The following is from our recent Talent 2.0 research…
Perhaps troubling to employers is the extent to which the Net Generation says they use work technologies to complete non-work tasks . Half (50%) say they do so for two hours a day or more.
From one point of view, using work technologies for personal tasks is a distraction; from another point of view, it’s a way to enable employees to integrate their professional and personal lives and accomplish more in both. The study found that the youth generation is slightly more likely to integrate, rather than compartmentalize, their work and personal lives.
Perhaps, we should have asked the question differently and asked how many used it 2-4 hours per day, 4-8 and 8 or more….
I’d also be interested to know how many are using personal technologies to do work - and for how long on personal time. Does it balance out?
[...] research by the people at Wikinomics found that 50% of the Net Generations surveyed spend more than 2 hours [...]
“The study found that the youth generation is slightly more likely to integrate, rather than compartmentalize, their work and personal lives.”
That is a very important distinction. Did your survey ask how long each person spends at work? A better indicator would be the percentage of work time spent using work technology to do non-work things.
Good point, Vincent. We’d be able to do cross tabs based on profession, which would probably be our closest measure on hours worked per week.
I’ll adjust it the next version of the quant study