While work keeps a lot of us busy, in reality most folks are spending at least part of their workday doing anything but their job. In fact, according to a new survey, most employees wind up wasting the equivalent of an entire day per week on things that have nothing to do with their work.
According to a survey by OfficeTeam, the average worker spends about 56 minutes a day using their mobile device for non-work related activities, which translates into about five hours a week. What’s more, employees also waste about 42 minutes a day on personal tasks, and when all that time is calculated together it comes out to about eight hours a week, or a full workday.
Not surprisingly, the younger generation is the one wasting the most time in the office. Overall, workers ages 18 to 34 spend, on average, 70 minutes a day on mobile devices, and 48 minutes on personal tasks each workday.
When it comes to what they’re doing on their phones, most managers (62%) think the majority of the wasted time is spent looking at social media, but that’s actually not the case. Overall, 30% of employees say they are mostly looking at personal email, while 28% are checking social media, 9% are checking sports sites and 5% are shopping online. But it seems some companies are trying to find ways to get their employees to focus more on their actual job. The survey finds that 58% of employees say they use their personal devices at work because their employer blocks certain sites. About 39% of employees say their companies block social media sites, while 30% block entertainment sites, and 27% block online shopping sites.