Claiming that social media is the latest scapegoat in a long line of studies which indicate that personal use of online sites during work wastes company time, Stan Schroeder of Mashable.com recently reported the results of a survey conducted by Morse, an IT services group. After questioning 1,460 office workers, Morse concluded that employee use of Twitter and other social networking sites costs UK firms 1.38 billion pounds every year (approximately $2.25 billion US).

Alexander Kjerulf, the author of “Happy Hour is 9 to 5,” filed a 2008 commentary on British employee performance reviews at PositiveSharing.com. He reports, not surprisingly, that no one likes performance reviews, and adds that the review system is “fundamentally broken.”

Successful companies realize that their ability to succeed is directly related to the productivity of their employees. A study released by The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in 2008 indicates that depression, the balance between stress and satisfaction and the personal life challenges of employees all significantly affect worker productivity and limit the ability of employees to meet the normal demands of their jobs. The study also revealed that while health issues impact productivity, personal concerns such as financial worry may have an equal if not greater effect.

Polycom, Inc., a leader in collaborative communications solutions, questioned more than 1,200 employees in the UK during its 2007 “Congested Lives” survey. The study concluded that British firms waste more than 17 million Pounds each year on unnecessary face-to-face meetings. Other results indicated that employees waste an average of 23 days each year traveling to and from appointments.

A study led by John Hausknecht of Cornell University reported that high unemployment is accompanied by lower worker absenteeism. Unfortunately for employers, the drop in absenteeism largely occurs among the most unhappy workers. Dissatisfied workers have the most absences when times are good, but they go to work more often when companies are cutting jobs.

A 2009 survey commissioned by consulting firm Robert Half Technology reports that more than 50 percent of all US companies now block employee access to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. 54 percent of the surveyed companies completely block such access, while another 19 percent permit it, but only for business purposes. A mere 10 percent surveyed permit social-network use on the job for any kind of personal use; 16 percent allow "limited" personal use, according to the results released Tuesday.