A worker's stolen moment

Do you carry out personal tasks while on the job?
Read on, says ANGELA McCARTHY.

Judges are caught using their office computer to look at pornography websites. A shop assistant ignores customers to gossip on the phone.

People spend hours at their desk communicating by email to friends and banks rather than working. Should the employer be cracking the whip? What is acceptable use of work time?

The concept of a working day has changed substantially and many of the traditional divisions between work and personal have blurred, says New Zealand Public Service Association (PSA) policy analyst Bryce Fleury.

"Work is interfering more with people's personal lives, so is it okay if vice-versa happens as well?"

He is talking trade-offs, where people may do internet banking or book holidays during work hours, but then take work reading home, stay accessible 24 hours through mobiles, and generally work beyond the 40-hour-week.

"Surely the acid test is whether work is getting done."

Fleury believes productivity suffers if staff feel closely monitored.

But what about the productivity lost to employers through personal errands in work time? An Australian survey last year of 5000 employees by recruitment company TMP Worldwide found personal errands done in work hours was costing Australian businesses A$6.1billion per annum (NZ$7.5billion).

Around 65 per cent of respondents admitted to spending about an hour a week doing personal errands at work - ranging from paying bills to attending or making appointments - while a smaller percentage admitted up to three hours a week.

No equivalent New Zealand survey has yet been done, according to TMP Worldwide Wellington eResourcing general manager Paul Jury, though he is keen to propose something similar.

However, he thought the Australian findings would be applicable to New Zealand.

And 12 months ago, after looking at demands on staffs' personal time, TMP's Australian and New Zealand offices allocated all employees a personal day off per quarter.

While acknowledging personal days don't solve the need for emergency time off - such as unexpected lawyer appointments - Jury says the company is still flexible in such circumstances.

"We'd rather people deal with an issue that is worrying them, and make up time later."

However TMP, which hasn't yet analysed the economic effects of the policy, is currently reviewing it.

"A lot of people are taking their personal day on either side of a weekend," says Jury.

"I wonder whether that is moving away from the personal errand focus."

To Peter Tritt, Northern Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) advisory services manager, a personal day off is simply an annual leave day under a different name.

For EMA members, the biggest issue is personal internet use at work, something that costs employers in both lost productivity and extra use of work technology.

"One estimate showed 40 per cent of staff down time was spent on the internet, particularly email," says Tritt.

Yet employers and managers don't have the time to physically monitor "every move their employees make", and sophisticated monitoring systems can be expensive, he adds.

Limited personal email use is usually built into policy for most businesses and if someone flagrantly abuses that, then disciplinary procedures should be followed.

TMP has also had problems with personal internet use, says Jury.

"We have had to build policies around that. If people access certain sites, warnings will flash on their screens.

"But we don't mind people sending the occasional personal email. There needs to be enormous trust as managers can't micro-manage employees 24 hours a day - nor do they want to. So at the end of the day it is results that count," says Jury.

So where do you draw the line? Is it okay to be typing on the computer while waiting on hold for a personal call, or reading the business page and checking out your shares?

Part of the issue is that we are human beings in relationships that can't always be tidied into work hours and weekends.

A friendly and flexible workplace that attracts and retains people is more important than a bit of personal down-time, according to Carter Holt Harvey human resources manager Kevin Gaunt.

"There are often family reasons why someone has to be away for a short time during working hours. This is especially important where a work location is a distance from the nearest town or shops."

However, Gaunt says the down side is that time is difficult to monitor, and has to be done on trust.

"Secondly, in a production environment, people just can't go off whenever they want to."

Business New Zealand executive director Ann Knowles says open-plan offices and the small size of most New Zealand businesses makes it less likely people can get away with too much.

"Here 93.6 per cent of businesses have 10 or less workers, so you get to know pretty quickly if someone is always dashing out to pick up their drycleaning.

"A little is okay. But if people are continually doing it, it is theft of workplace time and requires disciplinary action."