Facebook makes employees too busy to work
Who has time for work? I’ve got to update my Facebook status! A recent study finds that half of employees with access to Facebook use it during office hours.
Office workers will probably remember the 6th and 7th days of August as their most productive days of the year. Unlike previous workdays, employees everywhere did something crazy – complete the duties they were hired to perform without using Facebook.
Attacks from hackers recently blocked access to Facebook and Twitter, reminding frustrated employees about how often they visit Faceebook at work. In fact, a recent study by Nucleus Research finds that nearly half of employees with access to Facebook use the social networking website during work hours. What’s even more startling is that some employees spend as much as two hours a day at work on Facebook, and 1 out of every 33 uses the site exclusively during work hours.
How do you people get anything done?
The average employee spends 15 minutes a day reading status updates, poking friends, and writing wall comments. Though the study did find that some, albeit a very small number, employees use Facebook for a legitimate business purpose, 87 percent couldn’t come up with a valid reason for logging-on at work. The reality is that those reports and projections can wait, boss; I’ve got to update my status!
In the interest of full disclosure, I must say that I’m one of the guilty parties who has used Facebook at work for completely personal reasons. When you’ve spent four hours reading research, working in PowerPoint, and threading through dozens of e-mail, it’s hard to resist sneaking a peek at something other than the mundane workday.
Companies lose nearly 1.5 percent productivity because of employees like me, but I…oh, wow. I’d love to continue writing about this issue, but I think Facebook is finally running smoothly again. I have to check it, so read the rest of the report for yourself.
“If your company is facing tight margins and low profitability, as many are now, then how can you accept any work distractions that drain your overall productivity? While it won’t make you popular, restricting Facebook can reclaim lost productivity. If your profitability is say two percent, this could be the difference between staying open or closing shop.” – Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research for Nucleus Research.
| Facebook Usage At Work | |
| Information | % of Respondents |
| Workers with a Facebook account |
77% |
| Facebook users that access Facebook at work |
61% |
| Workforce accessing Facebook at work |
47% |
| Average minutes accessed per day |
15 |
| Total lost productivity to Facebook across the entire employee population |
1.47% |
| Source: Nucleus Research, July 2009 | |
Filed Under: Facebook > News
Tags: business, Facebook, Social Networking
[...] Andrew KamekaFacebook makes employees too busy to work HG Hardware & Gadgets [...]
(Report comment)
Rebecca Wetterman from Nucleus Research states “If your company is facing tight margins and low profitability, as many are now, then how can you accept any work distractions that drain your overall productivity? While it won’t make you popular, restricting Facebook can reclaim lost productivity. If your profitability is say two percent, this could be the difference between staying open or closing shop.”
Ms Wetterman is wrong. The same argument was once made about the importance of internet at work v. lost productivity. Internet won. Facebook keeps people at their desks and always within access of their workspace. If people weren’t allowed to have access to social sites at ther workstations, they would find means to be social away from their desks. I can’t believe someone who is a Vice President of a work productivity research company would make such a juvenile comment.
(Report comment)
Asif, I will go out on a limb and guess you are between 18 and 25 years old. Time theft is time theft, whether it is due to facebook, twitter or whatever else young people need to use to ” stay in touch ” Just because you have access to it at your workstation does not make it right. Is surfing porn at work ok too just because you have access to it ? Someone should smack you facebook addicts upside the head
(Report comment)
Well, has anyone considered the fact that a happy employee is a harder working employee? Why do you think big corporations such as Google and such would allot specialized “Nap-Breaks”. You need not be a Vice President of a big research consulting first to know that a happy, well informed, well rested employee is a more productive employee. If you keep employing stricter rules, people will lose respect for their employer. The morale hit will surely tally up to more than the lost productivity. Maybe if the time on facebook could be restricted, we would all be happy? (I personally do not use facebook at work but 15 minutes isn’t the end of the world.)
(Report comment)
My dear Curtis,
If, and most likely by law, when working for somebody-else, that somebody-else has all your personal information entered in the accounting section of their business – birth date, SIN, address, bank account(for direct depositing your so”urned” wages in your bank account) and so much more ( a blessed and soooo wanted for every hacker information). Therefore, by using business/office Internet and downloading files from unauthorized/trusted sites, harms and not only, but jeopardises the security of your and your co-workers personal information, not only the business you are employed at.
