Yesterday morning someone emailed me a chart showing that Virginia workers ranked 7th among states in the amount of time wasted. Today, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the story on the front page. So much for my nose for news.
According to a survey by AOL and Salary.com, Virginians waste an average of 2.7 hours per day, most of it surfing the internet or socializing.
Of course, there’s less here than meets the eye. In many jobs, the main responsibility is just to be there. Surfing the net while waiting for the next call to come in to a help desk isn’t necessarily wasting time–it’s passing time. Many workers spread their time wasting over 10 or more hours at the office. Still, the survey probably can lead us to conclude that many jobs are not well-designed and that management oversight could be improved. I know that is the case in the public sector, the second biggest time-wasting sector after insurance.
Usually Virginia is criticized for a “race to the bottom” with Mississippi. Not in this survey. Our low budget colleagues down there were estimated to be 17th–not enough responses were received. They were too busy.