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Workers Spend Quarter of the Work Day 'Goofing Off,' Study Finds

by Terrence O'Brien on September 26, 2008 at 03:36 PM

Workers Spend Quarter of the Work Day
Network security firm, Voco, says that workers spend about 25-percent of their time "goofing off" online, often without their managers realizing it. In particular, Information Technology (IT) workers and tech-savvy employees are able to get away with all sorts of online shenanigans, including browsing eBay auctions, dating sites, social networking pages, and even downloading music and movies from peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing services.

We've already heard that Facebook alone costs businesses up to $264 million dollars a day in lost man hours, but other studies show that personal Web use on the job can actually make employees more efficient. For example, it may be better to let an employee take five minutes from their day to attend to personal matters via e-mail or to do some online banking rather than have them leave the office for an hour or so to deal with such matters in person. That said, blowing a quarter of your work day by messing around online is a bit excessive.

We're all for a little R&R on the job, but don't take it too far. Sleeping or getting, um... intimate, at the office is probably a bad idea.

If you need a little help getting away with your cubicle diversions, check out our guides to looking busy or viewing blocked Web sites. Just don't blame us if you get caught. [From: Ars Technica]

Tags: fun, goofing off, GoofingOff, office, studies, surveys, trends, web, work, workplace

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