How do employees steal time

Time theft. Widely considered the Achilles heel of employee productivity and profit maximization, it siphons billions of dollars a year from businesses all throughout the U.S. Whether it’s checking a Facebook account, playing games like Sudoku during working hours, taking a longer than normal lunch break or fudging time sheets, time theft is a grave problem and difficult to remedy.

One of the most interesting revelations about time theft we discovered is that three out of four employees are guilty and most do it on a regular basis unchecked. Moreover, our business culture is ingrained with the notion that a few minutes to check our personal e-mails or talking with a friend on our cell phones doesn’t do much harm.

Au contraire mon ami. That extra 15 minutes spent at lunch can equate to an extra day of vacation every month. Chitchatting with a co-worker about last night’s episode of American Idol? The average employee wastes about 4.5 hours per week on socializing and lollygagging, the equivalent of a six week vacation every year.

Ever wonder exactly how much money your business may be losing to employee time theft? We did too.