Productivity gains - Web surfing at work - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

American Demographics, July, 2000

It's official: Online access at the office leads to happier employees.

According to a Harris Poll released in March, most workers are pleased with their ability to roam free through cyberspace. More than seven in 10 people who are online at work say the Internet has increased their productivity. Fifty-eight percent say access to the Web has made their work more enjoyable, 45 percent say it has made their job more challenging, and 45 percent say it has made their lives less stressful.

But not all work surfers were uniformly pleased. Although only 15 percent say that the Web has made their lives more difficult, a significant 25 percent claim online capabilities have made their lives more hectic.

The amount of relief workers find online probably depends on what they're browsing. In 1999, Media Metrix found that at-work surfers spent the most time on news, information, entertainment, and search engine sites, followed by marketing or corporate sites. All are arguably legitimate clicks in the line of duty. But work surfers also spent an average of 46 minutes per month on adult-content Web sites, and an average 45 minutes shopping. In fact, a survey of 1,500 companies by Websense, an Internet access management company in San Diego, California, found that the most common causes for employee-related disciplinary actions were accessing pornography, chatting online, gaming, investing, or shopping at work.

Yet, only 9 percent of workers think that their work performance has suffered from Internet use, according to a recent survey for Pogo.com by Greenfield Online. Only 4 percent of workers say that their boss or another supervisor has complained about the amount of time they spend online. Happier workers may be more productive after all.