As March Madness fast approaches, you may be putting together a bracket to compete against your coworkers. However, some workers might see it as a distraction to use the internet at work for non-work purposes. But according to Steve Karau, a professor at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale, non-work related internet use isn’t always a bad thing.
The term for personal internet usage at work has been coined as “cyberloafing.” Karau explained that it can be helpful for workers to refresh themselves and increase their productivity.
“It might allow people to re-energize and get ready for work again. A brief break can serve that function, if you can resist the danger of getting sucked in,” he explained. “There's also potential social benefits of being able to have something fun and enjoyable to talk about with your coworkers to kind of bond and connect on.”
Karau pointed out that while it might not be appropriate at certain workplaces — ones where it’s important to be instantly responsive to customers, or where workers deal with heavy machinery, transportation or security — it could be detrimental. “But if the workplace is a more relaxed environment, or if there's flex time, or people can make up the time that they spend on a break and buckle down and still get the work done, it might be perfectly fine, have the occasional break or distraction,” he said.
Karau said that people spend an estimated two hours a day at work distracting themselves in these ways. While some people may see that as time theft, Karau disagrees.
“There's also what's called the law of forced efficiency that says that if you're accountable for a deadline or responsibility that oftentimes if people are loafing for a bit, they're still able to buckle down and get things done when they have to,” he said.
Hear more from SIUC professor Steve Karau on cyberloafing and how it affects us at work — and how it relates to March Madness:
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