Slashdot Mirror
Australian Study Says Web Surfing Boosts Office Productivity
Hugh Pickens writes "Dr Brent Coker, professor of Department of Management and Marketing at Melbourne University, says employees who surf the internet for leisure during working hours are more productive than those who don't. A study of 300 office workers found 70 percent of people who use the internet at work engage in Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing (WILB). 'People who do surf the internet for fun at work — within a reasonable limit of less than 20 per cent of their total time in the office — are more productive by about nine per cent than those who don't,' said Coker. 'People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Think back to when you were in class listening to a lecture — after about 20 minutes your concentration probably went right down, yet after a break your concentration was restored. It's the same in the workplace.' However, Coker warns that excessive time spent surfing the internet could have the reverse effect."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm increasing my productivity right now!
I can't read this story. there is an ad in my way.
Really boss, I'm just becoming more productive fer ya.
Insightful and funny are really the same thing, except one has a punch line.
Lets see 20% of time surfing gets you 9% more productivity. So anyone surfing for 8% of their time gets a productivity boost, everyone else gets a productivity loss.
"Australian researcher's lab shut down by MPAA."
I'm sure my boss is going to be thrilled since he's looking over my shoulder reading this page as I type comments instead of doing my work.
Switch to surfing porn. It will make him even happier!
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I also promote in-office online banking and other personal business but the company balked when I suggested catered meals would also boost productivity by lowering stress levels caused by having to go out and forage, and the health benefits of not wolfing down food. Another company agreed with me and even hired a masage therapist because they found lowering stress levels among employees caused the biggest spike in productivity.
I bet a little web surfing keeps one from getting "too bored". A recent article in the same vein said that doodling helps people pay attention--I don't recall whether that one made slashdot.
A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
Hmm... gotta get back, done compiling.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
...and there are studies that say a short nap during the workday make people more productive. Now who here has an authorized nap time at work?
Depending on what the employee is viewing, it is also an opportunity to LEARN something.
My wife regularly surfs the web at work, often news, and consistently finds stories that directly effect the industry she works in, sometimes her actual place of employment. She then brings this information to the people she works for, the people that need to know about it.
I am going to print that article and put it on the wall next to my desk so that next time I don't have to use the "code is compiling" excuse.
Everybody who works from home?
If taking a cigarette break, coffee break or gossip break is allowed, I cannot see any difference in internet break or game break.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
Compiling.
I'm sure it is for just about everyone reading this.
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
.... also include surfing for pron?
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
I don't know. xkcd.com disagrees.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Workplace web bludging 'good for productivity'
allwords.com tells me that "to bludge" is to avoid responsibility. What a great word. Is it used outside Australia?
/...
...and there are studies that say a short nap during the workday make people more productive. Now who here has an authorized nap time at work?
I can't say it's exactly 'authorized' but no one stops me when I roll under the desk and take a quick rest. Mostly they laugh.
Qxe4
I am so asking for a raise.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
We need to commission studies that look at increases in productivity for the following activities during work time:
1) Games and gaming at work
2) Consumption of alcohol at work
3) Coming to work in casual clothes - the more casual the better - think underwear and curry stained shirt
4) Workplace sex
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I'm much more inclined to believe that people with above-average productivity can afford to spend up to 20% of their time surfing the internet.
They did the same thing where I work but went further by adding a free "Happy Ending." The plan backfired as productivity decreased and sleepiness increased. However, absolutely no was was stressed out.
Posting anon because the wife reads slashdot.
that I'm helping to get my work done right now!
I would rather call it Workplace Internet Browsing for Leisure, otherwise known as WIBL.
"Hey Tony, I need you to collate those TPS reports."
"Yeah sure boss. Right after I get done wibbling a bit."
I think this should be filed under the general maxim that happier workers are, generally, more productive workers.
Plus, so many jobs now expect you to be working to some extent while you're at home (checking email, etc). If an employer wants an employee to work while at home, then it's reasonable for the employee to do some personal web surfing at work.
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
They just said that 20% of your paid time, doing something other than what they are paying you to do, is reasonable? Would a company paying you 20% less all of the sudden be reasonable? If you are getting paid, STFU and get the work done. If there's no work to do, clock out and go home.
Well according to this study, the people who offend you so much get more done than the people who don't.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Some source was quoted in the Newsweek I was reading the other day as saying that 25% of people view internet porn at work.
(This surprised me. Slashdot? Sure. Wikipedia? Definitely. Porn? That's just stupid.)
Not everyone is on a timeclock.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Now who here has an authorized nap time at work?
Just close the door to your office and lock it. If you're woken by knocking or telephone, you have a moment to gather your composure before opening the door. It works for me!
