Why “Goofing Off” At Work Boosts Productivity

 

Why "Goofing Off" At Work Boosts Productivity

June 6th, 2009

– Mike Elgan, Computerworld

Office "slackers" who sneak in a little Facebook and Twitter time do more work than the all-business, all-the-time folks.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne confirmed this little truism in a new study. Their research found that, on average, employees who use the Internet during work hours for personal reasons are 9% more productive than those who don't.

In my experience as a boss, employee and as a writer who thinks a lot about how technology affects attention and productivity, I think the Aussie researchers are looking at just one tiny piece of the attention-management puzzle.

I believe that not only are office slackers more productive than work-only employees, but that people who work from home are more productive than the office crowd — and for many of the same reasons, which I'll get to in a minute.

The researchers surmised that employees who do what they call "workplace Internet leisure browsing" (and what I call "Internet slacking") concentrate better after taking a mental break from work. But I'm not sure this explanation fully covers it.

Here are eight additional reasons why I think Internet slacking boosts productivity.

1. The subconscious mind keeps working.

Unlike physical labor, which stops when the worker stops, the mind keeps working on mental tasks when you're not thinking about them. This powerful process of problem solving happens when you're surfing the Web for fun, watching TV and especially while you're sleeping (hence the phrase, "Why don't you sleep on it?").

Internet slacking helps this process by getting the conscious mind, which is prone to getting stuck or blocked, out of the way.

2. It gets personal things off your mind.

If you're worried about your kids, or missing your spouse, or preoccupied with some pressing personal matter, you're not going to hit all mental cylinders in your work. Social networking, Twitter and personal e-mail let you quickly get in touch with friends and family, find out what's going on, then get back to work with full attention.

3. It builds work relationships.

Companies spend a fortune on lame team-building exercises and outings, which build work bonds only because everybody is suffering from the same forced interactions.

Social networking, on the other hand, can allow employees to build bonds at no cost to employers. Yes, people interact with family and friends who are not part of the company, but usually people interact with co-workers, too, and this can help build teamwork.

4. It converts real-time interactions into asynchronous ones.

A social interaction controlled by others (also known as an interruption) can devastate attention. I've found that a five-minute office "pop-in" by a co-worker can set me back the equivalent of an hour. This kind of concentration-shattering interaction is allowed — and even encouraged — in the workplace, while social networking interactions are frowned upon or even blocked. Why? Social networking interactions on Facebook and Twitter are, by definition, controlled by the user. They happen between, rather than in the middle of, bursts of focused concentration. They restore productive concentration without interfering with it.

5. It makes work more enjoyable.

People will hate their jobs if they have a strong desire to check in with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube during the day, but are blocked from doing so. If they're allowed to wander online, on the other hand, they'll be happier employees. And happy employees are productive employees.

6. It replaces bad slacking with good slacking.

If you think nobody ever wasted time at work before the Internet came along, well, you may also be interested in a bridge I'm selling on eBay.

People waste enormous amounts of time at work because of messy desks, inefficient processing of tasks, hallway chit-chat, long phone conversations and — the mother of all time wasters — meetings! All these activities look and even feel like work because they exhaust the mind and consume the hours.

Because people still have to meet their work objectives, deadlines and metrics for success, however, Internet slacking is likely to displace not productive work, but other (and lesser) forms of workplace slacking.

7. The Internet is educational.

Scanning blogs, RSS feeds and Twitter will inevitably introduce employees to wonderful time-management techniques, and stimulate the mind in other ways. (For example, this article you're reading now could be professionally valuable to you in some way. But aren't you supposed to be "working" instead?)

8. The mind will not be contained.

You can force an employee's body into a cubicle or office, but you can't force her mind to follow.

The human mind is a curiosity engine. Give it nothing to do but work, no way to satisfy curiosity or desire for social interaction, and it will rebel. More specifically, it will retreat into the daydreaming echo chamber. It will wander. It will seek ways to sabotage other employees (because that, at least, is interesting). It will employ its natural ingenuity to find ways to avoid work.

Turn the mind loose on the Internet, and it will likely go get whatever it needs when it needs it, then return back to focus on productive work stimulated, inspired and educated.

