Are You Wasting Your Time Reading This?

Are you reading this blog post while you're at work? If so, you are just like the average worker -- doing something other than your job while you're at work. Salary.com released the results of a survey it conducted among its own users and AOL users. The results of the survey showed the average worker wastes 1.7 hours out of each 8 and a half hour work day. What are these workers doing during about 20% of the time their employers are paying them? They are using the Internet, socializing with co-workers, making phone calls and running personal errands. Twenty percent of the work day is a lot of time, but employers will be relieved to know the amount of wasted time has decreased in the three years Salary.com has done this survey. Salary.com reports that respondents reasons for wasting time ranged from not having enough work to do to having too much to do.

It seems obvious to me that an employee should be working on his or her employer's dime, at least most of the time. I can understand taking a brief time out here and there, but an hour and half seems excessive to me. What about you? Do you waste as much time as the average worker, according to this survey, does?

Poll: How Much Time Do You Waste at Work?

• I run with the herd. I waste about 1.7 hours a day.
• Waste time? I don't stop working all day.
• 1.7 hours is for wimps. I waste much more time than 1.7 hours.
• View Results