WASTING TIME ON THE INTERNET
While the Internet has become important to many companies,
it can become a primary cause of lost productivity in the workplace. As a work
related means of web-based advertising, information retrieval and
communications it is a great tool but for numerous employees it becomes a
source of wasted time. Before the Internet came along it was fairly easy to
spot an employee wasting time on numerous personal calls and such. Now, it is
no longer obvious and people can be seen hunched over their computers typing
away, but unless you were to look over their shoulders you wouldn’t know if
they were working on company business.
There are 5 major forms of time wasting that can occur across
from a computer. Most if used in moderation during lunch and such wouldn’t be
too significant, but recent studies have confirmed that in some cases employees
were spending up to seven hours a day doing one or more of the following
frequent time wasters:
1)
Browsing the Internet
Visiting Websites such as Facebook have become an obsession
for some people. Following up on all their friends from school, what they are
doing and who they are seeing can take up considerable amounts of time. Popular
Fan Websites draw people into check on their favourite celebrities or
television shows. Sports Sites may be useful, to check on a score, but it may
be hard not to stop and read a couple of articles while you are there. For
people without Internet access at home this may be an even greater problem
since their work computer may be their only route into this world.
2)
Messenger Programs
Programs such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL
Messenger and Google Talk are programs that computer users can use to talk to
one another over the Internet. This has largely replaced the more obvious
personal calls and employees can spend several hours a day chatting with
friends while appearing to be working. These programs can be useful in the work
environment, if limited only to business related conversations.
3)
Non Work Related E-Mail
In one case when I came into upgrade a new employee’s
computer I found no less than 500 accumulated personal e-mails containing
jokes, picture, videos and such. This occurred within 2 weeks of that person
occupying the job. Not only is this a substantial source of wasted time, it may
be a source of computer viruses which can come in attached to the pictures or
videos going around.
4)
Unauthorized Downloads
I spend a fair amount of time each month fixing computers
that have slowed down or started to malfunction due to user initiated downloads
of software. Users download screensavers and assorted utilities claiming to
make the computer faster while only aggravating their problems.
5)
Computer Games
Computer games were more of a problem in the early
days and an occasional game of Solitaire while on lunch or coffee break seem
innocent enough. Some new Internet based games are quite addictive however and
can go on for hours.
TAKING CORRECTIVE ACTION
It’s difficult to say what controls are reasonable in
the working environment. These problems can be relatively minor or quite
significant and are difficult to monitor and control. Some affected companies have been forced to initiate very strict
guidelines to control these activities, such as:
Announcing that Website access will be monitored and
is limited to work related sites.
Banning all Messenger Programs within the workplace
unless authorized for specific uses.
Restricting E-mail to work related contacts.
Banning unauthorized software downloads.
Banning games during business hours.
Let us know if you have any concerns in these areas
and would like to monitor usage levels.