The Productivity Costs Of Social Networks

30th October 2009

Over the years there have been several articles based on surveys conducted that have suggested that employees spend a lot of their working hours on personal or non-productive work. Some consider Twitter to be such a non-productive pursuit.

IT service company, Morse, recently conducted a study to find out the amount of time employees spend on various social networks when they should have been working instead.

The survey was conducted across 1,460 office workers. The results of the survey are quite appalling at first glance to say the least. They have come to the conclusion that employees spend 40 minutes every week on social networks, when they should have been concentrating on more official matters. The financial cost to their employers is estimated to be about $2.25 billion a year.

Another study claims that Facebook alone costs ₤130m a day in the U.K. and 233 million hours are lost every month due to this, while a study in the U.S. found that just web surfing costs U.S. $63 billion per year.

While these figures are indeed serious, and employers would be justified in trying to look for ways to cut their losses, it is not possible to plug the holes completely.

Employers would do well to remember that employees are bound to take some breaks from time to time. In fact, 40 minutes a week is less than 10 minutes a day for a typical 5-day working week. It is also possible that a short break may refresh an employee and inspire him or her to work better and be even more productive than usual, which is beneficial to the employer.

Thus it may seem advisable to overlook such lapses as long as they remain within reasonable limits.

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Tags: facebook, social media, twitter

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One Response to “The Productivity Costs Of Social Networks”

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Discussion on social networks & blogs

1. MagicAimee : 2 November 2009 at 3:19 pm

   Hello there humans!
   Do humans need a break from their work?
   Productivity Costs Of Social Networks http://bit.ly/17IbGR
   suggest they do!

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