Slashdot Mirror
Websurfing Damaging U.S. Productivity?
Bert writes "Ars Technica does a good job of debunking a study that claims that American business lose $178 billion a
year to web surfing in the workplace. Particularly alarming is the fact that the study used the beliefs of 350 IT managers to determine how many hours a week the average employee
wastes online. Like the article asks: where's the calculation of how much time we all spend answer work e-mail at home?"
I'm reading this during my lunch break, at which time reasonable personal use of the Internet is explicitly allowed by our local management.
I wonder if I count as "lost productivitiy"?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
OK, but Websense has a business interest in promoting the idea that "unregulated" Net access hurts productivity. So really, Ars Technica is just giving the other view -- and the truth, as always, lies somewhere in between.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Don't forget that Slashdot is read in more timezones than just America. Even America by itself has enough timezones to make calls about when it is the start/middle/end of the work day inaccurate.
I work for the U.S. Government, and I find while I wait for the computer to process the information (using a dual g5) I usually have to wait about 45 minutes per video file i'm working on. In a given day I complete 8 - 20 dvd Videos depending on how quickly Final Cut Pro HD can process information. Infact, in the midst of writing this I had to set another file up to render.
I will admit though, during the time that I'm waiting I read all the important news sites (http://www.cnn.com/, http://www.wired.com/, http://www.slashdot.org/, http://news.google.com/) and then I find myself editing websites (http://www.ethereallan.org/,http://www.ledmonthly .com/, and 3 other webprojects I'm working on). Then I'm off to check my e-mail at the numerous different sites that I've managed to get email for myself.
But what it comes down to in the end of the day, I get my work done. I've been told that I do more work over a summer(I'm a summer student) then most employee's do in a year. I'm constantly being told to "lower my standards" and to not "work as hard". Studies like these can only really work if you're in a business where you don't see your employees getting done everything they're assigned to do in a certain period of time. Then it is lost work productivity and yes it would make sense.