Time at Work - Social Media no problem, but Meetings and People are.

A recent survey of IT Staffers, conducted for for IT vendor TrackVia, included some interesting questions.  One asked respondents to identify the biggest time-wasters at work.  (The report only included slides, so I'm not sure of some of the wordings used).
  Asked to identify the top "time-waster" - 14% indicated "water cooler conversation" or chatting with co-workers; 11% identified Meetings; 11% indicated buggy hardware/software; 9% said web-surfing; and 5% indicated social media.
  Looking at meetings more closely, more than 1 in 5 said they spend at least three hours a week in meetings.  Among those who attend meetings during a typical week, 37% felt that at least half of the time in meetings was wasted, and only 7% indicated that meetings were 100% productive.
  Another set of questions dealt with the time spent on intra-office communications and relations.  Fifteen percent of the sample indicated that they spend 1-2 hours in a typical week dealing with things related to misunderstandings or miscommunications with coworkers.  Slightly more (17%) spend 1-2 hours a week dealing with office politics.
  The result - for managers worried about staff "wasting time" with social media - there are likely much bigger problems you need to deal with first.

  And on a personal note - the IT staffer comments on meetings and politics sound a lot like what happens in academia.


Source:  IT Management Slideshow: Social Media at Work: Not Our Biggest Time-Waster,  CIO Insight