Newsmaker: American workers: Lazy or creative?

The overworked American appears to be fighting back, and Bill Coleman is watching closely.

Coleman is senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com, a role he describes as being like "a person in charge of computers at Dell or cars at Ford."

Coleman and crew recently conducted a survey on time wasted at work, and they came up with some intriguing findings. Among them: Personal Internet surfing ranked as the top method of cooling one's heels at the office. It was cited by 44.7 percent of respondents as their primary time wasting activity, followed by socializing with co-workers (23.4 percent) and conducting personal business (6.8 percent).

There is sort of a sociological change going on where there isn't a bright line between what work time is and what personal time is.

The average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per day, not counting lunch and scheduled break time, according to the report. That's far more time than the roughly one hour per day employers expect the average employee to waste, the report said. The extra unproductive time adds up to $759 billion annually in salaries for which companies get no apparent benefit, the report said.

As Coleman sees it, workers are goofing off partly because they're putting in more hours on the job. What's more, he suggested, personal and professional time are blending.

"Work is invading our personal time and therefore it makes sense that personal activities are invading work time," he said.

CNET News.com recently spoke with Coleman about his research on goofing off, including findings about men, women and wasting time, the way loafing in some cases can help the bottom line and the continued importance of the water cooler.

Q: What was surprising to you, if anything, about your survey?
Coleman: There were a few things that were surprising about it. One is that people were comfortable and willing to admit how they were spending their time or not spending their time appropriately at work.

I think that it was also curious (that) men and women appeared to waste the same amount of time at work. What made that an interesting point is that we did a follow-on study asking employers what they thought their employees were doing as far as wasting time at work and we also asked them whether they thought men or women wasted more time. And the employers, their human resource people, pretty much think that women waste more time than men. So that was shocking.

What's the rationale for that perception?
Coleman: We didn't ask any follow-up questions about why they thought or what they thought; we were just curious as to what they expected. I think that the rationale is, however, that women tend to come to and leave the workforce for various issues related to family and kids--either having them or going off and taking care of them. And I think that mothers tend to be more linked to childcare and family care than fathers. And so I think human resource people just apply that to the women in the workforce.

Personal Web surfing was the top time wasting activity. Do you guys see that that may have been somewhat biased by the fact that this is a Web-based survey?
Coleman: Yes.

That tends to skew the results toward computer types.
Coleman: It certainly could influence the results, although at this point in time, the vast majority of people do have Internet access.

These people were not ready to give their names?
Coleman: We did not ask for names.

Even with that anonymity, you're still surprised by the frankness about time wasting?
Coleman: Yes, and I think that part of the reason that this got such a good response was that it's an issue that people think about on some sort of regular basis. I think most of us when we are wasting time at work think about whether or not that's appropriate and whether we're wasting more than our co-workers.

Not all nonproductive time that an employee spends is a complete waste. Some of it is creative or constructive waste.

We were able to get...I think a little more than 10,000 people to participate in this survey. It means that there are a lot of people that are interested in providing information and then seeing what the result was.

Is that more than you normally get for these kinds of surveys?
Coleman: Yes. We've done various kinds of surveys. I believe this is one of the larger ones. (But) I don't want to artificially inflate the results or mislead people. Part of the reason (for the large response) is because it's sort of an interesting, perhaps salacious topic, but also we did do the survey in conjunction with AOL. AOL has a fairly active user base, and so that does also help in getting the participation numbers higher than what we would normally see.

I want to ask about the response to the question about personal Internet surfing. You see that as including e-mail and IM-type activities?
Coleman: Yes. In the actual survey they were categorized together as using the Internet for personal use, including Web surfing, e-mail--personal e-mailing--and personal IMing.

Had we known how big the response rate was going to be, we would have asked three separate questions. I think that we will be doing a follow-up survey or at least redoing this survey next year to update it, and I think that we will break it out a little bit differently to try and capture the differences in those sub-activities.

