WILB

I saw this article the other day, and thought that it was a good one.  I was quite glad that I had free reign to pretty much go anywhere on the web that I needed/wanted to at work.  Leisure or Work.  Let's take a look at the article, then we'll chat.  K?

Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees: study

Thu Apr 2, 2009 10:13am EDT

 

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MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Caught Twittering or on Facebook at work? It'll make you a better employee, according to an Australian study that shows surfing the Internet for fun during office hours increases productivity.

The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive that those who do not.

Study author Brent Coker, from the department of management and marketing, said "workplace Internet leisure browsing," or WILB, helped to sharpened workers' concentration.

"People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration," Coker said on the university's website (www.unimelb.edu.au/)

"Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days' work, and as a result, increased productivity," he said.

According to the study of 300 workers, 70 percent of people who use the Internet at work engage in WILB.

Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.

"Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity," said Coker. "That's not always the case."

However, Coker said the study looked at people who browsed in moderation, or were on the Internet for less than 20 percent of their total time in the office.

"Those who behave with Internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without," he said.

(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Valerie Lee)  

This is a pretty good article, in my opinion, and just shows that some "workplace internet leisure browsing" or WILB is a good thing.   So wouldn't you know that right after reading this article, the server I'm on has blocked any site worth going to.  Sure, most sites that I need for work are available (except for "visual search engines", i.e. Google Images) but nearly all of the sites that I want to go to are now blocked.  And it appears to be done carte-blanche by category.  Let's look:

Chat/Social Networking 

• Facebook
• Myspace

Photo-Sharing

• Flickr
• Picasa
• Snapfish
• Photobucket
• And probably more

Streaming Video

• YouTube
• Ustream

Classifieds

• Craigslist

Visual Search Engines

• Google Images
• Yahoo Images

Forums/Message Groups

• Yahoo Groups

Blogs/Social Networking

• Vox.com

I'm sure this is not comprehensive.  These are just the sites that I've noticed.  Blogger does not appear to be affected (yet), as well as mail sites (Yahoo, Gmail, etc.).  And it also doesn't appear to affect online shopping.  I can get to ebay, amazon, google shopping.  Or online travel sites.   I can also get to all the news sites.  

Wouldn't shopping at work be more detrimental that just checking in on your friends at FB and staying connected?

Maybe (hopefully) this is a temporary thing, and it will all blow over soon.  I sure miss the streaming video sites that I had gotten attached to that I mentioned in THIS post.  But also one that I hadn't mentioned before of a Great Horned Owl with two Owlettes.  And I sure do miss Facebook.  I guess it all means that I will be a little less productive at work.   Bummer!

AMW