And finally, we come to telecommuters, extreme telecommuters and digital nomads, and why they're the most productive employees of all. I think the main reason is simply that these workers are unsupervised, and can freely surf the Internet for any reason at any time. (Plus, they don't have to sit through so many meetings or waste time commuting.)

As any telecommuter or mobile worker will tell you, they tend to establish a rhythm or process for managing work tasks with personal Web surfing that maximizes the quality of both.

It's time for managers to shed old and false assumptions about the relationship between Internet slacking and productivity, and treat all workers like telecommuters.

Slacking works!

Mike Elgan writes about technology and global tech culture. He blogs about the technology needs, desires and successes of mobile warriors in his Computerworld blog, The World Is My Office. Contact Mike at mike.elgan@elgan.com, follow him on Twitter or his blog, The Raw Feed.

 

 

Social Networking at Work: Fear Not Facebook, MySpace?

 

By David Kelleher

 

February 17, 2009 (CIO) Millions of people have a personal online profile; they share photos, news and gossip with friends, spend hours updating their details and adding new friends. Welcome to social networking and the world of Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

What makes social networking on the Internet so popular is the power it gives individuals to create, maintain and expand any number of networks to include family, close friends and people who share a similar interest, profession or hobby.

The growing popularity of Facebook, for example, has encouraged corporate marketing teams to explore the opportunities to be had by having a corporate profile; using their employees contacts for sales and marketing, effectively creating a snowball effect as the corporate message is passed from one network to another. These sites give them a direct route to targeted groups of individuals with similar interests and, most importantly, it's free.

There is no doubt that Facebook and other social networking sites have potential for commercial use but to what extent should organizations or businesses allow social networking at work? What are the concerns? Should employees have access to Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites when they are supposed to be working?

The concerns
Social networking sites are the root of four problems.

Loss of productivity: According to a study by information security consultancy Global Secure Systems and the organizers of the Infosecurity Europe trade show, the use of such sites is costing U.K. business an estimated $12.5 billion per year in terms of reduced output. Another study showed that employees spend at least 30 minutes a day visiting these sites with some employees spending up to three hours of their working day taking care of their online profile.

Impact on network resources as bandwidth is consumed: In smaller organizations, unnecessary browsing, uploading to and downloading of files from social networking sites can eat up bandwidth thus affecting network resources.

Social engineering and phishing: This can result in data or identity theft. Most people would not divulge certain details to strangers but it is amazing what data can be gleaned from social networking sites--personal e-mail addresses and even social security numbers!

Sites are attractive to hackers and spammers: Social networking sites are attracting hackers armed with malware of all kinds: spyware, viruses and online scams. Hundreds of applications being developed for these sites are used as launch pads of malware such as Trojans.

What can businesses do?
There are three options.

1. Ban access to social networking sites (in an extreme case--block all Internet connectivity).

2. Allow employees unrestricted access, confident that they will only use it during their lunch break and they will not download material on to the network.

3. Monitor and limit staff access to these types of sites, including general Internet browsing and downloading.

Banning internet access outright is obviously counterproductive while allowing uncontrolled Web browsing is tantamount to leaving the front door to one's house open with the key in the lock.

The middle ground monitors all Web activity and controls it on a per user basis when social networking sites can be accessed at the office. Administrators can use Web monitoring software to block access during most of the day except during the staff lunch break or before and after normal office hours. The same software can be used to ensure that any files downloaded or links accessed online are checked in real time for exploits, malware and viruses.

If a company wants to make use of a social networking profile for marketing purposes, access should be given to those who will be updating the profile and all content should be monitored to ensure it is appropriate. Running third party applications should be discouraged.

Education also is important. If an organization wants its employees to be given restricted access to their social networking profile, it must be made clear to them that they need to be vigilant, avoid clicking on links that are suspicious, refrain from downloading files or applications that may be infected, and limit what details they add to their profile--details that could be used to steal identities and commit fraud.

Hackers are attracted to social networking sites because they see the potential to commit fraud and launch spam and malware attacks. Organizations, on the other hand, need to be made aware of the security risks involved and take the steps necessary to safeguard their systems and data yet allow the company to make the most of what the Internet and social networking have to offer.

David Kelleher is communications and research analyst at GFI.