UK time-wasting costs employers £3.2bn a week

Surfing
the internet is the prime time-wasting occupation for British and Irish
workers.

In
a pan-European survey of 8,000 people by Monster.co.uk, 40 per cent of those
voting in the UK claimed the net is their chief distraction at work.

Monster
posed the question "What is your biggest time wasting vice at work?"
and found that the favourite diversion across Europe is "chit-chatting
with colleagues".

According
to LearnDirect, the e-learning network, the average worker in the UK wastes 2
hours and 45 minutes each day – a cost to employers of £3bn a week. 

Hernan
Daguerre, head of communications for Monster Europe, said: "We are not
robots and with an ever-growing culture of high stress and long working hours,
employers need to be realistic when it comes to employee productivity."

Across
Europe Monster revealed the following time-wasting trends:

–
41 per cent (3,359 votes): chit-chatting with colleagues

–
33 per cent (2,673 votes): surfing the internet

–
15 per cent (1,216 votes): cigarette breaks

–
6 per cent (518 votes): online chatting."

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–
5 per cent (437 votes): Personal phone calls

By Michael Millar