Wasting time

Salary.com Inc., a leading provider of on-demand compensation management in its 'Wasting Time Survey' revealed that the average employee wastes 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour work day. This is the third year Salary.com has conducted the survey and, while the amount of wasted time has steadily declined, companies are still paying billions in salaries for which they receive no direct benefit.

As in previous years, personal Internet use (34.7% of respondents), socializing with co-workers (20.3%) and conducting personal business (17.0%) remain the leading time-wasting activities. Respondents also report making personal phone calls and taking long breaks to run errands while on the job.

Interestingly, the reasons for wasting time cover both extremes. While many employees admit to wasting time because they ‘don’t have enough work to do’ (17.7%), the second most popular, and somewhat contradictory, response is ‘my hours are too long’ (13.9%). Employees also cite being underpaid (11.8%) and a lack of challenging work (11.1%) as reasons for slacking on the job.