Leisure Surfing Makes Workers More Productive

April 6, 2009: A new study from the University of Melbourne has found that workers who Twitter, visit Facebook or otherwise surf the web during office hours are more, not less productive than those who don’t.

Dr Brent Coker, from the Department of Management and Marketing, says that workers who engage in ‘Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing’ (WILB) are more productive than those who don’t.

“People who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about 9 percent than those who don’t,” he says.

“Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos on YouTube, using social networking sites like Facebook or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity, however that’s not always the case.”

The study of 300 workers found that 70 percent of those who use the Internet at work engage in WILB such as searching for information about products or reading online news sites. Playing online games was the fifth most popular, while watching YouTube movies was seventh.

While other studies have calculated employee time spent of social networks such as Facebook and used this figure to calculate the cost to an organisation, Dr Coker claims that time spent web surfing does not necessarily equal lost productivity dollars.

“People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Think back to when you were in class listening to a lecture – after about 20 minutes your concentration probably went right down, yet after a break your concentration was restored.

“It’s the same in the work place. Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days work, and as a result, increased productivity.”

Dr Coker says that it is important such browsing is done in moderation, as internet addiction can have the reverse effect. “Approximately 14 percent of internet users in Australia show signs of Internet Addiction – they don’t take breaks at appropriate times, they spend more than a ‘normal’ amount of time online, and can get irritable if they are interrupted while surfing.”

“WILB is not as helpful for this group of people - those who behave with internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without.”

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