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Come On A (Web) Safari With Me!

But this grabbed my attention: "A certain amount of slacking off is already built into the salary structure," gravely intoned a senior VP at Salary.com. "Our survey results show that workers on average are wasting a little more than twice what their employers expect. That's a startling figure," he exclaimed.

Startling to whom? First off, it's not surprising that managers don't have a good bead on how their workers spend their time. That's not important anyhow. What matters is whether staff hits their goals--not what their office looks like, or whether they like to leave early or look up a few personal items on the Web. Results count. For those workers who have seen their salaries downsized, and their responsibilities increased--the idea that "a certain amount of slacking off time" is already built into their salaries isn't going to hold much water.

Nor will Salary.com's absurd--however granularly broken down--calculation that employers spend $759 billion per year on salaries "for which real work was expected, but not actually performed." Really? Let's match those calculations up against the very real overtime that was expected and performed, but not actually compensated for. Then let's see where the deficit really lies. My guess is most employers will come out way ahead. Indeed, 23.4% of the respondents felt they were underpaid.

I figure if the workers are lucky--it all comes out in the wash. Who reading this does not work many, many hours of uncompensated overtime? Or spend personal time traveling for their company? And lunch? Lots of us either skip it altogether or furtively gnaw sandwiches at our desk, working all the while. In return, who receives minimal if any comp time? (And who has the time anyway to take it?) and yeah yeah, it's built into our salaries. A former boss once told me that I had worked more hours of overtime than my then employer could ever possibly compensate me for. She was right. Let's face it, the only people for whom overtime is truly built-in are overpaid CEOs.

But it's not like most of us are complaining. We take pride in our work, and we're willing to do what we need to do to get it done right. And if we take a break now and then to clear our heads, comb our hair, and maybe tend to our personal errands (which never get done because we get home too late)--well, so be it. There are worse places employees could disappear to than on the Web. And there is the added benefit--and I don't think this is too much of a stretch--of people unconsciously improving their Web skills and understanding, and that's a good thing.

Anyway, in my view, it's the nattering chatterboxes and mindless meetings that are the real thieves of work time. So keep on surfing!

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