Employees surf non-work related websites

Employees who have access to the internet at work spend almost a quarter of their time online visiting news, weather and other websites that have nothing to do with their jobs, according to a new study of web surfing habits.

61 per cent of people who use the internet at work admitted to visiting non-work-related sites. Workers spent an average of 12.8 hours online each week, with 24 per cent of that time devoted to non-work sites.

The study was sponsored by Websense, an internet security group that specialises in web filtering software.

Half of more than 850 people surveyed said they would rather give up their morning coffee than their ability to access the internet for personal use, suggesting that companies that block employee access to personal sites such as web-based e-mail risk draining workforce morale.

Still, many employees said they feared that some of their personal web surfing habits could put their jobs at risk. Sixteen per cent of men and 8 per cent of women admitted to having viewed online pornograhpy at work, even though most respondents said they feared they could be fired if caught. A majority of both genders said they had accessed those sites by accident.

Map, news and weather sites were the most popular non-work sites visisted in the survey. Article here.