Part One: Exploring the Impact of Cyberloafing In Today’s Workplace

You might be cyberloafing at this very moment. Perhaps you’re sitting at your desk, attempting to get your day started but you’re browsing around in several windows with content entirely unrelated to the day you have ahead.

Cyberloafing is a funny term that’s relatively straightforward and all-too-familiar, and also incredibly common. It refers to the time we spend browsing the Internet, checking out social media profiles, catching up on our favorite celebrity gossip, looking up sports scores, and of course, watching those amusing cat videos on YouTube.

Wasting time on the Internet isn’t exclusive to the workplace. With the way smartphones and tablets have become an inherent part of our lives, we often dedicate much of day, both in the office and outside work, to surfing the Internet.

And we’re not alone.

The issue has become so widespread U.S. businesses are spending as much as $85 billion a year as a result. There have been studies showing some employees may spend as much as 60% of their work time surfing the Internet.

Analysts and professionals believe the amount of time employees spend cyberloafing can range, on average, anywhere from three hours a week to as often as 2 ½ hours a day. Not only are there problems associated with productivity, but there can be issues related to data and IT security including the introduction of viruses and malware as a result. This means these behaviors can particularly impact those businesses where high levels of data security are required.

While it can be worrisome for employers, according to research conducted by the National University of Singapore, it’s not all bad news. They conducted research demonstrating 10 minutes spent surfing the Internet after finishing a “tedious” task, improved their productivity levels by 16% as compared to those participants who did a non-Internet rated break time activity, like texting or talking on the phone.

The people who took the time to occasionally browse online also showed higher engagement levels, and less boredom and mental exhaustion as compared to the other people participating.

At the same time, while there may be some benefits to a bit of mental downtime that comes from looking on the Internet, this doesn’t mean it’s not without problems for employers, and employees. It tends to go much longer than a few minutes for many workers, leading to productivity and engagement issues.

Here’s a bit more interesting research to add to our discussion. Daylight Savings Time seems to actually make cyberloafing worse.

According to research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, web searches associated with entertainment topics tended to rise dramatically the Monday after Daylight Savings Time. We’ll explore some of the possible reasons for that next.

What’s The Cause?

It may seem like the root cause of cyberloafing is fairly self-explanatory — we have an entire world of information, entertainment and any and everything else we could ever want right at our fingertips. We’re programmed to spend any and every moment of downtime surfing the Internet. It’s started to feel like a natural trait, rather than a learned one.

At the same time, while this is true, that it’s just simply too easy, other causes can contribute to wasting time online while we’re supposed to be working.

One relates to the research we cited above — which shows cyberloafing gets worse after Daylight Savings Time.

The reason, according to research, may have something to do with people having lower levels of self-control when they’re tired. When employees lose sleep because of the time change, it makes it harder for them to regulate their behavior, which can lead to more personal Internet surfing.

Some other potential reasons for the problem include:

• Employees who have a negative or pessimistic attitude about their job might engage in excessive Internet usage for personal reasons to feel like they have some level of control over their job. It can be seen as a behavior that lets employees “get back” at their employees when they feel they’re not being treated well. When employees don’t feel empowered or if they feel like they’re being treated unfairly, they can use cyberloafing as a way to “right” the perceived injustice in some sense. Studies have shown that people who feel empowered in their job do tend to cyberloaf less, although it is still an issue.
• There may be policies in place that seem to encourage employees to use the Internet. While employers may encourage this only for work-related purposes, employees can find this as promoting the use of the Internet for non-related work activities as well. There’s often no differentiation in company Internet policies which can lead to confusion and a lack of understanding on the part of employees.
• Of course, as we mentioned above, personal Internet surfing doesn’t have to be all bad, because it can also be a coping mechanism people use after completing a rigorous work assignment to “unwind” a bit. It can give them a mental break that can actually increase their levels of productivity and engagement, as long as it is only something that’s done periodically and for a few minutes at a time.
• Some of the reasons cyberloafing can get out of hand or become a real problem may have little to do with the situation and more to do with the personality traits of employees. While some cyberloafing is normal, often the employees that are less task-driven and intrinsically motivated are the biggest offenders. Research also shows emotionally stable people tend to spend less time devoting their focus elsewhere while they’re at work.

So once you have a greater understanding of cyberloafing, the question then becomes, how do you tackle it? You may not be able to eliminate it altogether, and you might not even want to do that as an employer, but how do you make sure it’s not interfering with overall levels of productivity? How do you ensure your employees aren’t spending several hours a day on non-work related cyberloafing?