Survey: Employee Idleness Widespread

According to one survey, on average, workers spend two hours and 20 minutes every day during working hours on “tasks other than their job duties.”

According to a survey conducted on 522 workers by an employment site, Power Job, on February 13, people generally spend two hours and 20 minutes on average doing things other than their job requirements such as surfing the net or having idle conversations.

Those who answered that they waste two hours of their working day doing non-work task was the largest at 34.3 percent. This was followed by those who waste one hour at 28.0 percent, three hours at 21.8 percent, and four hours at 8.2 percent. Those who answered that they waste more than five hours of their working day astoundingly reached 7.8 percent.

It has been found that 45 percent of these wasted hours are spent on “internet surfing and checking e-mails,” 14.6 percent are spent on “small talk with colleagues,” and 15.5 percent on “unnecessary tasks such as miscellaneous duties or sundry errands.”

Also, 62.3 percent of those surveyed answered that they have experienced piling up too much work and doing it all at once or running out of time to do it because of idly wasting time.

However, these workers economize even the little time they have during the hours going to and leaving work.

Those surveyed answered that when they commute from work to home or vice versa, 36.4 percent read a book or study, and 17.6 percent read newspapers. Also after work, 39.8 percent of their free time is spent on “relaxing and recharging,” and 21.5 percent of their time is spent on “developing and enlightening themselves.”

Jae-Dong Yu jarrett@donga.com