What? You labour in an open-topped fabric-covered doorless half-height cube? Good god, that's barbaric!
by having to go out and forage,
You do know people can bring their own lunch to work and not have to forage? It saves bundles of money for the person and they know exactly what they're having. This also allows them more time to surf the web at lunch or maybe go out and have a walk around the building or get a quickie around the corner.
I realize this is a simple solution so obviously you're a programmer! (j/k)
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Perhaps people who browse the web at work are _more comfortable with_ and _more knowledgeable about_ computers in general, than people who don't browse the internet at work. I've seen many users who are clueless about computers wasting time by using their computers badly, unproductively, or not at all.
If you can't use a spreadsheet, chances are you don't 'get' the internet. I'm wondering if perhaps the study is drawing the wrong conclusion. Perhaps internet browsing isn't the 'cure', but a healthy symptom indicating a better affinity to computers.
Yes, it does seem to be a tag productivity issue. I'd address it myself, but it's late and I'm calling it a day.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
Does this mean I can stop fiddling with the log files now?
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
...and there are studies that say a short nap during the workday make people more productive.
My wife and I work in the same department, and occasionally take a "nap" together in a spare office. Curiously, this seems to reduce the productivity of our colleagues, who often look annoyed after our "nap".
Now who here has an authorized nap time at work?
I do. That is, I effectively do.
Ok, you want the truth? Nobody knows the difference.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Ah, so you're company pays you to sit at your desk for 40 hours a week? Or does your company pay you to get a weeks worth of work done in a week?
If you're being logical about it, working for 32 hours and getting 44 hours of work done is still better than working 40 hours and getting 40 hours of work done; which is what the article is saying. One of the biggest problems I have with the world in general is people doing what seems right instead of applying logic to the situation.
I would suggest that rather than websurfing increasing productivity, people tend to leave authoritarian employers who disallow websurving, productive people having more ability to move.
What? You labour in an open-topped fabric-covered doorless half-height cube? Good god, that's barbaric!
Sheer luxury mate. I work in a hole in the road, it's a twenty mile commute on foot in the dark and thirty back. My father fed me stone cold poison and killed me every morning before work.
But can ye get the lads to believe you these days? Noooooo.....
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Yeah, but most people are. And what I've seen at all the 7+ companies i've work for is pretty much right out of Office Space: people only working just hard enough to not get fired.
It seems the corporate system is designed this way though. At most companies I've been paid a straight salary with no overtime and either no bonus or a possible 5% bonus based on how well I've been able to project a productive air to my manager.
So where's the incentive to work harder? When we kick ass and do well as a company, I rarely see an extra cent. When we do poorly as a company I still get paid exactly the same. True I have the possibility of getting laid off but everyone faces the same possibility and generally the axe doesn't fall on me because I do a perfectly OK job. I'd love to be encouraged to work harder with profit sharing or the like but few companies do this.
It seems there are much better models to encourage productivity and I have no idea why most companies don't adopt them.
It may be that bright-minded, sharp, intelligent, high mental-energy, people are already prone to being more productive, and that searching for ideas and information is just part of their wiring. Of course the information and stimulation help feed the process. OK, back to work...
If I find another person using a calculator and "plugging in" the answers in Excel I don't know what I will do!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
100% identical! +1
It's similar to eating a week's worth of food in 1 day and not eating for the other 6 days...
I had a boss that would have balked at the 20% figure. He believed (and told us as much) that you were wasting company time and money if you were anything less than 100% engaged in your work. He was, however, always interested in boosting productivity any way possible, so when someone brought up Google's "personal project time" policy (Google was the rockstar of the Internet then, even moreso than now), he wanted to try it. Once we started seriously discussing it, though, the boss killed the idea by proclaiming that the personal project time would be in addition to, not replacing your normal 8-hour day. That means you either had to come in early, stay late, or come in on a weekend. And it wouldn't count as overtime either. That pretty much killed all interest.
(Posting this at work, from my new job.)
I hear sandwiches are pretty easy to make ;-) Seriously though, if you do some research on cooking, you will find 15-20 minute recipes for lunchtime. Of course, if you don't know how to cook, it might take you a while to get up to speed. Some of my recomendations though are: energy bars, left over spaghetti w/ sauce, imported ramen (actually has some nutritional value sometimes), hard boiled eggs, veges w/ dip, chips, juice boxes/soda cans, hummus, leftover meat left in a marinade overnight. You can get a slow cooker and have rice/beans ready for you in the morning to take to work. If you want to be a little more creative you could take a look over at Just Bento for recipes. If you enjoy food, investing time in learning to prepare what you like can be massively rewarding!
