I'd like to find out how many hours during a workday are spent
actually doing work.  The context is that of a white-collar, full-time
position.  Time spent on things such as lunch, smoking breaks, and
other "downtime" should not be included.  Hours spent in any strictly
work-related effort, such as non-social client and coworker contact,
project analysis, research, self-education and production should be
included.  I'm particularly interested in this statistic for small
companies involved in the production of custom Web applications (e.g.,
for intranets and industry-specific applications).  Preference will be
given to answers including citations from widely-recognized sources
(e.g., BLS).

I've done some investigation myself at the BLS Web site and at others,
but the numbers I've found are of the "8 hours/day, 40 hours/week"
type, lacking the specificity I'd like as to how a "workday" is spent.
 Thanks in advance for your help!

Greetings Codegrinder:

No answer but some interesting observations.

"In 2003, questions on work and family conflicts were asked for the
first time.  Employed parents were twice as likely to report that the
demands of their jobs often or always interfered with their family
(32%) than to report that their family often or always interfered with
their work activities (16%).  Almost all parents (74%) reported that
their work interfered with their family life at least sometimes. 
Parents were much more likely to report that they were at least
sometimes preoccupied with their work when at home (63%) than being
preoccupied with their personal life while at work (37%)."
From  http://www.unt.edu/soci/Faculty/seward/5260%20Parents%20Survey%202003%20Summary%20for%20Parents.doc

"A survey has found that many workers at small and medium businesses
are wasting time with e-mail messages and websites that have nothing
to do with their jobs. It found that 30% of the companies questioned
were losing more a day's work per week to this time wasting."
Please read the entire text on time wasting at
http://www.netpilot.com/products/urls/Internet%20abuse.pdf

Regarding migraine headaches: "The total time lost to usual activities
during a single migraine attack was reduced from 9 hours with placebo
treatment to 4 hours with eletriptan. The total work time lost fell
from 4 to 2.5 hours."
From http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/Migraine/worklos2.html

"Some companies are reporting 10 percent reduction in productivity due to stress."
From http://www.minihttpserver.net/products/clickb00ks.htm

From my management experience in retail and office environments
*before* the Internet, I can safely report that at least six hours a
week was wasted on personal phone calls, personal problems and idle
gossip.  Taking into account the Internet and stress-related
headaches, one could probably subtract another 8 hours.  I'd guess
that *at least* 14 hours a week (quickly approaching 40% of a 40-hour
week) is spent in non-productive behavior that steals employer time.

Go to any city, county, state or federal office in America for
up-close observation of the sleek tactics used to avoid actual work.
;)

Best regards,
journalist-ga


SEARCH STRATEGY:

"time study" white collar payroll
time "actually spent working" 40 hour week
"out of 40 hours" actual work
survey "stealing company time"
Internet use percent OR % stealing employer time
"time lost" "at work" personal Internet