From the Electronic Telegraph:

ISSUE 1415 Saturday 10 April 1999

Firms suffer Net loss of #2.5m as the staff surf, By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent

TIME wasted by employees surfing the Internet is costing big companies #2.5 million a year, a study has shown.

The average employee spent 30 minutes a day idly browsing the Internet. Half of those who used the Net in the office looked at pornographic websites during working hours. Many also used the Net to look for a new job.

Despite the availability of cheap or free filter systems and blocking software which prevent workers downloading offensive, racist or sexual material, two-thirds of organisations did not bother with it.

An employee on a salary of #20,000 [$32k] who surfed the web for non-business use cost the employer #2,500 [$4k] a year in lost working time on average, the survey said. Seventy-six per cent of staff used company time to search the web for new jobs.

The survey of 191 of the largest international companies found 84 per cent of employees were given unlimited use of the Internet, but most abused it. Typically, the companies had 1,000 or more staff, so the time-wasting was costing them #2.5 million [$4m] or more a year.

More than eight in 10 employees spent time searching for entertainment, reading sports news, organising personal finance and booking holidays when they should have been working, the survey said. Half of those who used the Internet at work visited chat rooms.

The Internet was meant to speed up communications around the world, but in reality it was slowing down work for all who come into contact with it. The survey, conducted by InfoSec, the computer security organisation, found that more than a third of companies did not have a policy for controlling the use of the Internet. Almost half did not have a policy for controlling the use of external e-mails, putting the companies at risk of attack by viruses such as Melissa, which brought down e-mail systems a fortnight ago.

Two in five companies had discovered a serious incident of improper use of the Internet, but only 21 per cent of these cases resulted in disciplinary action.

Half of these incidents were discovered as a result of monitoring software, one in five was found by chance and one in 10 was reported by a colleague informer.

Paul Robinson, editor of Secure Computing, said: "In a world where e-commerce will soon be king, the security and monitoring of systems will be an essential part of a business wishing to comply with the newly-revised Data Protection Act."

Cut and pasted by

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 09, 1999

Answers

WOW,
I work for myself...I must be costing me a fortune !!! LOL

Note: Just a thought from a radical right-wing, paranoid, hoarding, gloom & doom, conspiracy nut !

-- WebRNot (webrnot@ncap13k.com), April 10, 1999.

Dick of the Dale, Nigel Arnot,

are you both being dithiplined,

I think we should be told...

-- Andrei-hung-lo (2000EOD@prodigy.net), April 10, 1999.

Nothing new here. Before the net, there was Solitaire. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), April 10, 1999.

Because I have such a hard time getting on this forum during the 8 to 5 part of the day, I have often wondered how many paid man hours were being used on this forum rather than the work they were being paid to do. I bet its a bundle. On the other hand, I am glad that that many know something about y2k that they might not otherwise know.

Got the office door locked from the inside??

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), April 10, 1999.

nope,

In my last job I had the usual Dilbert cubicle and alas my back was facing the wrong way, I superglued an old motorcycle rear view mirror to the side of the monitor and kept my mouse key ready to switch screens in a nanosecond - got caught several times but bluffed it - het it's sorta work-related :)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), April 10, 1999.

AhHaaa!!! So that's why I can't get on this forum between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM. And all this time I've been blaming it on housewives, who after getting their kids and husbands off to school and work, hit the net like charging bulls through the streets of Spain. Ladies, I apologize 100 times.

-- gilda jessie (jess@listbot.com), April 11, 1999.