People waste 1.86 hours a day at work

A new survey by Salary.com and America Online found the average U.S. worker fritters away 1.86 hours per 8-hour workday -- not including lunch and scheduled breaks.

That's actually an improvement from last year's inaugural Salary.com/AOL survey, which showed workers squandered 2.09 hours a day.

Bill Coleman, Salary.com's senior vice president of compensation, said the results could reflect a slightly more energized work force due to an improving economy. Or maybe fewer hard-core slackers were polled this year.

This year's biggest time-killer was personal use of the Internet. Of the 2,700 people quizzed in the unscientific survey, 52 percent said they wasted more time online than any other way. (The survey, by the way, was conducted online, and some responded: "I waste my time filling out surveys like this.")

Other top time-wasters included: socializing with co-workers, running errands and spacing out. "Staring blankly at the computer screen remains to be quite a popular choice," the study concluded.

In addition to polling workers, Salary.com surveyed human resource managers, who said companies assume workers waste nearly an hour each day. The difference between the slacking that companies budget for and the true amount costs U.S. companies a combined $544 billion per year, according to the survey. Article here.

If your at work reading Across-the-Board right now -- by no means are you wasting your time :)