The Art of Goofing Off

One of the great things about having the internet at work is that it provides a great substitute for actually working. Right now, my job has decided to count up internet use at work - I assume that they are trying to manage productivity, or more likely, have been sold a bill of goods by someone wishing to sell the company "internet productivity software".

Here's the argument:

* your employees have the internet
* instead of designing widgets, answering calls, or performing whatever it is you want them to perform, they're writing Twilight fan fiction
* they lose x number of minutes a day, which could be spent instead adding x minutes amount of value to your company
* if they didn't have the internet as a distraction, the company adds all of those minutes back to its bottom line

The problem with the argument is that it assumes that employees, deprived of the internet, will spend their time making widgets - you know, the same way your boss is diligently working 40 hours a week, not taking time off for so much as a coffee break.

Before some IT manager is tempted to purchase this software, here's what will happen - people will simply waste their time in they ways they did before the internet was invented:

* long coffee breaks
* reading newspapers or doing puzzles at their desk
* conversations with other cubemates
* long bathroom breaks

The other problem that managers of the "time is money" school fail to see is that this surfing-the-web time might actually help the company's bottom line more than hurt it.

Let's take Bob. Bob was spending 30 hours a week working and 10 hours a week surfing the web. His productivity level was 2 units per hour, since the 25 percent of time he spent goofing off made it possible for him to tolerate his job.

Productivity software was installed. Now, Bob can't surf the web and his bosses are watching him closely. Even though he now works 40 hours a week just like his bosses want him to, his productively level is now just one unit per hour.

Bob's former productivity: 30 hours x 2 = 60 work units per week.
Bob's current productivity: 40 hours x 1 = 40 work units per week.

What happened? Bob's bosses lost money by making Bob work harder.

I suspect that these time-managment type solutions are going to become one more management fad. Look, if you want a employee who will spend all 40 hours a week attending to company business and company business only while never doing anything wrong, you don't need to be in management, you need to be in robotics.