on vacations and wasting time at work

Interesting essay in Time in which Po Bronson (author of What Should I do with My Life) discusses how Americans seem to be working too much, though not very efficiently (I’m guilty of this very crime myself, and I think it’s well justified, since if it were up to me, I would spend half the amount of time in the office and do double the amount of work, but I’m forced to sit in my cubicle for many more hours than I can be efficient for, and thus have no choice but to waste company time, and I suppose, my own as well…).

We Americans are so active in our leisure that we commonly complain we need a vacation from our vacations. We leave home tired; we come back exhausted...

There's no doubt that work has found its way into every hour of our day, thanks to beepers, cell phones and e-mail. Our lunch hours aren't even close to an hour; they average only 31 min. That's down 5 min. in 10 years. But fear not. We're getting our secret revenge. We've discovered a method to goof off despite it all. How? We seem to be stealing ever more bits of free time throughout the day.

For instance, surveys in recent years have concluded that the average American office worker "goofs off" for just over two hours a day--and that's not counting lunches or breaks. One hundred twenty-six minutes a day, to be exact. What do we do with this stolen time? "Spacing out" is a common poll response. Gossiping with co-workers is obviously popular. Surfing the Internet tops them all.