How Much Time Do You Waste At Work?

My colleague Jack Vinson recently shared an infographic about how people waste time in their workplace.

Although waste needs to be defined more precisely to get the infographic into context, there are several assumptions being made that are not necessarily correct:

• Every contribution made by an employee contributes equally to the bottom line
• All employees are paid on an hourly basis
• The busier someone is with work related activities, the more productive that person is

The first and second assumption imply that local efficiencies sum up to global efficiencies, someone that we know is incorrect.   And how are most employees hired, on a contract base or a salary base?

Related to the third assumption, test have shown that people actually have improved cognitive ability when they take small breaks, because the mind can rest to go back into full active mode.  And if people are achieving their   objectives, does it matter if they are taking small leisure breaks?

Instead of focusing on why people are wasting time, a manager should work on building a company culture that is interesting, engaging, and where employees ideas and input are actually used to improve processes.    Would you really worry about time spent when the company improved on a daily basis by its employees?

So how much time are your employees wasting?   Is this even the right question to ask?