Making tea and Facebooking…

Making tea and Facebooking…

Welcome to an average office worker’s life in the UAE (and probably the rest of the world).

January 24, 2010 2:38 by kippreport

Kipp is relieved that we are not the only procrastinators at work. An office employee in the UAE spends an average of 46 days a year on non-work related activities, according to a survey conducted by The Office Exhibition.

The survey found that an office worker spends an average of 11 days per year paying bills or using online banking during office hours. Almost seven working days a year are spent chatting with colleagues, while six days are spent researching and booking holidays. Office employees in the country make 150 million cups of tea every year, with each person spending almost four and a half working days making them, the survey says.

“The majority of companies have IT policies in place regarding social networking and internet use, but almost a third do not, and this is something we would encourage them to look at as a significant number of days a year are spent on these activities at work,” said Sinead Bridgett, show director, The Office Exhibition. More than 1000 office workers across the country took part in the survey.

Considering the fact that ‘Facebooking’ has become a verb in colloquial vocabulary, Kipp thinks it’s unfair that social networking sites should be blocked at work. We do admit that sites like Facebook can be addictive at times (we have fallen prey on select occasions), but if you are sitting long hours at the office, short breaks can be really refreshing, and can actually improve productivity.

And while we may still understand the concept of blocking social networking sites, one of our non-media friends told us that the internet connection was recently disabled at their office because it was “not required.” Which means no access to news websites, general information – and Kippreport.

Life can be unfair. And now, it’s time to make another cup of tea.