Stealing time from work is put under microscope
Do you work from home and, if so, what habits have you fallen into as a result?
More and more people are now working from home as a result of the pandemic, but what kind of daily habits have they slipped into? Technology company Swype carried out a survey of 2,000 employees to investigate the UK’s habits and thoughts on time at work, analysing these results to uncover stolen time trends and opinions.
They wanted to uncover: How much money does British business lose to stolen time?
They found that there was plenty of leisure going on among home workers during company time, with employees doing things such as taking a longer lunch break (42.3 per cent), going on social media (40.2 per cent) and watching TV (38.1 per cent).
Watching TV while working was found to be a big distraction.
The survey also found that on average, British businesses lose £116.6 billion a Year to workers stealing company time.
Almost a third of those surveyed (32 per cent) of home workers claimed they would steal company time due to job dissatisfaction.
As people get older, they’re less likely to lie to their employer about lost working time.
The younger generation admit to procrastinating more.
And 100 per cent of those Earning £51k+ say they have never had any action taken against them for time stealing at work.
Almost (59.9 per cent) do not have a system for signing in and out of the workplace.
The biggest reason for procrastination at work was distractions, with just over half of respondents (51.7 per cent) stating this as a reason. Another reason mentioned by over half of respondents (50.6 per cent) was lack of motivation.
More than one in ten (10.2 per cent) of workers have gotten in trouble for being late to work.
Almost a quarter of workers (24.1 per cent) said their senior leaders steal time, and that this is the reason that they also do it.
More than one in ten (11.3 per cent) of UK workers have had action taken against them for stealing work time.
Around 6.4 per cent of workers admit to have reported their colleague for stealing company time.
Having a nap (61.9 per cent), leaving work early (49.1 per cent), and taking too long on lunch (46.2 per cent) were the things that workers believe to be considered as stealing company time, more than other things such as chatting to friends (23.5 per cent) and taking too many personal/bathroom breaks (18.9 per cent).
Full-time workers get in trouble at work for chatting to their friends (12 per cent) more than they did for being late (10.5 per cent).
More than 20.5 per cent of full-time workers admit to having lied to their employer about lost working time.
More than half of part-time workers said distractions were a reason for stealing company time (54.2 per cent), and over a quarter (26.4 per cent) of parttime workers said that they stole company time because of senior leaders doing the same.
A total of 33.3 per cent of 1824 year-old workers admit to procrastinating for more than one hour of their work day.
Exactly the same as 18-24 age group, 33.3 per cent of 25-39 year-old workers admit to procrastinating for more than one hour of their work day.
Almost a quarter (24.41 per cent) of 40-54 year-old workers admit to procrastinating for more than one hour of their work day. Only just over one in ten of 55-74 year-olds admit to procrastinating more than an hour per day, however 57 per cent said they definitely waste up to an hour.