It's far too easy to waste time at work. You start reading the news or checking your personal email, and the next thing you know you're down a distraction hole looking at the Instagram of your kindergarten boyfriend. We all know it happens, but you're probably wasting more time than you realized. Because NetQuote, the free online quote provider, surveyed 1,004 Americans about just how dedicated they were to their work in the office. The answer? Really, really not dedicated.
Seriously. It turns out that over 40 percent of people took selfies at work and more than one in 10 had gotten into a full-blown Facebook argument while working. But perhaps the most interesting statistics were about how frequently people were using their dating apps. It turns out we're spending so many hours swiping and chatting during office hours that it adds up to days over the course of a year. Dating apps Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge came in as the most popular at-work offenders, but other ones played a role too.
"I was most surprised at the amount of time people are spending on dating apps," a member of the creative team for NetQuote tells Bustle. "Not just a few minutes here or there during a slow period at work, but actual DAYS worth of work time spent swiping."
But how do we end up spending so much time on dating apps? It may be that we don't even realize it's happening. "I think it’s an easy distraction to get sucked into," NetQuote's rep says. "You start doing it and suddenly 15 minutes has passed. It’s also easy to have it look like you are checking an email during a meeting, but in reality you’re messaging your latest Bumble match. Plus in many instances you’d be on the apps on your personal phone, so there’s no chance of having your boss see your usage history." Hopefully — yikes.
So exactly how much time are we spending wasting time at work? Here's what the survey found.
1Americans Waste 10.57 Days On Tinder At Work
Yup. We spend the equivalent of nearly 11 days swiping on Tinder alone. And that's just the average American — that means some of those swiping addicts out there are putting in way more hours.
2They Lose An Average Of 27 Days On Dating Apps Overall
If you look at the hours spend on all datings app being used at work, it actually comes out to 27 days of time for the average American. Not only is that a mind-boggling amount, it's also more than most of us get in vacation time. Guess we're making up for it by swiping and chatting.
3We Spend More Time On Tinder Than On Snapchat And Twitter Combined
Social media usage was also a total time waster — people spend almost 17 days on YouTube and 15 days on Facebook every year. But dating apps were surprisingly more popular — so much so that people spent more time on Tinder than on Snapchat and Twitter put together.
It's terrifying to see how much time we can actually waste at work. But what can you do if you're a time-waster and want to change you ways? "There are tons of apps that tell you how much time you spend on various apps," the NetQuote representative says. "Making yourself aware of the amount of time and when you're on them would be a great first step. Disabling notifications for matches and messages or just turning the sound off for them might be effective for the work hours. You could also bury the apps in folders on your phone so they’re not the first thing you see every time you unlock it."
And, if you do keep on wasting time at work, just make sure your boss doesn't find out.
