Things not to do at your workplace: Misuse of your time (and employers money) #4

The internet has become a new hang out spot for half of the world's population. It's growth has been unimaginable, and it has impacted individuals at work so much that they sometimes forget what real work is. The world has changed so much that we would rather send a Facebook message or a Twitter rather than going out on a coffee or watch a movie.

According to a survey in the US by Salary.com shows how much time are people wasting at work.

So 52% of workers are using the time at work for Surfing the internet for personal use, out of 2700 people that were in the survey that means that over 1350 of them are doing that. It seems many employees are just too busy socializing on Facebook, using LinkedIn, reading/emailing of Yahoo/Google etc. 

I personally think that if you give an employee full freedom on their job, that lasts approximately 7 hours, they are almost 99% chances that they will use that time to do anything but work related activities. Even if you restrict them, you cannot stop them from using their handheld devices such as smart phones, tablets etc.

However, here is an interesting question for you. Would you fire someone over his internet use, and do you think its right to fire someone for wasting time on the internet? What do you think is a more serious issue, surfing the web or reading a book/sleeping?