What is Digg?120 Comments
- Diggingspoon, on 10/10/2007, -1/+61But mysteriously, their estimates of what your time is worth are much more conservative when you ask for a raise
- mikejamesss, on 10/10/2007, -2/+51Way to pull numbers out of your butt...I hate these "estimated" losses - no real facts on how they did their research...
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -7/+52If my employer gave me more work and was not at the office only 1 day a week I would probably not be on digg or facebook hours a day
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+31I hate studies about how much money companies "lose" due to the Superbowl, Facebook, whatever. Many companies (and entire countries) have tried to remove all distractions from workers. It makes sense on paper - someone who just works 12 hours a day straight will be the most productive employee, right? That's as wrong as can be in the real world. In the office world no competent people want to just work hardcore for the sake of working... people work hard because they want to enjoy their non-working lives more. So if they have outside interests - great! That will just make them work harder so they can enjoy their real life more. Every office has weirdos with no lives outside work... do they ever make senior positions? The people who get promoted are people who are motivated to work hard to improve their outside-work lives.
These studies are based on the fallacy that someone who logs a lot of hours is automatically the best employee. I know people who spend 70-80 hours a week in the office and their work sucks. If you're evaluating employees based on time in the office, you're running your company into the ground. Pay people to actually get their work done right and on time, regardless of how good they are at looking busy. - Philluminati, on 10/10/2007, -9/+32Richard Cullen, I think you are COMPLETELY WRONG. Sure, time spent on facebook is wasted in the eyes of a faceless corporate organisation who don't respect their staff but if my company started to take action against facebook, by blocking it, then I would dislike my job and believe me....that would cost ALOT more. I recon, although I have no facts, that pissed off, disgruntled employees who sit and moan and do a poorer job than happy employees, waste much more than any arbitrary figure you can pull out of thin air for facebook usage. Don't tell me that figure you quoted is anything more than a random guess. Even if you had the internet logs of all those 800,000 Australian work places, you still can't tell how much time was actually spent with the page in the background, just being refreshed every 20 minutes. I'll have you know personally, that I waste far more time on digg than I do on facebook, thank you very much! I believe I should be empowered in my job and not treated like a child. Why don't you ask managers how many minutes of their meetings are actually productive and how many minutes are wasted regurgitating old *****? This alleged wasted time on facebook only replaces other wasteful tasks, such as smoking, making cups of tea, general conversation, internal emailing bollocks, chain mail etc. I suggest that you think about the physiology of the employees in question and admit they are goal orientated and most probably deliver on time - accept the give and take and thank ***** they keep those businesses running smootly.
/End Wall of Text - fezzen, on 10/10/2007, -4/+22"It's only a matter of time before a security loophole is discovered and exploited." Dr Cullen said.
You could say this about literally anything. Then again I take with a grain of salt anything this man says, being that he's made a career out of censoring free speech on the internet. - DevinOlsen, on 10/10/2007, -2/+19If facebook is 'costing' 5 Billion dollars; I hate to think what Digg must 'cost'...
- Akaji, on 10/10/2007, -1/+16I'd like to see a report on how much Digg costs IT businesses...
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14If it wasn't facebook it would be something else - when will employeers realise employees dont work 100% of the time.
Before the internet we played Solitaire.
Before computers we played noughts and crosses.
Before writing instruments we threw rocks at eachother. - gharding, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14The Office Space quote "I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work" sums up my work week nicely. If someone actually fills my plate, I'll work all day.
- Ventolin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13-5 diggs for showing signs of appreciation. That'll learn ya!
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10I don't think you're overdoing it, I think you're nuts.
The NSA is almost surely keeping up a database of us, and I'm sure they use facebook (along with our digg, AIM, and prisonplanet activities). Do I think that facebook was set up and funded by the CIA? I'd like to see your proof. - spoiled1, on 10/10/2007, -2/+12I think it would be safe to say that Digg is the #1 culprit when it comes to such losses.
I end up spending atleast an hour on digg everyday@work. - teh_techie, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11only an hour?
- theholycow, on 10/10/2007, -3/+10i got norton
- yargthepirate, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Yes, but you would hope that your value would be somewhat resembling what you're getting paid.
- yargthepirate, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9$6200/year * 1 year/52 weeks * 1 week/5 workdays * 1 workday/1hr = $23.85/hr. Mysteriously, I make less than that.
- khail250, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6they would just spend time on youtube, yahoo, miniclip.com... to many other possibilities, facebook is just one thing to cast a stone on
- DreKor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Digg probably costs a lot less. Facebook has a much larger user base.
- dajuggernaut, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7amount of money wasted on myspace: $2 Billion
amount of money wasted on facebook: $5 Billion
amount of money wasted on digg: $342,234,536,938,843,293,137... ah f'it PRICELESS - yargthepirate, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Obviously the CIA's first step is to search for people whose interests include "bombs", "jihad", or "Ron Paul".
- ExSlashdotter, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Just do what I do: become the network admin. I gotta admit, Websense-ing other people is kind of fun...
- gharding, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7Yeah, I'm sure the CIA is interested in knowing I enjoy Flight of the Conchords, riding my bike, Russian literature, and Heineken.
- wattznext, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Isn't the whole "/" joke supposed to be imitating the off tag for html, such as ? If so shouldn't your comment end "/Wall of text"? I see people screwing this up all the time and don't get it.
- drmobutu, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Why focus on Facebook? The entire web is the most massive diversion and waste of employee's time and employer's resources in history! I have friends who literally spend half of their enire workday surfing the web, and half of the remaining on-the-clock time complaining about how they have to work so hard...
- crawf061, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5so facebook got blocked because the intern was on myspace all day?
