At-Work Internet Usage Isn’t All About Work.

We se-e-e-ee you.

Workers are logging on to the Internet at work, at home and in between.

How many of them?

In May 2009 Nielsen counted 68.6 million unique US Internet users in the workforce, most of them male (54.4%, compared with 45.6% female).

Similarly, comScore counted 65.6 million at-work Internet users, although the gender divide was much closer: 51% were male and 49% female.

“Two-thirds of employed adults use the Internet and e-mail at their workplace, and nearly one-half of them do at least some work from home, with 18% working from home every day or nearly every day,” says Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, At-Work Internet Usage.

At one time, employers were worried that workers who logged on at work would waste time and reduce productivity. There is some of that, but in the main the opposite seems to be true.

“Work is being conducted everywhere, now,” says Ms. Phillips. “And the more mobile the workforce, the more work they are expected to do.”

Determining whether the Internet positively or negatively affects productivity in the workplace depends on your perspective.

“The Internet affords the means for instant communication, the flexibility to work from remote locations and still be a contributing member of a team, and myriad avenues of entertainment and diversion,” says Ms. Phillips. “However, the advantages also carry disadvantages, for employers and employees alike.”

Since 2000, the Internet has been credited with boosting work performance and productivity, according to annual surveys by the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future. Some 57% of respondents said the Internet had improved their productivity “a lot” or “somewhat” in 2000, and that opinion was shared by 71% of respondents in 2007.

Still, an almost-consistent 5% of respondents each year argued that the Internet had worsened their job performance “a lot” or “somewhat.”

More than one-half (53%) of respondents to a Kelly Services survey gave mobile technologies such as phones, PDAs and laptop PCs a “much better” response regarding the devices’ effect on work productivity. Another 25% said only “slightly better.”

“Reporting is difficult,” says Ms. Phillips, “because work and leisure times are overlapping.”

For example, you are probably reading this article online during a typical workday, but you might have printed it and for reading during your commute, while traveling on business or at home during your “leisure time.”

Courtesy of http://www.emarketer.com