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Social Networking Steals $2.25 Billion From UK

A recent survey came of the UK and has estimated that the use of social networking sites by office workers during office hours is costing over $2,250,000,000 a year in England alone.  1,460 office workers who work for Morse, an IT services and technology company, were surveyed and found out that over half  used social networking sites for personal use during the working day.  Those that admitted to using those sites during the work day, also confessed that they spent an average of 40-50 minutes a week surfing the web during work time. 

If you break it down and said that one worker took 9-10 minutes everyday to check social networking sites while on the clock, by the end of the year, they would accumulated more or less than about a free week of paid vacation. 

“When someone is asked for their own use they say around 40 minutes a week,” said Philip Wicks, consultant at Morse, “but when asked about their colleagues they say they say up to an hour a day. We have used the lower of those figures rather than the high point.” 

Wicks went on to say, “When it comes to an office environment the use of these sites is clearly becoming a productivity black hole.”

Many however, say this survey does not surprise them or is it anything new.  Many argue that before social networking sites, co-workers used to waste time in the break room longer than they should have, drinking coffee and socializing with each other.  With the birth of social networking, chat time around the water cooler has decreased dramatically. 

Many businesses in both the US and the UK have banned a number of social networking sites in the work place, which seems to be becoming a more common thing.  Some businesses, on the otherhand, are refusing to ban these sites, saying they’d rather have workers waste 10 minutes of thier work day and be happier than ban the site and feel restricted.