Web Surfing At Work Can Boost Productivity

An anonymous reader writes "The Wall Street Journal reports on a study into productivity and efficiency in the workplace, which found that people who are given a break to surf the web return to their work with 'lower levels of mental exhaustion, boredom and higher levels of engagement.' Researchers tested against two other groups; one continued working, and one was given a break that did not involve web browsing. They concluded that 'browsing the Internet serves an important restorative function.' In contrast, dealing with personal email was 'particularly distracting.' In the end, the researchers recommended that employers loosen restrictions on employee web access." This backs up a similar study out of Australia from a couple years ago.

Comments

I got a job in IT for this very reason

[Anonymous Coward]

After all, no one can tell the difference between surfing the 'Net for fun and me actually doing my job.

Re:I think we all know this...

[NevarMore]

LeEches. Dammit.

Is that French for "the Eches"?

Re:Case of the Mondays....

[nschubach]

Someone once told me that out of 8 hours we only in reality work like 1. The rest we pretend. I tend to believe that.

I was told the same, except it was 3 hours instead of 1. It was my previous supervisor so they may have been trying to get 3x the productivity out of me.