Surfing the Web at Work May Be as Addictive as Cup of Coffee

Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN), the worldís leading provider of employee internet management solutions, today announced the results of its sixth annual Web@Work study, the companyís annual survey conducted by Harris Interactive.



The 2005 Web@Work survey suggests that surfing the web may be more addictive than coffee. Fifty-two percent of employees surveyed who use the internet at work for personal reasons stated that they would rather give up their morning java than internet access at work, while only 44 per cent would give up their internet access for coffee. Furthermore, internet usage at work is increasingó93 per cent of all respondents said they spend at least some time accessing the internet at work. This is up from 86 per cent in 2004, as reported in the 2004 Web@Work survey.

2005 Web@Work Survey Results:

COFFEE VERSUS THE INTERNETó 52 per cent of employees surveyed who use the internet at work for personal reasons said they would rather give up their morning coffee than use of the internet at work for personal reasons

TIME SPENTó93 per cent of all employees surveyed said they spend at least some time accessing the Internet at work (up from 86 per cent in the 2004 Web@Work survey)

PERSONAL SURFINGóThe average time spent accessing the internet at work is 12.6 hours per week, whereas average time spent accessing non work-related sites is 3.4 hours per week. However, IT decision-makers surveyed estimated that employees spend an average of just under six (5.9) hours per week surfing non work-related websites

INTERNET PERSONALITYó48 per cent of the employees surveyed said they use the internet at work purely for work-related tasks. 10 per cent of employees surveyed use the internet at work for both business and pleasure in equal amounts

WEBSITES ACCESSEDóThe most popular types of non work-related websites accessed at work are news (81 per cent), personal email (61 per cent), online banking (58 per cent), travel (56 per cent), and shopping (52 per cent)

GENDER DIFFERENCESó62 per cent of men admitted to accessing non work-related websites during work hours versus slightly more than half (54 per cent) of women. Men are 2.3 times more likely than women to visit sports sites during working hours, and men are more than three times more likely than women to visit investment and stock purchasing sites during work hours

ONLINE PORNOGRAPHYó23 per cent of men who access the internet at work said they had visited a porn site while at work, while only 12 per cent of women had done so. 17 per cent of the men and 11 per cent of the women admitted viewing porn intentionally

NON WORK-RELATED APPLICATION USAGEóListening to or watching streaming media (18 per cent) and using instant messaging (16 per cent) are still the most popular computer-based applications used at work at least once a week by those employees surveyed with internet access at work. However, playing games at work has decreasedóonly six percent of employees said they play computer games at work, down from 14 per cent in 2004

INSTANT MESSAGINGóOf those employees surveyed who use instant messaging at work, 43 per cent said that they either send or receive file attachments via instant messaging (IM) while at work (up from 37 per cent in 2004). Twenty-nine percent admitted that they use IM primarily for non work-related purposes. According to the IT decision-makers surveyed, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of companies do not have corporate-sanctioned instant messaging

EFFECT ON DISK SPACEó40 per cent say that anywhere from one to four percent of disk space is taken up by non work-related files, another two in five (39 per cent) say five to ten percent housed non-work related files, while more than one in ten (11 per cent) say at least 11 percent of total disk space is taken up by non work-related files. Only one in ten (10 per cent) indicated that none of their help desk support calls have to do with non work-related files.

The survey results indicated a major disconnect between how much time IT decision-makers believe employees are spending surfing personal sites at work versus the amount of time that employees admitted to spending online. For example, those IT decision-makers surveyed estimated that employees spend an average of just under six (5.9) hours per week on non work-related websites at work, but employees surveyed who admitted to personal surfing at work said they are spending only 3.4 hours per week, on average.

ìAs the line between professional and personal usage of the internet becomes more of a grey area, many employees have started to rely on the internet to complete their job duties as well as perform personal tasksóduring the work day. In addition, with the sheer quantity and variety of websites and applications readily available, many employees are either not admitting to, or most likely not aware of, how much time they are really spending on personal surfing,î said Geoff Haggart, VP Europe, Websense, Inc. ìThe solution lies in balancing employeesí needs for personal use of the web at work without draining overall productivity, morale or the companyís bottom line.î