Anyway, gotta go, it's nearly time for another break.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I've done both. Believe me, the people who get stressed out by "foraging" will get at least twice as stressed out trying to find time to throw together lunch to take along. Sure it's no big deal for the morning people who get up an hour before they need to, but for the night-owl types, there is never a good time to pack a lunch.
The only time I pack a lunch is when I'm *really* short on funds. Most of the time I'd rather pay 4x as much and eat unhealthy food that I can pick up over lunch.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
What? You labour in an open-topped fabric-covered doorless half-height cube? Good god, that's barbaric!
No, I share one with 3 other people.
Why did you post in a monospace font? What the fuck is wrong with you?
My last boss only got upset if we didn't share the good porn with him.
I drank what? -- Socrates
When you are visiting, you are company!
Today is April 2nd!
I started using the free time management software from RescueTime.com a few months ago and have found that it helps keep me from venturing too far off track during the work day. I had previously been using a small app built by the Software Jedi (my hero! I still use it for making my time cards), but it is buggy and lacks any real analysis features (still not bad for being built in one day).
I was planning on building a bunch of macros and pivot tables in Excel for it when I ran across RescueTime, which is free for personal use and actively being developed. It keeps track of all the websites and applications you use on your computer and sends this data to their servers to let you tag each item as productive or not-productive. From all this tagging you get a bunch of pretty pictures saying how much time you spend working and how much you waste reading web comics or Slashdot. They even have a flash widget you can add to a blog. Haven't tried the Team edition yet, but it has definitely helped me keep from wasting too much time.
From Michael Scott, "Jim Halpert. Pros. Smart, cool, good looking. Remind you of anyone you know? Cons. Not a hard worker. I can spend all day on a project and he can finish the same project in a half an hour. So that should tell you something."
Anecdotally, I am more inclined to believe that people who are more productive can slack off more. At my previous job, I would often do more work than my colleague and still found plenty of time to slack off, because I knew how to do the work quickly and correctly. He meanwhile, would be busy all day, and was doing less work than I.
Some companies require you to take paid 15 minute breaks. I always figured it was for the people that smoked. They actually are to make you more productive. I guess management does have some good ideas once and a while.
Move to Spain.
Take a couple of hours off for lunch, every day.
And yet other EU colleagues want them to work 9-5 :(
We do actually have a small dark "quiet room" with beanbags at Stardock.
By his match the productivity gain doesn't outweigh the loss.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
is if you get your work done. This is influenced by a lot of factors. But in the end you Boss should not need to analyse your Web usage to determine if you do a good job. If he needs, he is not the right man for the job.
What? You labour in an open-topped fabric-covered doorless half-height cube? Good god, that's barbaric!
It is, it's terrible. It's also pretty dang good for communication, I've worked in an office before and I hated it. What, you prefer to rely on email or IM (or intercom, yuck) for *all* the times you need to say "hey bob, could you check in foozballwidget.dll please?" Unless you have the luxury of being the sole maintainer of a system, your job probably requires you to frequently talk to people, which is easier of you have LoS on most of the office.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Sheer luxury mate. I work in a hole in the road, it's a twenty mile commute on foot in the dark and thirty back. My father fed me stone cold poison and killed me every morning before work. But can ye get the lads to believe you these days? Noooooo.....
We were evicted from our hole. We had to live in a shoebox in the middle of the road. Every morning we'd lick the road clean with our tongues, drink a half cup of hydrochloric acid, and our father would slice us in two with a bread knife and sing glory hallelujah.
http://www.phespirit.info/montypython/four_yorkshiremen.htm
Homonyms are fun!
You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
It absolutely does, and the lack of easy facilities for this probably hits out GNP.
But Most places are required to give you a half hour (even unpaid) break, so just take your car and leave, and master the 25-min nap.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I knew there was a downside to being allowed to use Python...
there is no god but truth, and reality is its prophet
Let me tell you my secret recipe - this one is easy enough that I used to make it when I was single, and tasty/nutritious enough that my wife asked me to make it for dinner last night. ;)
:)
:)
You will need:
Two packets of Indo Mie mi goreng
Two eggs
A medium-sized onion
A tomato
A small can of mushrooms in butter sauce
Whatever else is in the fridge
Butter
Heat a small pot, add about 1/2 Tbsp butter. Crack two eggs into the pot and scramble. When eggs are mostly solid, add chopped onion and tomato, along with whatever else (meat, other veggies, leftovers) you find in the fridge that looks like it'd go well. Cook for 3-4 mins, stirring occasionally, until onion starts to soften. Add mi goreng noodles and flavouring to the pot along with the can of mushrooms. Add around 1 cup boiling water, and simmer for 5 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
Note: This concoction generally *looks* pretty iffy, but it tastes fantastic and isn't too bad for you healthwise. It's also brilliant hangover-cure food.
