Calling social media sites a "productivity black hole," the UK IT services group Morse said that staff who use Twitter and other social networking sites while at work are costing UK businesses £1.38bn every year, according to the BBC.
More than half those surveyed said they used social networking sites during the working day for personal use, with the average being 40 minutes per week on these sites. While this doesn't sound like much, it adds up to almost a week a year, Morse said.
Other responses from the study, which surveyed 1,460 people:
- More than three-quarters of respondents said their employer had not given them specific guidelines with regards to using Twitter.
- A third of workers said they had seen sensitive information posted on social networks.
- 84 percent said they felt it should be up to them what they posted online.