One third of Aussie workers unproductive and lazy
One in three Australian workers wastes almost a quarter of their day at work.
The Australian Productivity Pulse study has found that many in Australia’s workforce did not meet the national ‘productivity average’ and that this was costing businesses more than $41 billion each year in wages alone.
Surveying more than 11,000 people, Ernst and Young found that the current economic slowdown has particularly affected the productivity of workers who felt insecure about their jobs.
Ernst and Young’s Neil Plumridge explains that “workers that feel insecure about their roles or are unsatisfied with their workplace have fallen further down the productivity scale as a result of the current slowdown’.
Major time-wasting activities included reading and responding to emails, technology issues and waiting for approval on tasks from a higher authority.
Interesting, the study revealed that unproductive workers took fewer breaks during work hours and spent more time traveling to and from work. These unproductive workers also spent less time on leisure and recreation activities while out of the office.
Conversely, highly productive workers focused more time on meaningful work, took longer breaks and spent less time traveling to work. They also allocated more time to leisure and recreation activities.
In terms of location, South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory had the highest ratio of lazy workers.
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