| Needham,
MA, July 11, 2005-- For many American workers today,
time's a
wastin' - literally. According to a Web survey by America Online and
Salary.com, the average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per
day, not counting lunch. That's far more time than employers expect.
Over the course of a year (and even after accounting for time employers
expect to be wasted), that adds up to $759 billion on salaries for
which companies receive no apparent benefit. Click here
for the full story.
The research, which was conducted
through the AOL
Find a Job site on AOL.com®, the AOL® service and
Salary.com's Salary Wizard, involved more than 10,044 respondents
(employees) who indicated that the number one way they fritter away
time at work is personal Internet use (e.g., email, IM, online polls,
interactive games, message boards, chat rooms, etc.). Personal Internet
use was cited by 44.7% of respondents as their primary time-wasting
activity at work. Socializing with co-workers was the second most
popular form of wasting time at work (23.4% of respondents). Conducting
personal business, "spacing out," running errands, and making personal
phone calls were other popular time-wasting activities in the workplace.
But
are workers really expected to work non-stop eight hours a day?
According to a follow-up survey of corporate Human Resource managers,
employers actually expect the average employee to waste about an hour
per day, in addition to the worker's lunch hour.
"A certain amount of slacking off
is already built
into the salary structure," says Bill Coleman, Senior Vice President at
Salary.com. "Our survey results show that workers on average are
wasting a little more than twice what their employers expect. That's a
startling figure. 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." "It's interesting to note that the Internet was cited as
the leading time-wasting activity. It goes to show how integrated it
has become to the daily functions of our personal and professional
lives," said Samara Jaffe, Director of Careers/AOL Find a Job, America
Online. "Today, there are so many useful tools and Websites on the
Internet that have enabled people to become more efficient with
accomplishing multiple tasks in a shorter amount of time." The AOL and
Salary.com survey results offer a glimpse into how employees waste
time, why they do it, where they live, and where they work:
Top
Time-Wasting
Activities
1. Surfing Internet (personal
use) 44.7%
2.
Socializing with co-workers 23.4%
3.
Conducting personal business 6.8%
4.
Spacing out 3.9%
5.
Running errands off-premises 3.1%
Top
Excuses for Time-Wasting
1.
Don't have enough work to do 33.2%
2.
Underpaid for amount of work I do 23.4%
3. Co-workers distract me 14.7%
4.
Not enough evening or weekend time 12.0%
5.
Other 16.7%
Top
Time-Wasting States
1.
Missouri 3.2 hrs/day
2.
Indiana 2.8 hrs/day
3.
Kentucky 2.8 hrs/day
4.
Wisconsin 2.8 hrs/day
5.
Nevada 2.7 hrs/day
Top
Time-Wasting Industries
1.
Insurance 2.5 hrs/day
2.
Public Sector (Non-Education) 2.4 hrs/day
3.
Research & Development 2.3 hrs/day
4.
Education 2.2 hrs/day
5.
Software & Internet 2.2 hrs/day
Here
are some other interesting facts about
time-wasted at work:
- Men vs. Women: Men and women waste about
the same amount of time per day (approximately 2.1 hours). This,
despite the fact that most HR managers surveyed suspected that women
waste more time at work than men.
- Youngsters vs. Seniors: As the following
statistics show, the older you are, the less time you waste at
work.
Year of Birth
1930-1949
0.50 hrs/day
1950-1959
0.68 hrs/day
1960-1969
1.19 hrs/day
1970-1979
1.61 hrs/day
1980-1985
1.95 hrs/day
- Cats vs. Mice: When setting employee
salaries, corporate Human Resource managers assume that employees will
waste 0.94 hours per day. However, those managers suspect that
employees waste 1.60 hours per day. In fact, employees admit wasting
2.09 hours per day. In other words, mice spend significantly more time
playing than cats (absent or otherwise) suppose.
For
more information about the survey results, read
the Salary.com article "Wasted Time at Work Costing Companies Billions"
on the AOL Find a Job site, which is available on the Web at AOL.com
(click on Jobs) or on the AOL service at AOL Keyword: Jobs. AOL Find a
Job, powered by CareerBuilder.com, gives job seekers access to nearly 1
million continuously updated job postings, representing more than
30,000 of the top employers in virtually every industry and field.
Survey
Methodology
America
Online and Salary.com conducted in-depth
research relating to time wasted at work, among 10,044 respondents
(including AOL.com users, AOL members, Salary Wizard users, and
corporate human resources professionals). Through a survey on the AOL
Find a Job site, respondents were asked to indicate how much time they
wasted in an average workday, assuming a 40-hour (8-hour per day)
workweek. Demographic information (including respondent geography, job
category, and gender) was also collected in the study. Data was
analyzed by Salary.com's team of Certified Compensation Professionals.
About
America Online, Inc.
America
Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary
of Time Warner Inc. Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the
world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet
technologies and e-commerce services.
About
Salary.com, Inc.
Salary.com
is a
leading provider of
on-demand compensation management solutions helping businesses and
individuals manage pay and performance. Salary.com provides companies
of all sizes comprehensive on-demand software applications that are
tightly integrated with its own proprietary compensation data sets,
thereby automating the essential elements of the compensation
management process and significantly improving the effectiveness of its
client’s compensation spend. For more information, visit www.salary.com.
Contact:
Jared Jost
p: (781)464-7341
press@salary.com
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