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Romir / News / Figures and Facts / |
Figures and FactsOffice workers are actively using Internet at work for personal needsAs part of June online-omnibus ROMIR Monitoring Research Holding asked its respondents to answer several questions about their using office computer and Internet for personal needs. The survey embraced 1412 active Internet-users (browsing Internet at least once a month) aged 18 and above. The sample is representative of the Russian Internet-audience that according to the results of Internet Monitoring in the first quarter of this year made up 22% of the adult population of Russia. Error margin does not exceed ±2,5%. Main activity of 76% of the respondents is linked with computers. 90% of them admitted using office computer and Internet for personal needs. At the same time Internet access of less than half of those using office computers (39%) is not limited. The others do have different restrictions limiting their freedom of browsing Internet: 19% mentioned restriction of Internet-traffic, 18% of the respondents have restrictions for visiting particular web-sites (types of web-sites). In other 18% of the cases the participants of the survey complained that top management of their companies oppose using Internet for personal needs, 14% of those surveyed noticed invisible administering of their computers. Computers of 6% of the respondents do not have Internet access and the same number of the respondents complained of slow speed of data transfer. So, what do Internet-users do during their working day irrespective of the restrictions for using Internet for personal needs existing in the company? The respondents who admitted spending minutes of rest at their working places were asked to answer the following question: How much time on an average do you spend for activity not linked with your work? (%) The answers are given below (those hesitating were not included):  Rating of the most popular non-working activity at the working place is as follows. Overwhelming majority of the respondents (86%) read news in Internet, 80% - search Internet for information not linked with the work. Six out of ten surveyed (60%) are busy communicating with their friends via ICQ or other programs and the same share of the respondents read books and materials not linked with the work in electronic libraries and at information portals. 57% of the participants of the survey do not just read but also download materials found in Internet. Every second respondent (55%) keeps his eye on the news, reading Internet versions of newspapers and magazines. And majority of those making such breaks assure that they use office Internet not longer than for 30 minutes a day. The histogram above shows that the least popular way of spending time is playing network games – 81% of the respondents do not play them, 80% of those surveyed do not visit dating sites, 78% of the participants do not watch video and 77% - do not read/keep blogs. 72% of those interviewed do not play «Freecell» è «Solitaire» (games of the standard Microsoft package) and 70% do not play additionally installed games. And majority of those involved in these types of activities declare spending half an hour for this at most. Experts of ROMIR Monitoring consider this rating of the most and the least popular activities at working computer quite logical and explainable. For example in order to play online games one should have a powerful computer with good sound-card and video-card – true gamers purchase such devices for their own home computers and do not install them into computers at work. So, there is neither sense, nor necessary devices for paying online-games at work, and «Freecell» and «Solitaire» are a real bore. Communication at forums needs constant presence at corresponding site, while communication via ICQ and similar programs is a kind of a dialog that can be paused. Users avoid dating sites and entertainment sites still being afraid of invisible administering or possible punishments from management. The results of the survey helped to reveal some peculiar features. For example men and women are equal in activity of using ICQ and similar programs and the only difference is that majority of men (37%) spend 30 minutes a day at most for it, while among a large part of women (12%) spend above 2 hours a day for it. ICQ communication is the most popular among the respondents aged 25-34. Among those aged above 45 this program is not used by 73% of those surveyed. As to reading news in Internet, it is most popular among the respondents aged 25-34 (90%), while younger participants (those aged 18-24) visit information and news sites a bit rarer than the respondents of the other age categories. The respondents with moderate income surf Internet far rarer than the users with high and medium income. In general time spent in Internet increases with income. In whole 80% of the respondents search Internet for information not linked with the work. And in different regions this percentage differs from the average in the sample. And this is no surprise. Regular surveys of online audience prove that this type of activity in Internet is the most popular. There are more men, respondents aged 25-34, those with high income level among those looking for information in the Net. As to dating sites, men are more active here than women – 17% versus 9% respectively. Dating sites are more often visited by the respondents with medium income level. Olga Melnikova, qualitative research chief consultant of ROMIR Monitoring, Doctor of Psychology, considers it quite possible that the respondents spend more working time for their hobbies than they declare. It can be explained by a desire to lessen their “guilt” – all of them understand that during their working hours they should be busy with their work only, though they cannot help profiting by the occasion – computer with Internet access - for appeasing their information hunger. And besides, not all users can take the time spent in Internet for their own purposes under their control. It may seem that it not more than 20-30 minutes passed since they had started to read something or to play a game, while actually several hours elapsed. So, Internet users are rather active in browsing Internet for their own personal needs, in spite of the fact that there are restrictions for browsing Internet in the offices of half of the respondents. And office workers would surf Internet even more actively if there were no restrictions at all – it was declared by one third of those whose Internet-histories are constantly looked through by management and system administrators (38%). Looking at the issue of using office computer with Internet access from another point of view, the survey shows that the most part of time is spent by the respondents for intellectual and informational development (reading news and materials not linked with the work), while entertainment activity and communication with friends takes about 30 minutes a day. |