WASHINGTON — How do you kill time at the office?
If you text, surf the web or use social media, you’re not alone.
Surprisingly, if you take a sponge bath, you’re also not alone.
A new CareerBuilder survey explores the most common — and the most bizarre — ways that employees waste time at the office.
Here are the most common productivity killers:
- Cell phones/texting: 52 percent
- The Internet: 44 percent
- Gossip: 37 percent
- Social media: 36 percent
- Email: 31 percent
- Co-workers dropping by: 27 percent
- Meetings: 26 percent
- Smoke breaks/snack breaks: 27 percent
- Noisy co-workers: 17 percent
- Sitting in a cubicle: 10 percent
The survey also broke down the strangest activities on the job:
- Employee was taking a sponge bath in the bathroom sink.
- Employee was trying to hypnotize other employees to stop their smoking habits.
- Employee was visiting a tanning bed in lieu of making deliveries.
- Employee was looking for a mail order bride.
- Employee was playing a video game on their cell phone while sitting in a bathroom stall.
- Employee was drinking vodka while watching Netflix.
- Employee was sabotaging another employee’s car tires.
- Employee was sleeping on the CEO’s couch.
- Employee was writing negative posts about the company on social media.
- Employee was sending inappropriate pictures to other employees.
- Employee was searching Google images for “cute kittens.”
- Employee was making a model plane.
- Employee was flying drones around the office.
- Employee was printing pictures of animals, naming them after employees and hanging them in the work area.
Nearly 3 in 4 employers have taken at least one step to offset the productivity killers.
Check out the full survey results here.
