A new waste of our nation's work day

For several years now, I’ve heard stats released at the start of a new year about how much time the American workforce wasted in the past year, and how that time was spent.

Without fail, fantasy sports are credited, or blamed, depending on how you look at it, as being the largest waste of time in the average American’s work day. Anywhere from 30 minutes in some cases, to as many as two hours are spent on fantasy sports by some workers, and the employers are footing the bill while their productivity suffers.

That may be the case for many, and I’ve spent a minute or two myself picking which teams I thought would win in the week’s NFL match-ups, but I can’t imagine fantasy sports could hold a candle to some of the social networking sites out there like My Space and Facebook.

For a long time, I resisted the invitations of friends to join the social networking craze, but I recently gave in and got on board.

I must say I’ve enjoyed getting in touch with some old high school friends, including one who was a foreign exchange student from Switzerland. It’s been fun hearing from those you haven’t seen in a long time, and many whom I will be seeing in person for the first time since high school when I go to my 20-year class reunion later this summer.

Still, while using these tools, I limit myself to viewing casually at home in my off time. I have too much to do in a work day to sit around posting the smallest details about my day, although that’s not the case for everybody using these sites.

Facebook is a good tool to stay in touch with friends, but it, and the average person’s workday, could be abused. Some people post information about themselves, their family lives and other details, but there are those obsessed folks who find it necessary to log on and let everyone know they are arriving at work, completing an assignment on the job, heading to lunch, and any other detail that might come up through the day.

Every day.

I have one friend who works for a state agency, and she posts every move made during the day. I can only imagine that with our state’s economy in the shape we find it these days, there has to be a better way to spend the state’s time and use state computers.

If you use these sites, enjoy them, but don’t let them rule your life, and don’t let them ruin your job, or cost you your job.

Now, get back to work!