Men the slacking champs

03 September 2014 - 02:06 By Shaun Smillie
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A new study on sitting offers good motivation to get up and move around during your work day.
A new study on sitting offers good motivation to get up and move around during your work day.
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Workplace slackers are slowly taking over - and men are better at procrastinating than women.

A survey has shown that 89% of employees admit to wasting time while at work. This is up 20% from last year.

Two-thirds of respondents in Salary.com's 2014 Wasting Time at Work Survey said they wasted between half an hour and an hour a day. Sixteen percent said they wasted roughly two hours daily, and 4% admitted to whiling away half or more of their working day.

Most of the procrastinators said the internet was the biggest distraction. Twenty-four percent said Google was their time-wasting site of choice.

Facebook came in at second place. Last year the social networking site held the top spot so it seems people are tiring of it.

Other sites to blame include Yahoo, YouTube and Amazon.

The worst offenders were single men in their 20s and 30s, the US survey found.

The research provided some insight into why people waste time at work. Half said they took short breaks to increase their productivity, a fifth said they were bored with their jobs, and 2% said they were not paid enough. No one appears to have done a detailed survey on South African work avoidance behaviour, but available evidence shows we also appear to be prone to slacking off.

Some South Africans use devious means to get out of work.

As many as one out five sick notes are fraudulent, according to Occupational Care South Africa.

Ocsa said a single day's absence can cost a company three days worth of salary.

It is estimated the economy loses between R12-billion and R16-billion to absenteeism.

Local risk assessment company iFacts said low morale in the workplace could lead to criminal and fraudulent activity and make employees easy prey for syndicates.

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