Date: 2007-08-21 Category: News

Facebook usage 'hampering productivity'

Employees who are signed up to social networking site Facebook are wasting their employers' time and money, according to a new report.

A survey by online security firm SurfControl found that companies in Australia were losing an estimated A$5 billion £2 billion through poor productivity, reports Reuters.

The figure was calculated by looking at the theoretical cost if one employee in every Australian company spent an hour on Facebook each day instead of working.

Although this may have produced an inexact amount, it is clear that social phenomena online have a serious business implication if employee usage becomes regular or excessive.

"People love being there and telling people what they are doing right now, what their thoughts are right at this second," SurfControl chairman Richard Cullen told Reuters.

"It's so interactive that people just get addicted to watching their Facebook groups all the time."

A recent report from comScore claimed that Facebook is the fastest growing social networking site in the UK, with unique visitor numbers increasing by 366 per cent since the beginning of the year.

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