The top 10 ways employees waste time
Texting and checking social media sites aren’t on any retailer’s job description for store level hourly positions, but those and other Internet-enabled activities are sapping the productivity of workers, according to a CareerBuilder study.
The study of 2,175 hiring and human resources managers didn’t look just at the retail industry, but who hasn’t been in a store and seen a smartphone obsessed employed distracted by their device to the detriment of customer service.
Thanks to smartphones, chatty co-workers and never-ending social media feeds that provide hours of distraction, the obstacles that get in the way of actual work are seemingly endless, according to CareerBuilder.
When asked to name the biggest productivity killers in the workplace, employers cited the following:
1. Cell phones/texting: 52%
2. The Internet: 44%
3. Gossip: 37%
4. Social media: 36%
5. Email: 31%
6. Co-workers dropping by: 27%
7. Meetings: 26%
8. Smoke breaks/snack breaks: 27%
9. Noisy co-workers: 17%
10. Sitting in a cubicle: 10%
Employers surveyed by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuildern were also asked to reveal the most unusual or most memorable things they have found an employee doing when they should have been working.
Some of the more noteworthy, if rather tame, answers included:
• Taking a sponge bath in the bathroom sink.
• Trying to hypnotize other employees to stop their smoking habits.
• Visiting a tanning bed in lieu of making deliveries.
• Looking for a mail order bride.
• Playing a video game on their cell phone while sitting in a bathroom stall.
• Drinking vodka while watching Netflix.
• Sabotaging another employee’s car tires.
• Sleeping on the CEO’s couch.
• Writing negative posts about the company on social media.
• Sending inappropriate pictures to other employees.
• Searching Google images for "cute kittens."
• Making a model plane.
• Flying drones around the office.
• Printing pictures of animals, naming them after employees and hanging them in the work area.