"You get up every morning from your alarm clock's warning."
I just love those lyrics to BTO's, 'Takin' Care Of Business'. Most of us can relate to heading off to work on a daily basis, but how much time do we spend doing actual work during our time at the workplace?

A recent survey conducted by a national recruiting firm said Americans waste 18 weeks a year goofing off! Wow, that’s a lot of wasted time and productivity.

So what are the top ways employees goof off during their workday?

Hanging out by the water fountain or coffee pot.

Smoking - Many smokers are considerate and keep their breaks limited and short, but I have seen others take five breaks to my one and I’m sure you’ve seen it as well. It almost seems that if you smoke you’re automatically entitled to take more breaks, and that makes the good employees who take short smoke breaks look bad too.

Gossiping - These employees spend an awful lot of time complaining to others about co-workers, the boss and office policies. If this is you, let me offer some advice. Most people don’t have time to listen to you gab, so leave us alone!

Other non productive goof-offs include making personal calls, surfing the web, texting and hiding in the restroom.

Have you ever started a new job and were given a bunch of rules that seemed silly to you, like no radios or you had to go to your office manager for pens or paper for the copy machine?

How about being told that you can only take a break during certain times? Well most of the time these rules are put into place because of abuse from past employees.

I never thought much about these things until I became a manager and had people working under me. It changes your prospective on the infrastructure of the workplace.

Here’s to a prosperous and more importantly, productive, 2016!

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