In the survey conducted in the halcyon days of 2007, boredom was the reason most workers gave for their time-wasting efforts. In 2008, the No. 1 reason is job dissatisfaction at 46 percent. A full 24 percent blame their time-wasting tendencies on a lack of deadlines and incentives. The workplace experts at salary.com suggest "employees who don't feel invested in the work they do are less motivated and more likely to waste time."
This is surprising, and I'm sure it will change in the 2009 survey -- assuming the website will be able to find 2,500 people who are employed. As I'm sure you've noticed, our managers are going out of their way to involve us, and we really should thank them for the mass firings, plant closings and rabid off-shoring efforts. Sure, you feel paranoid, angry and helpless. But, my heavens, you're involved!
Demonstrating the totally admirable refusal to accept responsibility that we've come to expect from our managers and politicians, many workers blamed their time wasting on distractions from other employees. "Fixing someone else's work" was the top-rated excuse at 54 percent, nosing out the activity that the naive suggest is the greatest time-waster of them all -- office politics at 47 percent.
It is clear that today's savvy workers realize that time spent campaigning in office politics is not a workplace waste, but a job-survival essential. If you think the time you spend buttering up your boss is not a critical part of your job description, don't plan on having that description, or that job, for long.
Trust me, the way things are going, you need to spend every possible hour at work boss-buttering, job-hunting, and resume writing. Look at it that way, bub, and the biggest time waster at your work could be your work.
