Computers – the anti-productivity tools

I was speaking recently to a person whose only computer access is at work. She was actually apologizing to me for not replying to a personal request sooner, as she is limited to three hours a day of personal use of her computer! I was stunned. The organization has 30 employees. If each employee spends three hours a day using his or her computer for personal matters, 22,500 hours per year are being wasted – that’s equivalent to 11 full-time employees! So this organization of 30 employees could actually get by with just 19, saving the business over $500 thousand per year!

While this organization has an unusually policy, I suppose it is just accepting the reality that most employees in most businesses spend a great deal of time e-mailing, social networking, and Internet surfing on company time. Some businesses have personal-use policies and some monitor computer usage. Yet the temptation to take “just a minute” to check the movie schedule, the sales at Kohls, or send out tweets is so great and these activities are so addicting that policies become difficult to enforce.

How is it that the very tool that improves productivity in so many ways is the very same tool that is anti-productivity?

Will Limkemann
www.siqualtd.com