Three hours a week spent on personal tasks, survey shows

So, boss, do you really want to know where your staffers’ days go?

Workers polled in a recent survey said they spend an average of 36 minutes daily n the equivalent of three hours per week n attending to personal tasks while at the office.

That’s better than executives give employees credit for. When asked how many minutes of the day their staff spent on non-work activities, bosses said the figure was, on average, 43 minutes daily.

The surveys were the handiwork of OfficeTeam, a staffing service specializing in placing administrative specialists. According to company spokeswoman Jamie Carpen, an independent research firm conducted the surveys, and 559 full- or part-time workers ages 18 or older, and 150 senior executives in the country’s 1,000 largest companies were interviewed.

Specifically, workers were asked, “How much time each day do you think you spend attending to personal tasks during work hours?”

Executives were asked essentially the same question: “How much time do you think the average employee spends attending to personal tasks during work hours?

“There are only so many hours in the day to meet job requirements and personal obligations, and employers are aware that not all of the day is spent on business,” said Diane Domeyer, executive director of OfficeTeam. “In fact, some businesses have responded by providing staff with on-site daycare or concierge-type services, such as dry cleaning and personal shopping.”

But even Domeyer admits that misuse of company time can lead to significant losses in productivity.

“The best employers take steps to accommodate the need by staff for work-life balance,” she said. “Unfortunately, employees who abuse these benefits undermine the success of the programs.”

Surprising differences emerged when the responses of men and women were separated.

Women admitted to spending 29 minutes daily on personal tasks during work hours, while men said 44 minutes of their day are spent on non-work activities.

Younger employees, too, admitted in the survey to conducting personal business during work hours. Forty-four minutes daily, in fact. Compare that number to workers between the ages of 35 and 64 who said they spent 32 minutes on non-work tasks, and employees age 65 or older about 17 minutes, according to the survey.