Cyberslacking increases productivity: UK study says.

In a story related to last weeks' story Take away my Facebook at work and I Quit !, The UK study PopCap Break Report 2008 found that 57% of workers use their break to surf the web for personal uses. 71% said they surfed for personal reasons during business hours and 47% taught that their bosses would prefer if they took personal breaks for smoking rather than for web surfing.

"The so-called cyberslacking could be online shopping or arranging for your dog-sitter online or taking care of banking so you don't have to take a two-hour lunch,"

The top five suggested e-breaks:

1.  Puzzles and casual computer games

2.  Social networking & personal emails

3.  Online shopping

4.  General browsing

5.  Life admin

According to study findings, a 10 minute break for personal web browsing would be quickly gained in increased productivity. It would also be healtier than smoking. Additional information can be found on the website PopCap Break. The findings are based on psychometric trials carried out on a cross section of UK businesses under the supervision of Goldsmiths University of London ( http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/ ) star psychologist Dr Chamorro-Premuzic.

Cyberslacking, also called Goldbricking, in today's terms, generally refers to staff who use their work internet access for personal reasons while maintaining the appearance of working. That is also known as cyberslacking, cyberloafing or cyberbludging, and can lead to inefficiency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberslacking