14 DAY TRIAL // In case you're one of the millions computer employees who spend hours working for their company on the Internet, you surely know it's pretty difficult to avoid visiting other websites or services which are not related to work. Many of us access YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, forums or any other website, which are usually prohibited at work because they can affect the productivity. Some companies choose to block these services, while others demand the employees to avoid spending so much time on them. A survey conducted by Burst Media, including 11,510 web users 18 years old or older who work on the web, revealed that 26.2 percent of the work online time is spent on personal activities, such as the ones mentioned above.
The employees with ages of 18-24 years spend no less than 34.4 percent of the worktime on personal activities, while men are usually more attracted by those services than women (28% vs. 24.2%), according to Burst Media's findings.
"It's clear from our research that the Internet is an integral part of work time - both for completing job duties, but also to conduct personal activities. That's not a huge surprise since the lines have been blurred between work and personal time," said Jarvis Coffin, CEO of Burst. "The real opportunity is that the Internet allows marketers to reach the workday audience efficiently, surrounded by relevant work or personal content. Add to that our targeting capabilities - such as daypart and day of the week - and you have a powerful medium to reach some pretty attractive audience segments", he continued.
What's more interesting is that employees are not feeling guilty for spending the company's online time on personal activities, as only 31.7 percent of women and 25.6 percent of men showed remorse concerning this matter.
Now, please excuse me, somebody sent me a new message on MySpace and I have to read it.