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For many American workers
today, time's a wastin' – literally.
According to a new
survey by
America Online and Salary.com, the average worker
admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per 8-hour workday, not
including lunch and scheduled break-time. As a matter of practice,
companies assume a certain amount of wasted time when determining
employee pay. However, the America Online / Salary.com survey
indicates that employees are wasting about twice as much time as
their employers expect.
Salary.com calculated that
employers spend $759 billion per year on salaries for which real
work was expected, but not actually performed.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
The biggest distraction for
respondents?
Personal Internet use. 44.7%
of the more than 10,000 people polled cited web surfing as their #1
distraction at work.
Socializing with co-workers
came in second at 23.4%.
Conducting personal
business, running errands, and making personal phone calls were the
other popular time-wasting activities in the workplace.
Employees say they're not
always to blame for this wasted time, however. 33.2% of respondents
cited lack of work as their biggest reason for wasting time. 23.4%
said they wasted time at work because they feel as if they are under
paid.
Another look :
Let's say you're paying your
employee $14.50 an hour. 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year equals
$30,160 annually. Current statistics show that taxes, benefits and
other associated employee expenses can range from 20 - 40% of the
employee's salary.
At 30% of this employee's
salary, you are now paying an additional $9,048 a year, for a total
of $39,208 annually. Don't forget that an employee working an 8-hour
day is usually entitled to two 15-minute paid breaks a day. Those
paid breaks turn out to be roughly 130 hours of paid time when your
work is not being done. And what about those personal phone calls,
Internet time, and bathroom breaks you are paying for? At 15 minutes
a day, there's another 65 hours a year of paid time that isn't being
used for work.
What other time are you
paying an employee for that isn't working time?
One week of paid vacation is
another 40 hours, and 10 sick days is another 80 hours a year...That
leaves 1,765 working hours a year. At $39,208 a year, you are paying
~$22.21 an hour to have your work done. You've also paid the
employee during his or her training, and you've got to provide
office space, equipment and supplies.
It really starts to add up!
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