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American Workers: Lazy or Creative?

Nofsck Ingcloo writes "CNET News.com is carrying an article by Ed Frauenheim in which he interviews Bill Coleman of salary.com. Coleman and company have conducted a web based survey regarding how workers spend their "non-productive" time at work. Here are some snippets from the CNET article. " Click to read more. "The average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per day, not counting lunch and scheduled break time."

"The extra unproductive time adds up to $759 billion annually in salaries for which companies get no apparent benefit."

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

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

"[P]of the reason that this [survey] got such a good response was that it's an issue that people think about on some sort of regular basis."

"[O]ne of the reasons people gave for wasting time is they feel that they're not being paid appropriately for the work they're doing. And so it is sort of quid pro quo, in that an individual employee's ability to increase his or her pay is limited, but their ability to decrease the number of hours they actually work is not as limited."

Coleman is definitely on to something. I see this phenomenon, and this reasoning, all around me. How much of the reasoning is rational, and how much is rationalization?"

2 of 491 comments (clear)

  1. Depends by superpulpsicle · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The higher up the corporate chain the lazier Americans get. And no, surfing the web isn't any less productive than golfing. Why doesn't some American journalists bring that up. Oh maybe they're afraid to get fired.

  2. Re:yes, lazy by jnhtx · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    "Because of my knowledge"

    I take it you knew that the United States is the best and most desirable country in which to live. It's the country to which much of the world's people would go if they could. Its one of the very few countries in the world that even allows immigration in significant numbers. We may have to build a wall to keep people out, but we'll never have to have one to keep people in.

    I don't claim to be a smart person, but I can see a...shall we say... ungrateful guest when I smell one.

    Since you find the United States distasteful, I'd suggest you rectify the mistake you made in coming here and go back to the, ... shall we say..., feces hole you came from and make room for an immigrant who appreciates the privilege of moving to the United States.