Surfing the Web at work is an (increasingly) common habit that could be even more addictive than coffee, according to new research into Internet usage in the office.
According to the survey, 93 percent of all (employees) in the U.S. spend at least some of their time at work accessing the Web, up from 86 percent a year ago, and many of them are logging on for personal reasons.
Among those, 52 percent said they would (rather) give up their morning caffeine hit than lose their Internet connection.
The average time spent accessing the Internet at work was 12.6 hours (per) week. But while employees estimated that 3.4 hours of that time was (due to) non-work related surfing, IT managers put that figure at closer to six hours.
"As the line between professional and personal usage of the Internet becomes more of a gray area, many employees have (started) to rely on it to complete their job duties as well as perform personal tasks during the work day," said Geoff Haggart of Internet (firm) Websense, which conducted the survey.
The most popular Web sites accessed (were) news sites [81 percent], personal email [61 percent], online banking [58 percent], travel [56 percent] and shopping [52 percent].
More men than women -- 62 percent (compared) with 54 percent -- admitted visiting non-work related Web sites at the office.
Men were 2.3 times more likely to visit sports sites and more than three times as likely to visit investment and (stock) purchasing sites. Almost a quarter of men also admitted visiting a porn site at work, although only 17 percent said they had (done) so deliberately.
As well as surfing the Internet, 18 percent of workers said they (listened) to or watched streaming media and 16 percent said they used instant messaging, although two-thirds of companies said IM usage wasn't sanctioned.
But while Internet use may be on the rise, it appears that companies have got wise to employees using their office hours to play computer games.
Just six percent of workers (owned) up to playing games, down from 14 percent a year ago.
Questions)
1. How does the internet change your life?
2. How to balance between your work and leisurely net-surfing at office?
