Internet misuse at workplace

Websense, a provider of employee Internet management solutions, said that
Internet misuse in the workplace costs American corporations more than $178
billion annually in lost productivity. This translates into a loss of more than
$5,000 per employee, per year.

Workplace Internet access continues to increase, resulting in more than 68
million US employees accessing the web at work in 2005, according to the IDC
Internet Commerce Market Model version 9.1.

However, as web use becomes increasingly engaging and interactive, workers
are spending more office time surfing the Internet for personal reasons.

A recent America Online and Salary.com survey reported that 44.7% of the more
than 10,000 American workers polled cited web surfing as their number one
distraction at work. Furthermore, according to a recent Websense/Harris
Interactive Web@Work survey, 50% of employees surveyed, who access the Internet
at work, admit they do so for both work and personal reasons.

Based upon this statistic, of the 68 million US employees who access the
Internet at work, approximately 34 million spend time surfing the web for
personal usage at the office.

This time spent 'cyberslacking', multiplied by the average US salary, as
reported by the US Bureau of Labor's National Compensation Survey, accounts for
the multi-billion dollar crisis facing American businesses.

"The web can be a critical business tool; however, in some cases, its
misuse can offset the productivity benefits of Internet access," said Leo
Cole, VP, Marketing at Websense, Inc. According to the Web@Work survey, among
those employees who use the web during the workday for personal reasons, the
most popular non work-related websites accessed are news (81%), personal email
(61%), online banking (58%), travel (56%) and shopping (52%).

CYBERMEDIA NEWS

SAN DIEGO