P.S. Your point (1) in your after-work story is the problem. The reason you feel bodgy is the mismatch between brain-tired and body tired: When you get home from work, instead of collapsing, try to get 20-30min exercise. Go for a bike ride, jog, do weights, whatever. Not only will it kickstart your stagnating metabolism, but (I find) a bit of exercise really cuts down your desire for greasy food and alcohol afterwards.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
I have a strange feeling tree pussy doesn't mean what I think it does.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
They just said that 20% of your paid time, doing something other than what they are paying you to do, is reasonable? Would a company paying you 20% less all of the sudden be reasonable? If you are getting paid, STFU and get the work done. If there's no work to do, clock out and go home.
No, they said that people who spend 20% of their work time browsing the internet do 9% more work overall than people who don't browse the internet during work time.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
That brings up an interesting possibility; ignoring the obvious correlation != causation issue here, consider this possible reason why surfing the web at work might make people slightly more productive overall: whether you work for 40 of your 40 hours or 32 of your 40 hours, you'll only do enough to not get fired. Perhaps people who browse the web 20% of the time have more cause for concern about their productivity not being "just enough", so they overcompensate and actually work harder?
I worked in a place with authorised nap-time. By "authorised", I mean nobody told the boss.
When you're not paid overtime, or when you hate your job, I think working the bare minimum is much more attractive. There was one job where I could have made a significant return on overtime, but I didn't like the line of work, so nothing could make want to stay there past my end time.
Fortunately, as a student, I still have options before I have to start looking for a job to actually survive on it.
sudo make me a sandwich
I'm a software engineer and I've used a spreadsheet maybe 5 times in my life. I hate to sound like Bender here, but most everything in life is a degenerative form of programming, especially spreadsheets.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Probably because the guy who makes those decisions is also doing the bare minimum to get by.
BTW- I'm in the same boat. I work just hard enough to be slightly better than half of my peers (call it a security blanket against being laid off). This affords me the luxury of watching Orb/Hulu/ProjectFreeTV for the entirety of my workday, frequent coffee and cig breaks and minimal responsibilities, in addition to ample time to poke around and play with pretty much whatever to see how it works. Conversely, my closet peer (by proximity and friendship) always tries to lead the pack in productivity and is constantly being given extra assignments and what not (that I usually help him with out of boredom and curiosity). But when the end of year bonuses came around he received an additional .13% than me! We calculated it to roughly $1.80 per workday. All his extra effort was worth a cup of coffee as far as the brass were concerned. Unfortunately, I don't think he learned the lesson.
Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
It's spelt "quiche".
----
Don't "Whoosh" me; I know what I'm doing.
That 'Fences' program looks suspiciously familiar. How will that fare when KDE finishes full Windows support?
Our target audience is not exactly the type to install something like KDE on Windows, or anywhere.
No wonder you feel like a lethargic slug.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
A short 20 minutes nap OR a cup of coffee. Now who hasn't coffee at work ?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
This also allows them more time to surf the web at lunch or maybe go out and have a walk around the building or get a quickie around the corner.
I know quite a few people who would skip both lunch and web surfing to get a quickie around the corner.
I want to found the SAUA (Society Against Useless Acronyms)
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
You got a ~$500000 bonus?
Or, do you work for Verizon?
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Companies don't pay for 40 hours of your work, they pay for 40 hours of your presence. Your boss can easily measure how long you've been at work, but not how productive you've been, so that's the metric used.
mmmm...forbidden donut
It could be that those of us that are good at our jobs get our work done more quickly. That leaves more time for leisure browsing because there's nothing else to do.
I can say [REDACTED] anytime I want!
In my experience, the only guys who like this arrangement are the ones that are constantly asking "Hey bob, could you check in foozballwidget.dll please?" as loudly as possibly, just when I've gotten into the zone working on some problem*. ;)
* - Doubly annoying if you find out it already was checked in
Throw the bums out!
What? You labour in an open-topped fabric-covered doorless half-height cube? Good god, that's barbaric!
It's not that bad; it has free internet!
He said authorised.
So you were in a mixed office where YOU had your pet project to work on, and everyone else was working on shared projects? Lucky you, it's much easier working on solo projects where the source isn't being modified under you.
If you have so much trouble concentrating, I suggest a portable music player or noise-canceling headphones.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Half of spain and latin america, and look what wonders that does for their economies!