Angry Employers!

Many employers feel like giving the bird to the Angry Bird creators? Why? Chatting on personal calls, surfing dating sites, Tweeting and following Tweets, and even that receptionist favorite, Solitaire, are no longer the biggest factors robbing employers of valuable employee time. No, today that anger-inducing distraction is, well, Angry Birds, the cell phone addictive game that has now migrated to larger computer and tablet screens.

How bad is it? “Struck by prior studies that investigated the workplace time (and therefore money) suck that is the annual ritual of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at The Atlantic, did the same calculation for the mobile phone video game, Angry Birds…The process derives from a formula invented by the Chicago consulting firm, Challenger, Gray & Christmas. According to the calculations, Gray says, $1.516 billion is lost each year in wages over the wing-enhanced pillaging of worker productivity.

“In doing his math, Madrigal, who is currently a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, made use of the stat that Americans cumulatively devote 200 million minutes a day to those avian avengers. That figure came from a survey conducted by the market research firm, Ask Your Target Market. The data is based on interviews with a representative pool of 500 American workers.” Jobs.Aol.com, September 16^th. A billion and a half dollars?!

It cannot be that bad, right? Well, actually, there are advantages in helping workers unwind, release tension, and take breaks that for some… I repeat for some… represents a distraction that may actually increase productivity. “There may be some good news to the game playing. As an article on the website The Star Online points out, half the 500 people polled by AYTM said the game helped them to unwind and relax, and even improved their mood and gave them joy. Such a reaction is even bolstered by a 2009 study conducted by Leonard Reinecke of the University of Hamburg published in CyberPsychology and Behaviour, which found that ‘individuals with higher levels of work-related fatigue reported stronger recovery experience during gameplay.’” Jobs.Aol.com.

Yeah, well, a nap is good for productivity, taking a walk isn’t too bad, an exercise break is good for health and productivity, and maybe you can take a walk while playing Angry Birds, work out on a treadmill while watching Angry Birds, and take a short drive… well, okay, maybe not driving. But in a world where unemployment and underemployment tend to force workers to work 16 hour days with barely a bathroom break, it is essential to understand that time off – during the day and over planned vacations – is an essential productivity enhancement.

How about some nice nap rooms at the office? “Employers may be hesitant to go so far as to install nap rooms in the office, but the merits of allowing workers to catch a short nap have long been made plain -- a 1995 NASA study that found a 26-minute nap improved performance 34 percent and alertness 54 percent.” Jobs.Aol.com. Want to think about that for a while? Sleep on it, even? Hey, I was just winging it.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we know that all work and no play makes Johnny… and Mary… and Fareed… a dull boy, girl and boy.