Cyberloafing refers to employees’ engagement in non-work-related online activities during work hours. In recent years, businesses have paid greater attention to the subject of whether employees should be permitted to engage in cyberloafing activities.
This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the rise of telecommuting (work-from-home), making it simpler for employees to indulge in cyberloafing without the presence of supervisors to monitor their work environment. Nonetheless, the phenomenon of working from home has also resulted in employees working beyond the official work hours, resulting in an increasing blurring of work and personal life boundaries. This has also become the primary rationale for employees to engage in cyberloafing to compensate for the extra work that must be completed outside of official work hours. Employers are concerned that their employees are distracted by spending at least two hours each day on non-work-related online activities, severely impacting their productivity.
Logically, cyberloafing is detrimental to employees’ productivity because the time spent on cyberloafing could have been used to execute work-related tasks. However, to date, the academic literature has been unable to produce conclusive evidence that cyberloafing is detrimental to the work performance of employees. Hence, many organizations are still uncertain as to whether they should prohibit cyberloafing.
While it is indisputable that cyberloafing is a form of counterproductive work behaviour, some studies have shown that it can also result in enhanced work performance and innovative work behaviour. For instance, by engaging in non-work-related online activities, employees may generate ideas that can be beneficial to their work. Sometimes, when individuals are too focused on their work for too long, they may experience a mental block. Creativity is inspired rather than compelled. Furthermore, several academic scholars hypothesize that cyberloafing helps alleviate stress and emotional exhaustion. Organizations must recognize that employees are not automatons and that it is almost unrealistic to expect them to focus on their tasks at all times. Employees may have ups and downs due to a variety of life circumstances. Hence, perhaps allowing them to enjoy a little bit by engaging in cyberloafing may appear reasonable.
For organizations to effectively address the issue of cyberloafing, they must determine their desired objective. There are several important points to consider before deciding whether or not to allow or prohibit cyberloafing in the workplace.
- As long as the performance or productivity of employees is not compromised, they should be allowed the freedom to do anything they choose, including cyberloafing. Productive employees should not be penalized.
- If the majority of employees constantly indulge in cyberloafing, employers may want to reconsider the job design, as this may imply that employees are not adequately assigned tasks. According to academic studies, job boredom or weariness is a primary motivator for cyberloafing. Therefore, employers must assign employees appropriate and relevant tasks. Furthermore, it is important to reward employees who perform well. If their pay is the same as that of unproductive employees, no one will be motivated to work hard.
- An official restriction on cyberloafing could result in staff discontentment. Furthermore, it is essential to have appropriate internet policies so that employers can penalize employees who abuse the autonomy granted at work.
- A recently published article on information and management demonstrates that when employees are subjected to abusive supervision from their employers, they are more inclined to retaliate by shirking their responsibilities, withholding efforts, or indulging in cyberloafing. Hence, employers must show kindness and approachability, fostering a supportive work environment so that employees are more motivated to work harder.
Finally, employers should not place too much emphasis on reducing cyberloafing because slackers will find other ways to procrastinate, such as taking long lunch breaks or toilet breaks, even if cyberloafing is prohibited in the workplace. Employers must instead understand how to motivate employees to work hard.
By Dr Koay Kian Yeik, Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing Strategy and Innovation, Sunway University Business School
