Posted on 07/31/2005 7:54:18 AM PDT by summer
For many American workers today, time's a wastin' ...According to a new survey by America Online and Salary.com, the average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per 8-hour workday, not including lunch and scheduled break-time. As a matter of practice, companies assume a certain amount of wasted time when determining employee pay. However, the America Online / Salary.com survey indicates that employees are wasting about twice as much time as their employers expect. Salary.com calculated that employers spend $759 billion per year on salaries for which real work was expected, but not actually performed.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
The biggest distraction for respondents? Personal Internet use. 44.7% of the more than 10,000 people polled cited web surfing as their #1 distraction at work. Socializing with co-workers came in second at 23.4%. Conducting personal business, "spacing out," running errands, and making personal phone calls were the other popular time-wasting activities in the workplace...
WHO WASTES THE MOST TIME?
Who tends to waste the most time at work?
* Men vs. Women: Men and women waste about the same amount of time per day. This, despite the fact that most HR managers surveyed suspected that women wasted more time at work than men.
* Youngsters vs. Seniors: As the following statistics show, the older people are, the less time they waste at work:...
Which industries account for the most wasted time? [Insurance is #1]...
HOW DOES YOUR STATE RANK?
Where does the most work-time get wasted? Regionally, the most time appears to be wasted in the Midwest, while the least appears to be wasted in the South. The biggest time wasters reside in Missouri, Indiana, and Kentucky. Workers in South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Hawaii slack off the least....
(Excerpt) Read more at salary.com ...
LOL.... :)
I'm going to ping-list this article to read after I get back from my coffee break.
While attending college I and a friend took a year off to earn money and landed jobs as line inspectors in a factory.
Talk about wasting time...
All we did was walk the factory floor with blueprints and measuring instruments and quality controlled. Once we had the tools and processes correctly calibrated, it was all easy stret and wasting time. We had a baking oven for parts, and we'd use it to make pizzas for the guys. We'd go off and BS with the tool and die makers, who were bigger time wasters than us. We set up a small office behind the file cabinets and read novels. We'd go out once every hour or two and check specs for 15 minutes, then disappear.
Our department had the best quality control, so the chief inspector kept giving us raises. Talk about money...bought a new vehicle and had plenty of cash when we returned to college.
Managers failing to manage their employees.
You would think so, but my kids have told us many stories over the years about teachers calling out for food deliveries, playing video games and checking personal emails during class. Don't know what they did during their prep periods. All that is just to say: it's possible to slack in any job.
I might also add that I think the 8 hour workday (or schoolday) is totally arbitrary. In the Army, I always said we "trained to standard, not to time." If you've met the standard in two hours, you're done. If it takes 16, then it's going to be a long day. So I'm less interested in how much time employees spend "slacking" than in whether or not they have completed the work they were expected to complete.
Huh...I keep hearing that "cyber-terrorists" (sic) are going to cost companies "billions of dollars" when they attack. Does this mean the time wasters are ripe to be classified as terrorists, too?
I wouldn't put it past 'em.
More like managers micro-managing their employees. I think we can agree that nearly all workers are far more productive without some slackjawed bean-counter breathing down their neck.
And hell, businesses have made it plain that they have no loyalty toward their workers any longer. Why should their workers provide loyalty unrequited?
I'm just sayin'...
Just another made up anti-American worker hit piece. The executives have to find a reason to send jobs to foreign countries. This piece of garbage will do as well as another.
Of course the President has a solution, illegal immigration. The illegals only do jobs that Americans won't do. Fire all of the Americans and let George's fifth column take over the jobs. Then we will see some real production gains I imagine.
I didn't read it as a hit piece, but, maybe you're right. I'm wondering now how many people who responded to this online survey did so while at work! :)
Companies pay wages and benefits to employees for an expected level of work not loyalty. The loyalty to workers and vice versa to the company is gone forever. I don't believe anyone expects a 30 year career any longer except maybe the military or government job.
If you hire a data processing skilled employee and give 5 hours of work, and a welder 10 hours of work, just try to give the data processing employee 2 hours of welding to do. Crazy, ain't it?
Absolutely. Students, too. I don't think I excluded anybody.
The school-day is already too short.
Gotta disagree with you there. For what is accomplished (and needs to be accomplished) at school, I think the schoolday is far too long. There are too many 3-hour private schools and homeschools accomplishing as much, and usually more, than the 7-8 hour public (and private) schools. A seven-year-old kept in a windowless room for seven hours with no recess (typical day here) may be missing important things, but extra classroom time is not one of them.
"you can only produce a finite number of widgets before you saturate demand"
If that happens, fire some widget makers!
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