People Waste Time At Work

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Riddlinkidstoner

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 12, 2006
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A lot. I usually have a huge line of computers to work on but sometimes I just sit down and surf the web pretending I'm working...but usually not that long. I like helping people on the floor so its only when I get really tired of walking :D
 
Say it isn’t so! People are actually wasting time at work doing frivolous things like, ummm…surfing the net? Apparently the average person wastes 1.7 hours a day at work doing non-work related stuff. Before you start feeling too bad, that number is down from last year and the year before. So, how much time do YOU waste at work?

My employer certainly would not discourage you. But yours might, especially if your breaks and other personal activities put you in league with employees who admit in a new survey to frittering away an average of 1.7 hours of an 8.5 hour work day.
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I spend maybe 3-4 hours a day not actually doing work, though my job does not really need me there a full 8 hours a day, but more like if I am needed I am here instead of at home, drive to help, then drive home just to have them call me again in a hour.
 
I don't know, how much time do I spend posting here each day. I am "working" right now...
 
I work a graveyard Help Desk shift. We support ONE application with only a 1000 users (most are day time shifters)... I am allowed to bring my Micro ATX case into work and play games on my EVDO connection...

I waste approximately 8 hours a day since I only average about 1 phone call a shift...

Worse part is, after close to a year of this... I wish I was extremely busy all the time and not having all this free time...

- Fred
 
So, how much time do YOU waste at work?
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My job requires me to be there for the full 8 hours. I am a phone based customer service rep for a real estate company who hosts and markets sites. Its my job to take custom requests (create logos, upload images, change website details, edit/spellcheck/revise text etc). I'm a web editor. The only issue is that on any given day, I will have 3-4 tasks that don't even last til lunch. Until then, its lazy cruise control until an email or call comes in.


I spend more time surfing the web than I do working.. :)
 
Riddlinkidstoner said:
A lot. I usually have a huge line of computers to work on but sometimes I just sit down and surf the web pretending I'm working...but usually not that long. I like helping people on the floor so its only when I get really tired of walking :D
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umm how did your post become the first post? :confused:
 
Yeah, I'm at work right now. I'd say I split my day with work/other stuff. The joys of an intern, I'm left alone for the most part.
 
We'll I'm guilty of spending most of my entire day doing nothing almost everyday. I'm a IT manager for a huge wireless company (name withheld ;) ) for reasons of my own.

Anyway, I have everyday tasks, a checklist so to speak that I must do and daily maintenance that I run, check for firmware updates,software updates, etc but I get most of this done in the first 2hrs I'm at work. I support 52 users at my office building, but I'm over 9 other locations as well.

Each of those locations have an IT admin underneath me, so I only visit on occassion to make sure they're doing their jobs or to fix a problem they cannot resolve or I can't tackle remotely.

The rest of the day I surf the net, play games on my laptop or chat with my fiance on the phone for the good part of the day. I do have days when stuff gets hectic and I'm busy all day, email server crashes, network goes down or has a bottle neck for one reason or another, but most of the time it's smooth sailing.

I work 10 hour days, every other weekend on Sat and Sun which isn't great but pays great. Out of those 50+ our work weeks I work 15hours max a week generally. I have a great job to say the least. :D
 
matrix563 said:
umm how did your post become the first post? :confused:
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And 6 minutes before, to boot!

I do waste some time at work, but that is the nature of my project, and the fact that once I'm done with something, I have to occupy my work time with reading a reference book or researching stuff on the web.
 
To those that have a lot of time available and are in management positions.....ARE YOU HIRING????




And yes, I'm sending this from work !!!
 
Man, I wish people would keep things like this quiet. Sheeeshh..... :eek:
 
probably should go the European way (ahhh don't flame me) and shorten the work day, maybe that'll increase worker satisfaction and thus at the least keep the same productivity or raise it
 
I agree with moving to the European way, actually.

In all honesty, I probably spend double that "average" online, if not more. Usually more. It doesn't help, though, that I'm an intern at the moment...so there's not a ton of stuff for me to be working on at the moment. I take the work as it comes, and when there's none, I read news and stuff. Heck, that's what I'm doing now (although, if my boss reads this, I should point out I'm posting while I'm installing the software I'm supposed to be learning ;) )
 
People need time to think to themselves, though. If your job is so mind numbing that you are not mentally stimulated by it, you need to veer away and occupy your mind with something.
 
