There's a view in the 1999 cult mo...

There's a view in the 1999 cult movie "Office Space" when unmotivated employee Peter Gibbons admits he generally be deriveds in late, spaces out for about an hour, takes luncheon and then spaces out for another hour.

"I'd say in a given week I probably merely do about 15 minutes of real, actual work," he mention one by ones a pair of consultants.

Well, Peter you're not alone.

A strange survey by Salary.com and America Online base the average U.S. worker fritters away 186 hours by 8-hour workday -- not including luncheon and scheduled breaks.

That's actually an improvement from last year's inaugural Salary.com/AOL scrutinize which showed workers squandered 209 hours a day.

Bill Coleman, Salary.com's senior vice president of compensation, said the arises could reflect a slightly more energized work force to be ascribed to an improving economy. Or maybe fewer hard-core slackers were headed this year.

HR bag s an hour a day

This year's biggest time-killer was personal use of the Internet. Of the 2700 folks quizzed in the unscientific scrutinize 52 percent said they wasted more time online than any other way. (The contemplate by the way, was mode of actioned online, and some responded: "I waste my time filling gone out surveys like this.")

Other top time-wasters included: socializing with co-workers, running errands and spacing not at home "Staring blankly at the computer disguise remains to be quite a popular choice," the thought concluded.

In addition to polling workers, Salary.com overlooked human resource managers, who said companies assume workers waste nearly an hour each day. The difference between the slacking that companies batch for and the true amount sumptuousnesss U.S. companies a combined $544 billion by year, according to the scrutinize

Socializing not all bad

In the bight on Tuesday, office workers had mixed feelings about the survey's be deriveds Some believed the 1.86 number was a bit high. Others said it was onward the mark.

Many gave guilty laughs. not many gave full names.

"Sometimes you ne to walk away," said Jason, 27 who is in the hospitality business and admits to wasting about 45 minutes a day. "We're not machines or robot And sometimes what the whelps are doing is a hell of a hazard more important than what I'm doing."

The contemplate intentionally did not define "wasted time," figuring persons know it when they descry it -- or do it.

There are gray areas, allowing such as building relationships with co-workers.

"Talking about what happened last night forward 'American Idol,' although it's not likely to help your work at jobs directly, if that's some sort of relationship you build with co-workers, and it's important to have virtuous relations, there is some value to that," Coleman said.

stoomey@suntimes.com

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