The national survey was developed by The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service providing creative, advertising, marketing and web professionals on a project and full-time basis, and conducted by an independent research firm. It is based on 250 interviews — 125 with advertising executives randomly selected from the nation’s 2,000 largest advertising agencies and 125 with senior marketing executives randomly selected from the nation’s 2,000 largest companies.
The 57% of respondents who said it’s OK to surf non-work-related websites on the job also were asked, “What is the maximum number of minutes that should be permissible each day?” The mean response was 32 minutes.
“In the creative field, surfing non-work sites may be considered part of the job because it allows professionals to keep up with trends and seek new sources of inspiration,” said Megan Slabinski, executive director of The Creative Group. “Also, many employers recognize that making appointments and attending to personal tasks online might actually improve productivity, since professionals can quickly take care of needs while in the office instead of stepping out.”
Slabinski noted, however, that employees should exercise caution when using the Internet at the office. “It’s never OK to visit inappropriate sites or browse excessively at work,” she said. “Many companies have monitoring programs in place to prevent people from misusing the Web on the job.”