Those who are good at what they do, don't need 8 hours to do an 8 hour job. My boss very well knows that I won't put in a real 8 hour unless he decides to increase my salary by 50%. However, when the shit hits the fan I'm the first to step up since i'm not bogged down.
 
Steve said:
I post on the intarweb 12 - 13 hours a day.


Waitaminute.....I work here...nevermind. :(
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Puahah go Steve.

While I'm at work (engineering)...it's not truly techie. It's not EE, CE, or even CS. I'm doing civil/site plan stuff, so it's hardly taxing on the brain. The only creative aspect, if any, is grading (whoohoo!)

Other than that, the most intellectual stimulation I get is from hardware news (TR, here, XS, bit-tech). I still think i shoulda went CS or EE. Maybe it's not too late...
 
I use [H] for my work. I keep updated here in the news section, help/receive help in webmastering/programming, visit security vulnerabilities, etc. These forums are part of my way of keeping up with the Jones's in the computer realm.

Surely I'm not the only one.
 
This has been bugging me ever since I started working. Things need to be done, yet people sit around and don;t do them, yet when the paychecks come everyones numbers are the same and it seriously pisses me off. I only take breaks to replenish my water and to use the restroom. The only actual wasted time would be if I have to fix someone else's mistake because they were just sitting around. Come on people get to work before the human race fails and you are replaced by a more efficient robot!!
 
Everyday at my previous workplace, a group of employees would take 2-3 hr lunches and play soccer or basketball. :eek: A buddy of mine who also worked there referred "going to work" as "going to soccer practice"
 
Each case needs to be considered separately.

An 8 hour a day Admin Assistant who spends 2 hrs a day on the net is not acceptable.

An IT worker that spends anywhere from 10-14 hours a day working, and gets paid for 8? If the guy wants to take a break by reading tech stuff on the web, more power to him IMHO.

Kinda like us :)
 
JosiahBradley said:
This has been bugging me ever since I started working. Things need to be done, yet people sit around and don;t do them, yet when the paychecks come everyones numbers are the same and it seriously pisses me off. I only take breaks to replenish my water and to use the restroom. The only actual wasted time would be if I have to fix someone else's mistake because they were just sitting around. Come on people get to work before the human race fails and you are replaced by a more efficient robot!!
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In a smaller company it might be different because one employee's action can have a much larger effect. However...in a very large company a cerrtain amount of time is given to a task. This is usally a function of having several 100 people of different skill levels. Therefore if you are in the top 5%, you quite often have "extra time" on your hands. I usually take that extra time to improve myself and make sure what I'm assigned to do is done correctly. I work on new ideas and browse the [H] to keep my tech knowledge up to par. However, at the end of the year the two questions are always did you get it done on time and does it work right. If you did both well you get a bigger raise...if not, you get a smaller raise. If you really suck...bye bye.
 
Trepidati0n said:
However, at the end of the year the two questions are always did you get it done on time and does it work right. If you did both well you get a bigger raise...if not, you get a smaller raise. If you really suck...bye bye.
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This is exactly right, I can do all my work in 2-3 days of the week if I wanted, but by spreading the work out I notice new things near the end of the week that make my projects look better or more correct (trying to remove all human flaws). If I get a project done X days earlier my company does not see anything extra and nor do I, so we take out time to make sure it is as close to perfect as humanly possible.
 
"The thing is Bob, if I bust my butt and Initech ships a few more products, what's in it for me? You know what else? I have eight bosses. So my only real motivation is not to get hassled. And you know what? That'll only make someone work hard enough not to get fired."
 
I go online at work but I wouldnt call it wasting time. I always complete all my job's duties as soon as I get them and only switch over to my web browser when I have nothing else to do at the moment. Really helps on those slow days.
 
Tons, and none at all at the same time. My job at the moment is to image and configure machines for all the employees where I work. I work on them as they come in, and I'm rather quick about it. Rest of the time, I either surf the web, watch movies, or play games on one of the laptops I've labeled as "test machine". So while you could say I'm wasting time, I actually only do it when I either have no machines to do or I am waiting for large software packages to install.
 
About 30 mins during break to maybe an hour if I don't have much work.

You could probably fire a worker or two at my job to keep the rest of us busier. The little work they do is full of careless errors... \vent
 
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