Employees spend a day a week on social networks while at work!
Another day, another survey. This time one from VoucherCodesPro.co.uk (again) which shows that employees spend more time on social networks at work than home.
Not great news for bosses up and down the land perhaps – unless the staff work in social media of course – but not really any great surprise.
According to the survey of 1000 adults, the average Briton in full time employment admitted to spending up to 1.5 hours per day on social network sites whilst they were supposed to be working. That equates to 7.5 hours per week, which in most cases is an entire working day. The most common times for switching on to social networks at work is between 10am and 11am and 3pm and 4pm.
When asked about their social networking usage in their free time, the average respondent claims to spend 45 minutes per day on social networks; or 5.25 hours in a week. That means that most adults in full time employment spend more time on social networks when they should be working that they do at home or in their free time.
Of all the respondents that did admit to spending more time on social networks when they should have in fact been working, 46% blamed ‘ease of discreet access’ through phones and on their computers as the main reason.
More than 1,000 people answered questions about how they used the internet. All those taking part were adults from the UK and were in full time employment. When asked to select their working patter, the majority of those asked (69%)said they worked Monday – Friday from around 9am to 5pm.
Speaking about the results, George Charles, marketing director at VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, said:
“Particularly for those with office-based jobs, it’s not difficult to see why they might get tempted to access their social network profiles when they should be working. Especially with the introduction of things like Tweet Deck and Facebook’s push notifications, it’s actually harder than ever to switch off.
“What employees do need to be careful of is their boss finding out they aren’t working when they thought they were. Perhaps it’s best to leave social networking for lunch breaks and after work!