- johnny861, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Even if you removed on-line distractions completely, this doesn't mean the employees are going to sit there and be productive for 8 hours. That's simply nonsense and would only foster burnout. I would expect an employee to put in a good 5 solid hours of productivity. The other 3+ hours are going to be dotted with distractions, hopefully constructive distractions that help break up the work day.
I will take quality of work, over quantity of hours worked any day. - airwalkery2k, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4People will always waste time. It could be standing at the water cooler, or staring blankly at your desk, or doodling. Just now as people are gravitating toward surfing the web, companies have a new face to put on it--the Internet.
- frsrblch, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3If it wasn't Facebook, it would be something else. The only conclusion you could draw would be that people like wasting time better with Facebook than other online distractions.
- timbo83251, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Facebook just replaces shnapping (*****-napping) as a time-waster at work...
Also, you know how much time us young employees save (assuming most Facebook-using employees are younger and more tech-savvy). I once saved this stupid girl I work with a whole days worth of pointless work due to the find/replace function in word (simple, but perfect example)... - griz, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Im in ur paycheck dockin ur dollarz
- jason469, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3This can be said just about everything: Facebook, Myspace, Digg, bathroom breaks, smoke breaks, the gossip group, and hell even day dreaming. The point is, no matter how hard you work, you need a break from time to time, it keeps you sane, the more you restrict a person the more likely they will be trapped and they'll just end up hating their job. I've worked in places where it was relaxed and you could do whatever as long as you finished your projects on time and I've worked in places that wanted all work, no play and I can tell you that the relaxed job was much better and actually got their work done on time.
They want you to be a corporate bot, that's the feeling I got from this article. - MiNGLED, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Remember this is the CIA we're talking about, all the important data will be lost before not too long but they will know a lot about the great wars between pirates and ninjas.
- killerofkiller, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3do you feel special?
- mletto157, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3You can't think about it in literal terms of how much you make... If you look at most businesses and what they're making for the work you're doing - it's generally much more than you're making. For example - if you're making $20/hr doing computer programming and it takes you 5 hours to write a program, they paid you $100. Then they go and sell that program for say $500. If it took you longer to make that program not only would they be paying you more for the same amount of work, they would have their product later. Now if you look at profits here - their ideal employee ($500 profit - (5 hrs * $20/hr)pay = $400 profit per 5 hours) --- now the facebook employee ($500 profit - (6 hrs * $20/hr)pay = $380 profit per 6 hours). Not only do they make less money, but it also took him longer. Use a 40 hour work week and the ideal employee made $3,200 profit for that company and the facebook employee only made $2,533.33. Roughly $650 per week in loss for that company.
Granted this is an example, and I'm not saying their research is actually correct, because most likely that ideal employee doesn't exist - since no one can work straight all day-every day with no distractions; but do you see now how your wage really has nothing to do with a companies loss estimates? - chrismgtis, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Boohoo.
Block the site and STFU. - swrlyhrly, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I wish i could get payed to do these "studies" what a bunch of *****. What the hell do they accomplish anyway?
- d03boy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2when an employer hires you, they're hiring your work habits too. not everyone can work for 8 hours straight
- kuzotz, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Yea, most diggers forget that they are very outside the American mainstream.
The follow describes digg users (not completely accurate):
1) Intelligent
if not
then
2) informed about world events
3)Understands the processes within politics.
4) Some even understand the processes required in an economy.
5)did I say intelligent?
Anyway being a loser means all 5 of those things above.
Being a winner in American mainstream is the following:
1)uninformed
2)apathetic towards political and world events
3) frightful
4)insecure
5)shallow
6)can't even spell economics let along know that Ron Paul is a Libertarian.
7)average IQ
8) sheeple. - ronaldinho, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Buried you because of the mentioning of Alex Jones. I know Bush and his administration is evil but sites such as prisonplanet and crooksandpillars are just too ridiculous and just takes too many things out of their context
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2You forgot to account for vacation and holidays. Also keep in mind that your salary alone does not constitute your cost to the company. In the US at least, the company has to pay taxes for each employee. If you have an office (or cube), there's cost per sq. ft., if you use company equipment (PCs, telephones, LAN drops, etc.) there's a cost associated with those items.
Finally, take into consideration this was referring to lost finances in Australia. $1 Aussie buck = just under $0.80 real money - airr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2What the author cant understand is the fact that, you cant be 100% efficient if you work continuously for 8 hrs. Taking breaks in between does improve the productivity. Doesnt matter if its facebook or going out for a smoke.
- aserer511, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2this is a rather stupid article....your employees didn't need facebook/myspace to waste time at work,Digg is probably more responsible...
- MikeonTV, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4Well it's not like people were doing work before the age of the Internet.
Exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vdob3fa7hM - feckineejit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I can waste time at work? huh.
- fezzen, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4I imagine taking the amount of time wasted per employee and multiplying it by their hourly salary would be a good enough estimate.
The flaw with this model is you assume 100% of an employee's available time is spent working, which is obviously false. The "actual" losses are likely a fraction of this number, and are probably much closer to zero when you look at averages.
Mission-critical work typically takes precedent over facebook, and people responsible for keeping a company running aren't likely to be pissing their time away like the lowly cubicle jockeys. - dl27, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2So that's how Facebook plans to make money. They'll just agree to shutdown for a fraction (i.e. half) of the money of wasted productivity. Brilliant.
- MattL920, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2How much time and money did Richard Cullen of SurfControl waste to come up with such a stupid analysis of Facebook?
- ochimaru, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Gee, only 30 min a day? To read facebook? At least my excessive time reading digg has SOME validity in my job. :D
- Philbert, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1And how much work time have you all been wasting on Digg? I've spent about 10 minutes already.
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