Nearly 80 percent of work hours spent online are wasted on "cyberloafing"
Odds are, you’re reading this article when you’re supposed to be working.
A new study from Kansas State University suggests that we spend even more time than previously thought aimlessly browsing the Internet during our office hours.
“Cyberloafing” — wasting time at work online — takes up as much as 80 percent of the time people spend online at work, according to the data collected by Joseph Ugrin, an assistant professor at Kansas State, and John Pearson, an associate professor at Southern Illinois University. The results were published in the latest issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior.
Their results also suggest that traditional work guidelines surrounding Internet use are not enough to police worker behavior, and that if companies really want to scale back the amount of time their employees spend surfing the Web, they must “consistently enforce” sanctions to uphold their cyberloafing policies.
"We found that for young people, it was hard to get them to think that social networking was unacceptable behavior," Ugrin said. "Just having a policy in place did not change their attitudes or behavior at all. Even when they knew they were being monitored, they still did not care."
Then again, not necessarily all "cyberloafing" can be measured as a net loss for businesses. A 2011 study found that in certain fields, when people spend time casually browsing the Web at work, they actually end up being more productive and creative.
The risks for employers go beyond lost productivity. Ugrin and Pearson point out that cyberloafing also poses legal risks for companies, if their employees are engaging in activities like viewing pornography or taking part in illegal transactions.
Ugrin and Pearson found that time-wasting was employed in nearly equal measure across different age groups but that generational differences were expressed in the various ways in which people specifically waste their time.
"Older people are doing things like managing their finances, while young people found it much more acceptable to spend time on social networking sites like Facebook," Ugrin said.
And while the study’s authors endorse tougher sanctions to enforce productivity and worker conduct, they say employers must maintain a healthy balance in order to not negatively affect office morale.
"People will feel like Big Brother is watching them, so companies need to be careful when taking those types of action," Ugrin said.
你在阅读这篇文章的时候，很可能正是你应该在工作的时候。
据堪萨斯州立大学的一项新调查显示，我们在办公时间内花在漫无目的浏览网页上的时间比我们预想的还要多。
根据堪萨斯州立大学副教授约瑟夫•乌格林和南伊利诺伊大学副教授约翰•皮尔逊所收集的数据，“网上闲逛”——上网工作时浪费时间——占据了人们网上办公高达80%的时间。研究结果将刊登在《计算机在人类行为中的应用》杂志最新一期上。
研究结果还表明，用规范互联网使用的传统工作守则来管辖员工的行为已经远远不够了，如果公司真想减少员工上网浏览网页的时间，就必须“始终如一地执行”相关处罚措施，以保证网上闲逛政策的实施。
乌格林说道：“我们发现很难让年轻人觉得（上班时间）上社交网络是不良行为。仅是制定出相关政策根本不能改变他们的态度或行为。即使他们知道自己的行为被监控，他们也会若无其事。”
话说回来，并不是所有的“网上闲逛”都是企业的净损失。2011年的一项研究发现，在某些领域，当人们在上班时间随意地浏览网页时，他们的工作更富成效和创造力。
员工“网上闲逛”的风险远不止使生产率下降。乌格林和皮尔逊指出，如果员工浏览色情网站或参与非法交易等行为，网上闲逛还会给企业带来法律风险。
乌格林和皮尔逊发现，不同的年龄组在网上浪费的时间几乎一样多，但人们以不同的方式浪费时间，从中体现了代际差异。
乌格林说：“年长一些的人会做管理自己财务的一类事，而年轻人则认为在脸谱网这样的社交网站花费时间很理所当然。”
尽管研究的作者支持采取更严厉的惩罚措施来保证生产效率和员工的行为表现，但他们表示雇主必须让办公环境保持健康的平衡，不对办公室士气造成负面影响。
乌格林说：“公司在采取这种处罚措施时一定要谨慎，否则人们会总感觉有‘老大哥’在盯着他们。”
odds are...: 很可能……，大约……
scale back: 相应缩减；按比例缩减
sanction: 制裁，处罚
endorse: 认可；赞同
office morale: 办公室士气