There are serious consequences to your actions. How people can be soooooo stupid and abuse the trust that is given to them?
Is that not big enough reason to be fired?
As long as we have a work place with a steady and secured by Canadian Laws income, why not be at least loyal to our employers.?
P.S.// then wonder why some people can not find a job and the unemployment percentage is sooo high……
(Report comment)
I am one of the guilty parties that use Facebook at work. I think it would be great if my employer would block my access to the site. I use it as a distraction, and would be much more productive without the distraction. I admit, I’m mildly addicted.
Employee morale is important at work, but I don’t think allowing mostly younger employees to waste time on the site is a way of improving morale. This is just an excuse for the gen-ys who are used to getting their way.
I also think the 15 minutes is a low estimate.
(Report comment)
Seriously folks, you should not spend any time at work doing anything but work. I have to say in this situation one should put their shoes on the other feet. Consider yourself the boss or owner of a company you have put your heart and soul into and imagine that your employees are billing you for personal time…It is a form of stealing and no matter what you might think theft is theft…..
(Report comment)
The one thing I want to say is that almost all of the people who commented on this did so during work hours (If the time is showing up right on my computer). So it would be interesting to find out what other sites our taking up most people’s time when they should be working. From what I can tell, personal email (ie hotmail, gmail… etc) and online news account for most of the distractions for people where I work. (Other than Facebook I mean)
It would be interesting to know what time people are accessing Facebook… because I know that I will check photos, or check my messages during my lunch hour (which is still technically at work) and sometimes right before I leave for the day… if this is counted into the study, it’s not like people were actually taking away from the overall productivity for the day, they were legitimately on a paid break.
(Report comment)
why how do u pay ur workers anyway with charing the users of face book?
(Report comment)
There seems to be 2 attitudes…
The “it is Ok” vs the “it is wrong” groups.
Both have their points. My 2 cents:
1) You are paid to be at work to do work. To do things your employer needs done. Your mere physical presence in the chair, does not justify your paycheque.
2) I wonder how many banks, insurance companies, and car companies who nearly went under lately, and are living off the taxpayer, had hi-level employees who spent too much time, golfing, twittering, blogging, facebooking, and sending cute emails to each other to do their actual jobs….???
One wonders, this may be how Uncle Bernie Madoff got away with it. While the regulators were “twittering” like little birds, he was eating the “golden eggs” like a snake in the grass…
3) I cannot see how one can do personal email, twitter, facebook, blog, use the washroom, and STIll eat lunch… all at the same time, over lunch-time.
And I also wonder: I have worked at many places in my life, and 1/2 hour for lunch was the norm. There are a lot of people with cushy 1 hour lunches in this site… Could some one please educate me?
And yes, I am 53, and a workaholic. Sigh. And yes, I have on occasion, checked my personal email over lunch, but only when expecting something VIP.
And sadly, I know of one workplace, where an other wise good, loyal, team player, and decent employee, was just recently fired over being on the net too much….
It was ok at first, but over time the habit grew, and grew… until the employer sarcastically said something along the lines of: “When you come in to work, along with all your personal internet use, via the company’s internet, might you find the time to do a little bit of the work I pay you to do?” This led to a fight, and in the process the words “You’re fired!” were spoken. No, I was not there that day. Something tells me I was lucky to be legitimately out of the office that day!
I can see SOME legitimate use of all these various sites and “tools” (I use the word losely, here)… but the time management issue still worries me.
(Report comment)
It’s very easy to eat lunch and check your personal email during your lunch hour. If you bring a lunch from home (which usually does not require any preparation, maybe two minutes in the microwave at most) then it should only take you upwards of 10-15 mins to eat. If you can’t check your email and other messages in 15-20 mins, there’s there’s a problem. On average, I am on Facebook for 5-10 minutes at a time.
I do agree with you however that you shouldn’t be on Facebook when you are supposed to be working. I just think that it is possible to check your account during your work day on a paid break, because I have been able to do so.
(Report comment)
[...] provided by: http://www.sync-blog.com, [...]
(Report comment)