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Internet misuse costs employers

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — Irish fans of the Britain’s Channel 4 Big Brother program are costing their employers at least _30,000 a day in lost productivity by tuning in on the Internet at work.

“The figure may well be conservative because I think more than 10,000 people would be accessing the site,” Pat Delaney, director of the Small Firms Association, said.

The SFA surveyed 100 member firms last week and found that staff using the Internet for personal reasons is costing businesses dearly.

They found staff are spending an average of about 12 minutes when they go on-line and the impact is worst for bigger companies where there is more difficulty monitoring computer usage.

“If an employee does that five times a day, that is an hour’s lost productivity and an hour’s telephony costs. The opportunity costs of that hour are hard to put a figure on.”

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Delaney said live web-casts of popular programs was a new social phenomenon and it was vital for firms draw up guidelines for staff on what is allowed.

The nine-week Big Brother program has sparked huge interest in Ireland with fans avidly following how the household monitored by cameras and microphones is faring.

Delaney said Internet access and e-mail is presenting new problems for companies.

“People are using it for their own benefit and problems were arising with abusive e-mails involving bullying and sexual harassment.

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