Time wasted on line.
The New York Times
Jill Watson

Until recently the question of whether internet is costing companies in productivity has been difficult to monitor. This issue has resurfaced again in a new report published by the New York Times addressing the matter regarding this topic. Statistics seem to indicate that unmonitored internet use is cutting as much as 15.5 percent of company productivity. This is much higher than expected. Of course these are not figures that affect all businesses but the average business. Still, the numbers are staggering.

Email. (This activity consumes 4% a day of productive employee time)
Perhaps the biggest time waster is personal emailing. This situation is practically impossible to monitor. If your teams are connected to the internet they will have access to email and they will use it for personal reasons.

Chat (This activity consumes 1.5% a day of productive employee time)
Frequently, companies permit for users to download chat programs such as Skype, Yahoo Chat, or Microsoft Chat. This seems to be one of the easiest situations to scrutinize. An IT manager can restrict access to certain sites on selected terminals, but the user software can be easily downloaded bypassing the site itself. In some companies Skype is used as a communication tool. In this case it is virtually impossible to monitor.

Blogging (This activity consumes 1% a day of productive employee time)
Another area of time consumption is blogging. There are so many blogs available that if there is access to internet there will be access to blogs.

Buying on line. (This activity consumes 2.5% a day of productive employee time)
A favorite past time for shoppers is buying on line while at work. Sites such as Ebay and Amazon are favorites. Whether it is possible to monitor or not, this is a major time consumer.

Reading magazines and newspapers. (This activity consumes 2% a day of productive employee time)
With all of the press from around the world it is easy to see that everyone will want to access their favorite newspapers and magazines. If you use the net for information, this activity can be part of your job.

Surfing (This activity consumes 4.5% a day of productive employee time)
General surfing on the net consumes a lot of time and energy from the typical productive office. If an employee has access to the net it is virtually impossible to curb.

Perhaps one of the most important questions to ask is if these activities should be regulated let alone monitored. Office regulations should be stipulated and professional behavior should be set as a standard. Perhaps keeping the office environment healthy is a better objective than micromanagement. Also if they didn't have the internet, they would probably find other nonproductive activities. Happy employees are more productive.

Jill Watson
The New York Times.