I was asked to contribute to The Right Hook programme on Newstalk last week with my reaction to the publication of a study by Global Secure Systems. It would seem that timewasting on Facebook is costing employers big money.At my colleague Alan’s suggestion, I just Googled the terms “is costing employers” to see what popped up. 2,300 hits [2,670 for "is costing business" and 5,640 for "is costing companies"]. Here are the top 10:
- Obesity is Costing Employers Millions
- New Book Claims Employee Turnover and Bad Management Practices is Costing Employers Millions Every Year
- Never Mind the Cost of Facebook, What About Twitter?
- Improper use of sick notes is costing employers money
- Untreated and under-treated mental health illness in the workplace is costing employers millions of dollars
- New independent estimates of how much the Government’s new Working Tax Credit is costing employers to implement
- Obesity is costing employers $13 billion each year in higher health insurance costs (different study)
- Workers’ Compensation Fraud is Costing Californians Billion$ of Dollar$ every year and is a Major Assault on our Economy.
- Obesity is Costing Employers Millions (same as number 1)
- Depression is costing employers in the USA $24 Billion dollars annually in lost productive work time.
Hmmm. And this list doesn’t even begin to cover workplace conflict, bullying, spam, absenteeism, presenteeism, stress, poor use of PCs, private phone-calling, extended bathroom breaks, reading the newspaper on company time, solitaire, day-dreaming, chequebook-balancing, tinkering with your screensaver, or just plain inefficiency! Maybe Microsoft have the right ideas with their Big Brother software patent.
It would appear that with all the pulls and drags of these hidden costs on business, no one is actually capable of making any money. So we may as well all stay at home. The radio piece is here:
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Just a crazy thought – block access to the time-waster sites from the main network, but provide a PC in the canteens for Twitter or Facebook addicts to use during coffee breaks or lunch. Usage of that machine is monitored, so that if it turns out that John Smith is logging on seven times a day for an average of 90 minutes per day, it’s time for John’s boss to have a little chat with him …
