How to waste time when you're at work

Wasting time while at work isn't always a bad thing, but maybe don't be as obvious as this guy. Picture: ThinkStock Source: Supplied

CAN you tell when you're wasting time at work?

Are you doing it now by reading this story? Or are you just giving your mind a quick break before you get back to work?

US jobs website salary.com surveyed more than 1000 workers to find out what people do at work when they're not actually working.

Unsurprisingly, more than two thirds of workers say they waste time every day.

The other 31 per cent either know a productivity secret we don't, or are lying.

Thirty-four per cent said they wasted 30 minutes or less each day, 24 per cent said they wasted between 30 minutes and an hour, and 11 per cent said they wasted time for several hours.

Twenty-one per cent said they only slacked off one or two times per week, and 10 per cent said they never wasted any time at all.

But what are workers doing when they're procrastinating?

Most people (37 per cent) said their most frequent time-wasting websites were news sites (eds note: great job!).

Twenty per cent said they never visited non-work related websites in the office, 14 per cent said they most often checked social media sites, and 12 per cent said online shopping sites were their biggest weakness.

Almost one-third of respondents said their boss addressed the issue by blocking access to some personal sites at work. But more than half (52 per cent) obviously aren't fazed, and are happy to get around any bans by using their smartphone or tablet.

The more educated you are the more likely you are to waste time, with 76 per cent of people with doctorate degrees admitting to time-wasting every day, compared with 59 per cent of people with a high school diploma or less.

Divorced people are also likely to be more diligent employees, with just 51 per cent wasting time daily compared with 75 per cent of singles and 75 per cent of people in relationships.

If you really want to get some work done, Tuesday between 9am and 11am is your best bet. The least productive time is between 3pm and 5pm on a Friday.

Most wasteful day:
Friday: 43 per cent
Monday: 16 per cent
Wednesday: 9 per cent
Thursday: 6 per cent
Tuesday: 3 per cent

Most wasteful time:
3pm-5pm: 27 per cent
1pm-3pm: 16 per cent
7am-9am: 15 per cent
11am-1pm: 13 per cent
9am-11am: 10 per cent

And what's the biggest distraction in the workplace?
Too many meetings: 19 per cent
Inefficient team members: 17 per cent
Coworkers: 17 per cent
Office politics: 13 per cent
Busy work: 13 per cent
Other: 11 per cent
My boss: 8 per cent

But is all this wasted time really time that is wasted?

Not according to 60 per cent of workers, who say spending time on non-work-related tasks during office hours actually improves their focus and productivity in the long run.

If you've got time to kill:

The ultimate destination for stuff to click on: buzzfeed.com
When crankiness turns to pettiness: passiveaggressivenotes.com
YOU HAD ONE JOB (which obviously you're not doing right now): hadonejob.com
If you get really stuck: pointlesssites.com
And, obviously: iwastesomuchtime.com

View the original article here

Crime doesn't pay, unless you're promoted

BOSSES who refuse to hire or promote workers with criminal records will risk discrimination suits under legislative changes recommended by a Senate inquiry.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee also wants to strip religious groups of the right to discriminate against students, patients or customers on the grounds of sexuality, political opinion or religious beliefs.

And it recommends a ban on discrimination against victims of domestic violence, so they cannot be unfairly disciplined for turning up late or calling in sick.

The committee was flooded with an astounding 3464 public submissions into the Federal Government's draft legislation, which rolls five existing anti-discrimination laws into a single bill.

The draft bill has left "criminal record" off the list of 17 "protected attributes" for which discrimination would be illegal.

But the committee, chaired by dumped Labor senator Trish Crossin, concluded that "discrimination in employment on the basis of a criminal record that is clearly irrelevant should not be tolerated".

Its report says employers should not be allowed to discriminate against workers with a criminal conviction that is "not directly relevant to the situation in which the discrimination arises".

The committee also urged the Government to scrap a contentious clause in the bill which widens the definition of discrimination to conduct that "offends or insults".

It said most submissions to the inquiry feared the wording would "have a negative impact on freedom of expression in Australia".

The Senate committee recommended scrapping an exemption that lets religious groups discriminate against people when delivering services such as education, health, crisis accommodation and aged care.

The proposal could force Islamic schools to enrol Christian students, or Catholic hospitals to treat sex-change patients.

"In the committee's view, discrimination on religious grounds is justifiable if it is reasonable and proportionate in all the circumstances," the report says."This does not mean, however, that discriminatory conduct by religious organisations should always be lawful.

"The law should not provide broad statutory exceptions allowing disproportionate or unreasonable discrimination on religious grounds."

The report says religious groups should still be allowed to hire staff "in accordance with their founding ethos and values".

But "it can see no reason why individuals should automatically lose their right to non-discrimination in the provision of services because a particular service is being provided by a religious organisation".

"It is vitally important that the rights of minority groups are upheld when they are receiving help from service providers, particularly in cases where the service provision is Commonwealth-funded," the report says

Coalition senators issued a dissenting report, criticising the draft bill as "violating fundamental human rights", and "impossibly wide and dangerously vague".

"The bill would damage Australia's social fabric by encouraging a `culture of complaint", the Opposition senators said.

The Greens senators said the draft bill gave religious groups "arbitrary, overly broad and unnecessary" exemptions.

View the original article here