Women are more conscientious employees

Some of us might be a little guilty of wasting time that should be spent working browsing the internet for personal matters instead. As it turns out, nearly half of UK employees admit to doing this, though in a result for hard-working women, men have been shown to be the biggest abusers of internet privileges at work.

The introduction of computers and the internet was supposed to increase efficiency among employees, but people have ended up counterbalancing its effects by using work hours to do personal things online. To find out what people spend the most time doing, Safetica commissioned a survey from TNS Omnibus of 670 office workers.

The study reveals that nearly half of those surveyed admit to reading online news and shopping on sites such as eBay, Amazon and brand stores. Over a third spend time on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and almost a quarter watch videos on YouTube or listen to internet radios. Other categories, such as gaming, funny picture and adult websites score under 10%, while 26% of employees report they don’t have access to the internet at work.

Interestingly, the survey shows that men seem to spend more time online at work in most areas, with 46% admitting to reading news sites compared to 39% of women. Ladies come in just ahead of guys in the shopping category at 43% (42% of men) and social media at 41% (34% of men).

However, more men confess to visiting video and music, funny image and adult websites. There is a staggering difference in trips to gaming sites, with 13% of men saying this was how they spend their time, while only 3% of women do the same.