Survey: Missouri workers waste most time in U.S.

New report says

average Missouri worker wastes 3 hours and

12 minutes every day.

A new Web survey says Missouri workers waste almost half of an 8-hour workday wasting time, but local businesses and state officials don't see those same results.

The survey was conducted by America Online and Salary.com and found that Missouri workers reported spending an average of 3 hours and 12 minutes every work day not working, the biggest waste of time of any state in the country. That time costs companies in Missouri about $28.1 billion annually, according to the survey.

According to the research, the average American worker spends more than two hours a day wasting time, costing companies $759 billion annually on wasted salary.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt didn't put much stock into the survey results.

"Nobody can match the work ethic of Missourians," said Blunt. "This survey, which our busiest citizens did not want to waste their time on, cannot undermine decades of experience. Missouri workers are among the most productive in the world."

The results of the poll conflict with research into the productivity of Missouri's workers and industries done by the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Kristi Jamison, a spokesperson with the department, said Missouri workers have the "Midwest ethic" of hard work that makes them competitive with any other state in the nation.

She referred to the Target Missouri Three report, which looked at Missouri industries and workers and found Missourians were at or above the national average in productivity.

Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Magnet, said he isn't worried that the results of such polls will keep businesses away from the local area.

"I wonder what kind of jobs those are," joked Robinson. "Maybe I need to be in one of those."

He pointed out that, while there may be some workers who waste even more than three hours a day, there are also those who waste much less. And every job is different, he said, with different demands on time.

Keeping workers productive is something company policies must deal with, said Jamison, and many of them take a proactive approach to time-wasting problems in the workplace like Internet usage.

At Alliance Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Cape Girardeau, an office which employs 300 of the company's 1,400 workers statewide, workers are given performance goals they have to meet, said company spokesperson Deborah Wiethop.

Setting those goals keeps the company's workers productive, she said. Incidentally, the insurance industry was cited as No. 1 in the survey for wasted time.

Wasted time can serve a productive purpose when the amount is limited, said Jim Childress, assistant vice president at First Community Bank.

"I think there's always going to be that 'down time' in any business," he said. "Hopefully the employees are dedicated enough employees that they know when it's OK to take a break."

Data for the survey was collected from 10,044 America Online and Salary.com Salary Wizard users and corporate human resource professionals.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182

The Associated Press contributed to this report.