Tuesday
Fact One: preposterous surveys cost the British economy £1.38 billion
Fact Two: prior to the invention of Twitter, no one employed in British offices knew how to waste time that should be spent working, as no one was surfing the internet, flirting with co-workers, staring out the window at that hottie over there with the short skirt and high leather boots, photocopying their bums, telling jokes, gossiping...
Fact Three: 97.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
"More than half of office workers use sites like Twitter and Facebook for personal use during the working day, and admit wasting an average of 40 minutes a week each."
40 minutes a week? That's 8 minutes a day. My employees waste more time than that wandering the hall; hell, I do myself. That number is nonsensical; the cost calculation meaningless; and the conclusion simply foolish. People find a myriad of ways to waste time; we always have. (The very best way of all is to get a government job.) There's no substantive difference between tweeting and gossiping around the water cooler.
Posted by Laird at October 27, 2009 03:12 PM
Vic Reeve's research found that 88.2% of statistics were made up on the spot, not 97.4%!
I think the twittering probably helps people become better at writing and improves the work they do.
Posted by Current at October 27, 2009 03:32 PM
An old joke: If statistics proves anything, it is that sitting in the front row of a burlesque house causes baldness.
Whaza "burlesque house" ? Look it up.
Hamilton County, People's State of Ohio, is said to have installed cams in the 911 (emergency phone) room. Seems that operators fall asleep.
Obviously, they don't pay them enough to afford the latest electronic gimcracks that would keep them awake
Posted by cjf at October 27, 2009 07:18 PM
I believe that I have tracked this Great Idea back to its originator:
“Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.”
- Homer Simpson
Posted by Ernie G at October 27, 2009 07:30 PM
"I think the twittering probably helps people become better at writing"
WTF? Have you ever actually read something compressed into 140 characters? You probably think that texting improves writing skill, too.
If that's an improvement your standards must be really low!
Posted by Laird at October 27, 2009 08:34 PM
Standards ?
Everything is become a creeping lack of standard measurement or comparison. One big kettle of fish.
Last upon a time, they rule heavily ever after.
Posted by cjf at October 28, 2009 12:44 AM
I somehow doubt the wasted time is lost productivity. I'm not going to suddenly become more productive if my boss watches over my shoulder all day making sure that *every* *last* *minute* is spent doing what he would call work.
I need my Twittering, Facbooking, Samizdata-ing down-time to get important background processing done.
See the Hacker FAQ section 2.
Posted by Rob Fisher at October 28, 2009 02:40 PM
97.4% is SO last year. The latest figure is 98.1%
Posted by Kim du Toit at October 30, 2009 12:20 AM
