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| AFP Photo / Alain Jocard |
A new study has estimated time wasted on social networks at the Russian workplace costs the economy $10 billion.
Over 57 million Russians are registered on social networks, and
according to the SomScore survey, users frequented the sites 25.6
minutes per day, or 12.8 hours per month, including while at
work.
The heightened activity of Russians on social networks has
spilled over into the workplace, and is reportedly costing the
economy $10 billion.
In the past year, the Russian economy has lost between 281.7 and
311.5 billion roubles due to workers distracted by social
networks and inefficiency, analysts at FBK, a Moscow-based
auditing and consulting firm, estimated.
The range of precisely how much money was lost is large, because
data varies on size, wages, and many other company specific
details.
"Of course, this is a rough estimate. In order to give exact
figures, it is necessary to get detailed audience research of
social networks, data on time spent in them, representatives of
each segment of the audience, the data on the amount of wages of
employees and so on. Nevertheless, our estimate gives an
indication of the scale of the losses,” the director of FBK,
Igor Nikolaev, told Vedomosti.
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| RIA Novosti / Mikhail Fomichev |
According to calculations by FBK, in 2012, each ‘over-active’
social networker wasted 53.1 hours on social sites instead
of work tasks.
According to Nikolaev, some companies, to a degree, pay workers
to surf the internet. In some industries there is a heavy overlap
between work-related tasks and social media sites in public
relations, journalism, and marketing and advertising, which reach
their audience via social media.
If workers take a small break from their task and surf a social
media site, they can easily be distracted for up to 20 minutes
before returning to their work.
Recreational use of social networks like Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, at the workplace can be monitored by employers, and
there have been cases of dismissal of social media addicted
employees who spend more time surfing the internet rather
than working on assignments.
The $10 billion wasted by Russians is only a fraction of the
estimated $650 billion wasted in productivity in the US.
An infographic by LearnStuff claims active social media users
cost their individual company $4,452 per year. The survey showed
Americans are distracted every 10 minutes, and take 20 minutes to
get back on track.
The same survey found that Americans spend twice as much time on
Facebook than they do exercising.
