Wasted days and Wasted nights.

Freddy Fender may have been talking about a lost love but the title of his 70's hit could just as easily have been about unproductive employees in today's workplace. The latest Ernst and Young productivity survey puts the cost of wasted time at $40 billion per year, focusing on workers wasting an average of 23% of their time on the job. Now the first thought that comes to mind is the distraction of the net and social media, as people update their profiles and chat with friends but productive time lost, is about attitude, culture, meetings, sick leave and the general malaise that comes with disengaged employees.

So to get time to waste, you first need someone to give you that time and what better person than your employer, who looks to you to be a productive part of the company but without engaging you, can turn you into a slacker. Now we all know someone like that, hiding behind the tidy desk, never being involved in the "big" projects and generally uninvolved in day to day work activities. Interestingly enough, the survey turned that opinion on its head indicating unproductive employees actually took less breaks and less recreational time, not recognising work life balance and instead becoming “a slave to the job but only doing it because it is a job.” So it's not always about the time spent at work but how that work is accomplished and what results come from the work.

The survey did agree with some obvious observations, taking excessive sick leave, with three weeks to three months per year seen as an unproductive indicator, no kidding. Other findings included spending all day at your inbox and answering every email, even when you are just CCed. The inbox has everyone captive but research indicates focus on projects keeps people away from email, not looking at every opportunity but doing it in batches. Scheduling also comes in for a hiding as time wasters fill their diary up with the most inane meetings and committees that have nothing to do with accomplishing tasks or achieving success for the company. This high end scheduling gives great cause for excuses not to be involved and is seen by many in the office as fudging the real work. Companies that adhere to the "without a meeting we can't make a decision" syndrome are just playing into the hands of wasted time.

Research on wasted time in the office, split employees into four groups, super achievers, solid contributors, patchy participants and lost souls, saying at some stage in our working lives, we all rotate through those groups depending on circumstances. The patchies and the lost are finding less places to hide nowadays as companies run lean, marry their staff to targets and KPIs, eliminate distractions and try to motivate staff with realistic goals.

It's the motivation and engagement that become crucial as businesses trend in cycles of success and failure. Both become easy cycles to hide in, if management doesn't understand their employees. So ask yourself, who's doing what and what is being accomplished by whom? You'll find your slackers pretty quickly, unless they are off on sick leave.