Loafing - it's all relative

Sep 24 2007 by Derek Torres Print This Article

If you've ever been unfavorably compared to Einstein, you can take heart. In fact, if you've ever been told that you're "hardly an Einstein", you may actually be closer to the great physicist than you think.

This recent article by Eric Weiner in the LA Times shows the link that many of us share with Dr. Einstein. Unfortunately, it's not that we share his freaky intelligence, but rather that we're all just about as loafing as him.

AOL recently conducted a study that, not surprisingly, showed how much time-wasting went on in American office buildings. Rather than quantify it in time, let's do it in money. We've been wasting away time to the tune of $579 million, I'm sorry, I meant billion, per year.

What's surprising is that is that we're loafing at a rate 20% less than we were just a few years ago. However, I suspect that with inflation, we're still pissing away the same amount of productivity in dollars.

What's sad is that the United Nations International Labor Organization recently reported that Americans were the most productive nation in terms of worker productivity. What's sadder is that they're so far ahead of the rest that the results aren't even close.

So if we're losing hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity and are still the most productive nation on earth, I'm scared to see what other nations are losing. Let's not spend too much time patting ourselves on the back on this victory. As I've come to learn, he who works longest doesn't always work best!

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