You found that the average amount of time wasted is 2.09 hours a day, about twice what managers expect from workers. What do you think some of the reasons for this gap are? Could this relate to some kind of human limit to what people can productively give in a job?
Coleman: That would be the first part of my answer. The workday or work week has extended in the past several decades for the American worker. I mean, it's somewhat ironic

More Newsmakers

[lingsun]

Sounds like a bunch of lazy people making excuses for themselves

If people are paid by the hour, they should just WORK when they're at work or the company should fire them! 2 hours a week goofing off sounds like a lot more than I've seen in the midwest. But employees surfing the web when they should be working is a problem mostly with people in their 20s where I work.

The Workplace is not the same

The new generation, the creative class, is not time oriented, we
don't operate on hourly schedules, I may be producing a film, do
you think I start at 9 and just stop at 5? Absolutely not! We, the
Creative Class, are Goal oriented, make the new assessment of an
employee whether or not they get the project done, give them
deadlines and let them work it out how they can, because we are all
different, so forgive me if I check my email at work but end up
working a 12 hour or more day, or work even more once I leave
the office.

I find it ironic

Hey Bill,

I see you posted your comment at 9am. I hope you had today off (holiday) or do you usually post comments during the workday?

[lingsun]

Sounds like a bunch of lazy people making excuses for themselves

If people are paid by the hour, they should just WORK when they're at work or the company should fire them! 2 hours a week goofing off sounds like a lot more than I've seen in the midwest. But employees surfing the web when they should be working is a problem mostly with people in their 20s where I work.

The Workplace is not the same

The new generation, the creative class, is not time oriented, we
don't operate on hourly schedules, I may be producing a film, do
you think I start at 9 and just stop at 5? Absolutely not! We, the
Creative Class, are Goal oriented, make the new assessment of an
employee whether or not they get the project done, give them
deadlines and let them work it out how they can, because we are all
different, so forgive me if I check my email at work but end up
working a 12 hour or more day, or work even more once I leave
the office.

I find it ironic

Hey Bill,

I see you posted your comment at 9am. I hope you had today off (holiday) or do you usually post comments during the workday?

This is already well documented ...

... by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister in Peopleware. (ISBN 0-932633-43-9) Slack (ISBN 0-7679-0768-x) by DeMarco also covers this topic and says that employers should actively try to build more slack time into their knowledge worker's days.

[Sam Papelbon]

how about changing it to a 9-4

at least for goal-oriented workplaces. of course the hourly wages would be adjusted to compensate. but if employees are wasting time anyway while still maintaining the same level of productivity, why not just give them the hour to be spent out of the office.

probably isn't much, but i wonder how much a company could save having their lights/computers/etc off an extra hour each day.

or perhaps take the hour off the start of the day to have well-rested employees.

This is already well documented ...

... by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister in Peopleware. (ISBN 0-932633-43-9) Slack (ISBN 0-7679-0768-x) by DeMarco also covers this topic and says that employers should actively try to build more slack time into their knowledge worker's days.

[Sam Papelbon]

how about changing it to a 9-4

at least for goal-oriented workplaces. of course the hourly wages would be adjusted to compensate. but if employees are wasting time anyway while still maintaining the same level of productivity, why not just give them the hour to be spent out of the office.

probably isn't much, but i wonder how much a company could save having their lights/computers/etc off an extra hour each day.

or perhaps take the hour off the start of the day to have well-rested employees.

[Christopher Hall]

Oh, the irony

I'm reading this at work!

[aabcdefghij987654321]

not ironic, actually

thats not really ironic. its true.

[thedreaming]

so am I

In the morning, there isn't alot of work to do and they even know it, but they won't cut my hours, so I come in and surf the net until work is available. Sometimes, it's very busy and I just work and that's just fine with me. When I do surf, I'm always nervous about it because when it comes right down to it, I rather be working or at least be creative but with restrictive systems like the one we use, I can't even do that. It's either work or surf. There's just so many times I can read the news, weather and email. I can't do much of anything else.

