Is it ‘Game Over’ for Over-Cautiousness in the Workplace?

A recent study has shown that a Pac-Man game placed on the Google home page has gobbled up nearly five million hours of work time across the world. The high uptake of the game brings into question uSwitch.com research, published this week, which suggests that there is increasing public uncertainty and over-cautiousness surrounding job security.

The Pac-Man game, originating from Japan, was placed on the Google homepage to celebrate its 30th Anniversary. The huge popularity of the game has led Google to make it a permanent fixture on its homepage.

The study, commissioned by Rescue Time, suggested that the average browsing time on Google increased from 11 to 47 seconds on the anniversary day. The time management software firm tracked the browsing habits of 11,000 users, remarking that the increased search engine usage figure was lower than expected due to many users not realising the Pac-Man game was playable.

In extrapolating the result of this study to the 504 million users who visit the Google page every day, this represents an increased browsing time of 4.8 million hours, that’s 549 years! Assuming that people are paid on average £17.50/hour, this equates to £84 million in lost productivity.

Andrew Hardaker, Managing Director of leading recruitment firm ATA Selection, said, “Although this week’s USwitch research has suggested that confidence in job security has fallen at its fastest rate since February 2009, the stats brought out by Rescue Time could indicate that many seem to be relaxing at little more, rather than knuckling down as we take the first steps out of the recession.

“With the emergency budget sure to affect many people’s jobs, employee complacency, displayed through personal internet browsing, emails and games may be unfounded.

“At a time when many employees may be de-motivated by a lack of alternative job opportunities, they should nevertheless take heed of advice to maintain an over-cautious attitude to their job, particularly throughout World Cup season which has already caused much publicity surrounding the legality of employees watching matches on the internet during work hours.”