What Are We Doing At Work When We Aren’t Working

There seems to be many things that can interfere with our productivity at work, like chatting with co-workers and surfing the Internet. Sometimes there are things that are beyond our control that impede our ability to work. But, much of the time, the sad truth is we have nobody to blame but ourselves for our inefficiency.If you spend part of your work day chatting with fellow employees about non-work related matters or searching for stuff on the Internet, you’re not alone. A new survey on the average American work day by CareerBuilder.com finds those two activities to be the most common office distractions that keep us from getting our work done. Here are the results of the survey:

Chatting with co-workers about non-work related stuff: 34 percent

Internet searches: 22 percent

Loud co-workers: 18 percent

Personal calls or emails: 17 percent

Office drama: 15 percent

Daydreaming: 11 percent

Gossip: 7 percent

Watching TV in the break room: 2 percent

Not understanding how to do the work: 4 percent

Not surprising, the survey finds 41 percent of respondents admitting that they spend just six hours of an eight-hour day actually working. Employees were asked how much time they spend actually working on a daily basis. The results are a bit shocking.