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Wisconsin workers wasting work time

A recent survey by Salary shows employee productivity may not be all that employers expect. According to the survey, the average worker in the U.S. admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per eight-hour workday. This figure does not include lunch breaks or other scheduled break-time.

In Wisconsin, for every eight hours work an employer pays for, the employee is likely to deliver less than six. Respondents admit to wasting 2.8 hours on activities such as: Surfing the Internet for personal use, socializing with co-workers, and conducting personal business. Take out employer sanctioned time off such as lunch breaks, vacation time and sick leave and the productivity picture looks even worse.

According to the survey, the number one time-wasting excuse is "Don`t have enough work to do", reason enough for many to consider outsourcing over hiring. Since a whopping 33.2 percent of respondents cited this as their biggest reason for wasting time, small business owners need to seriously consider whether they can keep a new hire gainfully employed before committing to that kind of expenditure. And just for the record, Wisconsin is not the biggest time-wasting state. It ranks number four behind Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky.