Wasting Time? Or Taking a Break?

website@infoadvisors.com — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:35:00 GMT

Do you count the time reading this blog as a break? Wasting time? Professional Development? If you boss came up to you right now as you are reading this, would you be tempted to minimize the window or to share it with her?

I know situations vary, but as "hired labour", I tend not to do a lot of professional development while at client sites, at least not during regular office hours, as many believe that consultants should be 100% nose-to-the-grindstone busy during all hours on site. I agree, somewhat. I do usually take some time first thing in the morning to catch up on overnight e-mails (off shoring has a huge impact on my e-mail schedule) and evenings to take care of less direct client work, if allowed and supported by my clients. I'm usually working on projects that require travel away from home, so taking advantage of a more secure Internet connection is good, but the usual reason is that I'd much rather work at a real desk with a real desk chair than spend hours on a tiny hotel "desk" trying to get work done.

I came across this story by Information Week on work habits, focusing especially on work habits of younger versus older workers:

Hardly Working? Survey Exposes The Mind Of A Time Waster

Are you working hard or hardly working? A new report out Wednesday may shed some light on why employees waste 20% of their workdays and why that may not be such a bad thing.

Salary.com's 2007 Wasting Time Survey showed the average employee spends 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5-hour workday on activities unrelated to the job. Almost 35% of respondents said they spend time on the Internet for personal reasons, 20.3 said they socialize with co-workers, and 17% conduct personal business. Respondents also said they make personal calls and take long breaks to run errands. The third annual review was conducted with 2,000 employees across all job levels through America Online and Salary.com users in June and July.

The average worker wastes less time this year than last, but companies still pay billions for nothing in return.

It's a bit of a head scratch-er for me...I remember it was only 10 or 12 years ago when IT professionals actually went on breaks - coffee breaks, often for 30-40 minutes at a time. We got up, went to a cafeteria or outside park bench, and sat and talked about anything but work. Sometimes work topics we raised and either we extended the break, or someone was smart enough to get the conversation deferred until we were back in side. To make matters even more complex, we did this again at lunch and in the afternoon. Good consultants didn't bill for this time, but employees expected this to be treated as part of their work day. They didn't punch in, but this break time was considered part of their work environment. It wasn't sneaky and it wasn't hidden. Typically the breaks were 20-30 minutes and lunch was 30-60 minutes, depending on the organizations policies.

I have not worked in an IT shop for a long time that practiced such formal break times. Most breaks these days are less formal, in smaller groups, and just managed by a supervisor. Some supervisors frown on any break time for any reason (you've worked for those guys, I'm sure), while others take breaks with their staff to discourage burn out and increase creativity.

What intrigued me most was this point about generational differences:

More than 63% of respondents admitted to wasting time at work, and younger workers waste more time than older ones. Employees between the ages of 20 and 29 waste about 2.1 hours a day. The average for employees ages 30 to 39 drops to 1.9 hours, while people between the ages of 40 and 49 waste just 1.4 hours daily.

Nearly 18% of employees say they waste time because they "don't have enough work to do." Almost 14% said their hours are too long. About 12% say they're underpaid and 11.1% say their work is not challenging and that is why they waste work time.

I wonder if the wasted time is in addition to any sort of formal breaks, or hidden time spent e-mailing jokes and reading up on some starlet's newest rehab revolving door? I wonder if it is checking out InfoAdvisors.com or posting to our discussion groups? I also wonder if the time wasting activity differs based on generation. Is a Baby Boomer's paying of a gas bill counted as 5 minutes of wasted time, or would a Boomer likely treat that just part of the balance of work and life? Is the 5 minutes a Gen Mer spends forwarding an e-mail of a You Tube video link to a friend counted towards waste or is that part of her work life balance?

If a Gen Yer reads an article on the costs and benefits of using a surrogate key, does he treat it as wasted time, training, or work? How about a Boomer?

Certainly some managers feel that anything not directly applicable to the day's task at hand is a waste of time, but do you?

Karen Lopez: Musings on Data, Process, and Architecture

Wasting Time? Or Taking a Break?