05-17-2006, 07:06 AM
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Real Estate Webmasters Staff
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Cedar
Posts: 468
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Employees surf non-work related web sites
Quote:
Empolyees who have access to the internet at work spend almost a quarter of their time online visiting news, weather and other websites that have nothing to do with their jobs, according to a new study of web surfing habits.
The three-part US study, the third section of which will be published on Wednesday, found that 61 per cent of people who use the internet at work admitted to visiting non-work-related sites. Workers spent an average of 12.8 hours online each week, with 24 per cent of that time devoted to non-work sites.
The study was sponsored by Websense, an internet security group that specialises in web filtering software.
Half of more than 850 people surveyed said they would rather give up their morning coffee than their ability to access the internet for personal use, suggesting that companies that block employee access to personal sites such as web-based e-mail risk draining workforce morale.
Still, many employees said they feared that some of their personal web surfing habits could put their jobs at risk. Sixteen per cent of men and 8 per cent of women admitted to having viewed online pornograhpy at work, even though most respondents said they feared they could be fired if caught. A majority of both genders said they had accessed those sites by accident.
Spyware was also a source of concern. Six per cent of employees said they had visited sites known to contain spyware programmes, but only 42 per cent of those whose computers became infected with spyware called their IT help desk.
The number of people who were aware of "phishing" e-mail scams rose to 49 per cent in 2006, up from just 33 per cent last year.
Map, news and weather sites were the most popular non-work sites visisted in the survey.
Last month, a US court ruled that a New York City government employee could not be fired from his job solely for surfing the internet at work. The judge hearing the case ruled that such activity was akin to taking personal telephone calls or reading the newspaper - activities commonly allowed at work, so long as they do not interfere with an employee's overall job performance.
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http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/pro...517&ID=5726940
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