Top 5 time wasters in the workplace

Are you reading this article at work? Then you’re probably robbing your company of precious productivity.

A new survey from Robert Half Management Resources says web surfing and standing around chatting with your colleagues are the top “time thieves” at work.

While some level of chitchat and Internet browsing can be seen as productive (after all, reading this blog is “research,” right?), the survey shows Canadian bosses are worried about time-wasting activities among employees.

About a third of Canadian executives interviewed cited chatting coworkers as the biggest time waster at work.

While that water cooler chatter can be good for office morale and building relationships with co-workers, there are too many distractions at work that are considered time suckers, says David King, Canadian president of Robert Half Management Resources

“Socializing is acceptable within reason,” he says, but ”it’s best to keep a balance between non-work tasks during business hours and professional obligations.”

To cut back on these time bandits, King suggests bosses consider whether the workload is evenly distributed across the office. (After all, shouldn’t everyone get equal time online shopping at the office or surfing the Internet for interesting articles on surveys?)

Surfing the Internet for things not related to work, in particular social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, was a concern among a quarter of respondents.

But bosses also appear to be contributing to time wasting on the job by calling so many meetings. The survey shows 10 per cent of financial executives believe meetings drain significant time. (Notice how these meetings they call don’t rank as high?) Executives from larger companies were more likely to say meetings were a waste of time (26 per cent), versus 9 per cent of smaller firms.

The survey was based on interviews with more than 270 chief financial officers across Canada.

Here are the results based on the question: "Which one of the following is the greatest time-waster at work for employees?"

1. Employees chatting and socializing - 29 per cent (Tsk, tsk)

2. None-business Internet surfing – 25 per cent (This assumes of course bosses can actually tell if it’s non-business. Employees: Try turning your computer screen so it can’t be easily seen)

3. Personal calls or emails – 15 per cent (Tip for employees: Use business-like code words such as “strategic,” “win-win” and “best practice” when gossiping about last night’s party)

4. Work-related email – 15 per cent (Why talk to someone when you can fire off email missives?)

5. Meetings – 10 per cent (Who called that meeting anyway?)

Others/don’t know – 7 per cent (Who would respond “I don’t know?” Obviously someone surfing the web while answering the survey questions)