Academic

Surfing boosts productivity--who knew?

By Cassandra Burke Robertson

Thanks to Dan for inviting me to guest blog this month.  I've enjoyed reading The Faculty Lounge since its inception, and it's one of several blogs that I tend to check daily.  Happily, new research from the University of Melbourne suggests that not only does regular internet surfing not hamper productivity--it actually boosts it!

From the article: Dr Brent Coker, from the Department of Management and Marketing, says that workers who engage in ?Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing? (WILB) are more productive than those who don?t.

?People who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about 9% than those who don?t,? he says.

?Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos on YouTube, using social networking sites like Facebook or shopping online under the pretense that it costs millions in lost productivity, however that?s not always the case."

I'm pretty sure my 20% is now up and that I should return to prepping tomorrow's class on discovery devices...

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on April 02, 2009 (boomark / email).