Surf Away at Work

The justification you’ve been looking for: Workers who use up to 20% of their time at work surfing the Internet for leisure are more productive, by about 9%, than those who don’t.

The researcher even coined a nifty phrase for it: Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing (or WILB).

To the article:

According to the study of 300 workers, 70% of people who use the Internet at work engage in WILB. Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites. Playing online games was the fifth most popular, while watching YouTube movies was seventh.

The attraction of WILB, according to Dr Coker, can be attributed to people’s imperfect concentration. “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Think back to when you were in class listening to a lecture – after about 20 minutes your concentration probably went right down, yet after a break your concentration was restored.

“It’s the same in the work place. Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days work, and as a result, increased productivity.”

So, next time your boss catches you watching Charlie the Unicorn on YouTube, just tell him: “I’m WILBing!” And tell him science made you do it.

(Of course, the productivity gains might not hold for everyone.)

HT: Freakonomics

Image by willposh via Flickr