The boss is out of the office, probably on another business trip, there is no pressing deadlines, or anyone else to interfere with you. So you decide to open up a new tab and see if your friends posted anything up on your Facebook, or check out the news on Yahoo! Taking a break at work may seem harmless, but according to BNET, it costs companies billions of dollars! Check it out for yourself: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FXS/is_12_79/ai_68325779/
So now, there are two sides to this argument. There is the cost to your employer, and the rescue from boredom for you. In my time being employed in a company that religiously utilizes computers for just about anything, I have learned that taking a break may sometimes be essential to keeping up productivity. While on the face of it, if you spend time not working, then obviously you have less time to get work done, right? Not really. I have noticed that while working non stop, I tend to slow down and eventually get over exhausted over the 8 hour period that I work. It takes me about 20 minutes to finish a given piece of work, but over time I saw that time drop to 30 and 35 minutes, working non stop, that is. When I took five minute breaks after every two or three chunks of work that I had to do, I was able to stay fresh and get the work done in about 20 minutes every time. What this means is that, in the long run, slacking may be more productive than straight work. This is, of course, if we do not get carried away. Now some of the stuff is definitely over the top and should not be accepted under any circumstances. Downloading music and files is something that should be done at home, not at work. Video games should also be a home exclusive. Reading the news, taking a break to skim over an article, or answer a quick message is a lot less troubling and consumes much less of the company's bandwidth. In the end, it is up to us to be responsible for our own work and carry full responsibility for our actions.
