

It has since been blocked and I'm thankful. There is ZERO reason a company should allow it. I fully believe that if a worker isn't paid for a lunch break and he or she doesn't leave for lunch, then he or she should be able to browse the internet at lunch. News, weather, whatever. But social net needs not to be allowed. Its just stupid.

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