Can’t seem to put down your smartphone? You might be wasting more than just time.
According to the staffing company OfficeTeam, the average employee spends about five hours a week on their phone doing non-work related things. This includes checking your personal email, online shopping and social media. For the study about 600 employees and senior office managers were questioned at companies with 20 or more employees.
Besides using their phones for email or social media employees say they spend about 42 minutes a day on other personal tasks. The study’s authors say if these numbers were true for every full-time worker in the U.S. that would add up to more than $15 billion in lost productivity every week.
Researchers say it’s understandable that people would need to check their phones a few times a day but in many cases it’s becoming a big distraction. To manage their times employees are encouraged to use their lunch and other breaks to do personal tasks. Employees should also set limits but have to understand they can’t completely ban personal phones. Plus it would never work.
About Brian
CBS News Radio national business journalist Brian Banmiller has spent more than 40 years in the news industry, covering business, politics and the economy on television, radio and in print. Currently, his “Banmiller on Business” reports are delivered to an audience of millions nationwide.