[Christopher Hall]

Oh, the irony

I'm reading this at work!

[aabcdefghij987654321]

not ironic, actually

thats not really ironic. its true.

[thedreaming]

so am I

In the morning, there isn't alot of work to do and they even know it, but they won't cut my hours, so I come in and surf the net until work is available. Sometimes, it's very busy and I just work and that's just fine with me. When I do surf, I'm always nervous about it because when it comes right down to it, I rather be working or at least be creative but with restrictive systems like the one we use, I can't even do that. It's either work or surf. There's just so many times I can read the news, weather and email. I can't do much of anything else.

[Bob Brinkman]

Do they take in to account reactive positions?

My job is fixing things, occationaly I have projects to work on as well but if there isn' anything going wrong I am at my desk waiting for something to happen. Hense I have plenty of time to goof off.

[Bob Brinkman]

Do they take in to account reactive positions?

My job is fixing things, occationaly I have projects to work on as well but if there isn' anything going wrong I am at my desk waiting for something to happen. Hense I have plenty of time to goof off.

Resonable Expectations

Work hard or work smart, in the end all that matters is that an employee meets or exceeds expectations. How they achieve the result is largely irrelevant from my point of view.

[ehoberge]

taking money for hours not worked

if one can work hard and achieve his objective in less time perhaps it's time to clock out or ask for more work.

It's crappy and outright theft to give the impression one is working when he is not and to not be forthright about workload and take money for hours one hasn't actually worked.

on the other hand, if you are on the up and up and your employer doesn't mind it, then all is fair.

Resonable Expectations

Work hard or work smart, in the end all that matters is that an employee meets or exceeds expectations. How they achieve the result is largely irrelevant from my point of view.

[ehoberge]

taking money for hours not worked

if one can work hard and achieve his objective in less time perhaps it's time to clock out or ask for more work.

It's crappy and outright theft to give the impression one is working when he is not and to not be forthright about workload and take money for hours one hasn't actually worked.

on the other hand, if you are on the up and up and your employer doesn't mind it, then all is fair.

Two hour slackers???

Hmmmmm, guess I am missing the point in the question of why the surveyed workers seemed to be slacking the 2 plus hours a day. Could this group represent disgruntled workers that have had to take pay cuts, benefit reductions along with having the term multi-tasking & cross training used as a way of having employees do jobs that were normally done by 3 people? Loyalty has been lost between the employees and employers which produces lack of pride in ones job. Also the top to bottom model of how are the executives spending their workday?leaving early for a quick 18 holes on the green? My advices to employers? lead by example, talk is cheap.

Two hour slackers???

Hmmmmm, guess I am missing the point in the question of why the surveyed workers seemed to be slacking the 2 plus hours a day. Could this group represent disgruntled workers that have had to take pay cuts, benefit reductions along with having the term multi-tasking & cross training used as a way of having employees do jobs that were normally done by 3 people? Loyalty has been lost between the employees and employers which produces lack of pride in ones job. Also the top to bottom model of how are the executives spending their workday?leaving early for a quick 18 holes on the green? My advices to employers? lead by example, talk is cheap.

Thanks for noticing...

As computers have made me more productive, compressing 8-12 hours into 4-6 hours of effort, I require - No I have earned the opportunity to relax and be compensated for my efforts that exceed my typewriting predecessors!

Slackers should be fired, producers should be compensated even in trivial ways like using the work PC for personal biz, however Morons that abuse their LAN - Internet privileges should be managed and corrected sternly, possibly even fired for putting their businesses at risk.

XXOO

Dan the Man ? CISA, CISSP

Thanks for noticing...

As computers have made me more productive, compressing 8-12 hours into 4-6 hours of effort, I require - No I have earned the opportunity to relax and be compensated for my efforts that exceed my typewriting predecessors!

