Best study ever: Wasting time online boosts worker productivity

Aug. 17, 2011 12:29 PM PT

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Spending time online updating your Facebook page, clicking through I Can Has Cheezburger and ogling Robert Pattinson may rot your brain, but new research suggest that it could also make you more productive at work.

“Browsing the Internet serves an important restorative function,” according to a report from the National University of Singapore.

So-called cyberloafing can refresh workers mentally after long periods of work, researchers said at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management in San Antonio this week.

Surfing the Web is even better for productivity than talking or texting with friends or sending personal emails, the study found.

And smart bosses would stop snooping, researchers said: Excessive Internet monitoring and surveillance only makes employees do it more, they said.

Now, if only someone will discover that napping, playing cards and watching ‘Jersey Shore’ also boosts productivity ...

Abercrombie to ‘The Situation’ of ‘Jersey Shore’: Stop wearing our clothes

-- Tiffany Hsu

Money & Company

Tiffany Hsu

Tiffany Hsu is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote about the California economy, fast food, restaurants, retail and alternative energy for the Business section. A Bay Area native, UC Berkeley graduate and eternal Nor-Cal fan, she once worked for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She also did a stint at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where she developed a passion for sweet tea. She still has faith that someday she’ll find two economists who agree.