During our group presentation, I showed a video from CBS News about internet misuse in the workplace, or better known as cyberslacking. Google turned its homepage into a Pac-Man arcade to honor the 30th anniversary of the video game.
Unfortunately, because the game was available during the workday, 5 million work hours were lost resulting in $120,000,000 of lost productivity.
Over the Thanksgiving break, I got to see family and talked about this topic. Some family members who are good workers at their companies and are very productive in my opinion, even admitted to playing Pac-Man when they saw this on the internet.
To my suprise, I learned that Internet Misuse in the Workplace does not just affect those that are lazy and unproductive. Sometimes, there can be content on the internet that will affect the best and most productive workers that I would consider anything but lazy.
That is one crazy stat about Pac Man. I find the numbers staggering given the fact that it was only one day. I have some opinions on internet misuse in the workplace. I understand that being on the internet during work hours is prohibited. But what is the ultimate problem with that? It’s not what you are looking at on the internet, whether its porn or simply looking up a nonwork-related phone number on yellowpages.com, it’s the fact that you aren’t working. So to me the issue isn’t internet misuse it’s wasted time. But when you go to the bathroom or take 5 extra minutes at lunch, isn’t that wasted time? To me what’s the difference in you being 5 minutes late from coming back on your lunch break to me being on time from my lunch break but taking 5 minutes to look for Panthers tickets on eBay. That to me is all the same. During you guys presentation, I was blown away by the numbers you guys gave as to how many people watched porn while at work. How do they pull that off? The last thing I want to comment on is the handling of paid time off. For instance: If I use a sick day and call into my salary job. They are still paying me even though I’m sitting at the bar on my computer on the internet. To me there is no difference in being on the internet while you’re at work or being on the internet while you are at home on a paid day off. Either way you are getting paid and on the internet not working. And doesn’t everyone, including the boss, get on the internet at some point during the day?
ReplyDeleteWritten by: Aaron Wright
Its really amazing to see how far video games have come in years and it's hard to imagine that there are adults who have been playing video games for over 30 years! I can vouch that my father abhors video games and views them as a waste of time, I wonder if he was one of the many workers that were distracted by Pac-Man on google...
ReplyDeletePosted by Jon Roman
I think this statistic attests not only to the amount of time people distract themselves during work, but also how many people use Google during the day.
ReplyDeleteIts incredible how one small act from a single company could cause so much damage. I wonder how much time Google put into contemplating their decision with the Pac Man layout and if they knew the repercussions to come.
I feel it wasn't Google that had to make the decision rather to present the Pac Man layout, it was the adults that didn't care about their jobs, company, or families to do something productive than play one of the most the best video games known to man! Kudos Google...what's next? Mario Bros.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to happen at every workplace. I know for a fact it happens at my job. Some of my coworkers will actually be searching for other jobs while at work. I do not think employers will ever find a way to completely get rid of internet misuse in the workplace since that would require completely getting rid of the internet. Because even with filters people will always find a way to use the internet.
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit but I definitely think I had something to do with that 5 million work hours lost. I agree that even the best of workers will stray. In my opinion it is only human nature for people to have some down time. Expecting someone to wait 5 hours until their 15min. break is a little unrealistic. I agree with Nelson that its will be impossible to stop everyone especially with the fact that people are so computer savvy these days. Maybe businesses should start to expect a certain amount of employee slack as long as it does not affect the overall productivity and goal.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much for video games, and I consider myself to be a pretty hard worker, but it can be extremely difficult to stay on task with all of the distractions that the internet provides.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, a week or two ago I spent five hours in the library doing accounting homework that shouldn't have taken longer than three hours had I been working diligently. The problem was that after finishing a problem I would treat myself to a "small" break. A 5 minute break turned into 30 minutes spent reading news, forums, etc., and a waste of an afternoon.
There are too many opportunities to stray when working on computers, so one must maintain a sense of self-discipline or they will end up wasting time, or worse.