Slackers should be fired, producers should be compensated even in trivial ways like using the work PC for personal biz, however Morons that abuse their LAN - Internet privileges should be managed and corrected sternly, possibly even fired for putting their businesses at risk.

XXOO

Dan the Man ? CISA, CISSP

[ehoberge]

cell phones and the internet and visiting

after taking a break to work at home and raise children, I went back to work. I was shocked. I would calculate our best employees spend hours on their cell phone while performing their work, coming in late, leaving early, visiting--there was a time when an associate would never be caught dead being idle and now I see them--one in particular who shoots the breeze with the staff for an hour plus at a time. They take food breaks as often as they need to and if they eat at their desks they don't count that as a lunch break. People here have claimed over time on days I have calculated two hours in breaks alone. I have clocked the woman sitting next to me as being on the office phone all day long with personal calls and the one sitting next to her on her cell phone for two to three hours collectively during the day. And they are considered hard workers.

There isn't enough work for me to actually be here. I moved from a high volume firm to a practice which has one or two huge cases at a time. But if I had the work load, I wouldn't be on the internet now. I never take personal calls, I get my coffee, I answer his phone (the lady next to me told me her boss answers his own phone and does his own filing--he comes in on Sundays because no one can really ask her to do anything)

oh well

[ehoberge]

cell phones and the internet and visiting

after taking a break to work at home and raise children, I went back to work. I was shocked. I would calculate our best employees spend hours on their cell phone while performing their work, coming in late, leaving early, visiting--there was a time when an associate would never be caught dead being idle and now I see them--one in particular who shoots the breeze with the staff for an hour plus at a time. They take food breaks as often as they need to and if they eat at their desks they don't count that as a lunch break. People here have claimed over time on days I have calculated two hours in breaks alone. I have clocked the woman sitting next to me as being on the office phone all day long with personal calls and the one sitting next to her on her cell phone for two to three hours collectively during the day. And they are considered hard workers.

There isn't enough work for me to actually be here. I moved from a high volume firm to a practice which has one or two huge cases at a time. But if I had the work load, I wouldn't be on the internet now. I never take personal calls, I get my coffee, I answer his phone (the lady next to me told me her boss answers his own phone and does his own filing--he comes in on Sundays because no one can really ask her to do anything)

oh well

[johnsonlite]

I am an Industrial Engineering with over 17 years in manufacturing. This article misses some fundamental modern business concepts.

1.The article is obviously surveying non value add employees if they are at a desk job. In other words, he is not survey real workers. Workers are people who are on the assembly lines, fix transmissions, nail boards, or flip hamburgers. These people spend practically zero time on computers. There a few desk value add people such as programmers, order takers, or graphic designers.

2. Supply and demand. It is poor business to simply want workers working all the time. They need to be working efficiently producing a sell-able product or service. Just producing efficiently is not enough. Producing a bunched of cars that won't sell is why the US auto industry is drowning today. Producing product that is not needed or not desired is a management fault.

3. Efficiency. As an Industrial Engineer, I can tell you a work station that has 70% efficiency is considered good. Many US auto makers have processes that are designed with less than 50% efficiency. Toyota pushes for 70%. Most Americans do not understand the detail and discipline that goes into this thinking. My experience in old thinking manufacturing in the US is that the work is forced and pushed on the worker, instead of thinking out the work station design so the worker will work efficiently . This concept goes beyond the work station and out into connecting processes and suppliers. Further, I would not say the Japanese worker is a strong worker; how ever I would say that they tend to work in a well designed work area and work smart.

4. Fatigue. An 8 hour shift has about 7 hours of available work time. At 70%, a person has about 5 hours of solid work.. Go to the gym and walk on a tread mill for 5 strait hours.


I did not waste time at work to write this. I am unemployed. All the plants that I worked for are now in Mexico. The auto company I worked for no longer pays me so now I can not afford a new truck. mmm.
And they wonder why sells are down.