The Herman Group newsletter this week discusses the amount of gaming that goes on in an office. Gaming as in playing video games. Seriously.
We estimate that computer gaming is costing United States employers millions of dollars every year. According to a recent survey of computer gamers, 24 percent of white collar workers admitted to playing during work hours.
The most critical finding is the frequency with which these workers play. Over half (53 percent) said they play at work at least once a day. Seventy-nine percent said they play at work several times a week—or more. Eighty-four percent said that, on average, they play casual games at work for between 15 and 60 minutes each day and 11 percent said they play casual games at work for an hour or more each day.
I laughed out loud when I read this. I used to work for a technology company selling capital inspection equipment back in the mid ’90s. The Internet was relatively new so online game play was not common (maybe not even available). Unfortunately, the video game Doom was a huge hit and it could be played over a local area network.
Our entire support group was addicted to the game and playing it over the company network. I think the game totaled somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 guys playing it simultaneously. They would sit in the back and it would be quiet outside of some furious keystrokes. Then there would be 3 guys simultaneously yelling “Ohhhhh.”
It was really unbelievable. I was trying to close new customers with our highly complex products that required a fair amount of support. Yet the support guys were busy hunting each other in a video game.