Forty-eight percent of bosses in the U.S. don't mind when employees take longer lunches and are OK with staff getting together to enjoy office banter and to take regular breaks, according to a study of 1,000 U.S., British, German, French and Irish employees and employers sponsored by Mozy, a data protection and backup services provider.
On average, 37% of countries surveyed allow employees to take longer lunch breaks. This new latitude toward employee time management is less a new measure of employer largesse than it is an acknowledgement of how the adoption of mobile technology has made work become "a thing that you do" rather than "a place that you go," Mozy says.
Employees have been quick to take advantage of this freedom. More than half of employees think nothing of leaving work early for a doctor's appointment, with nearly one in five eating breakfast at the desk or taking time out to research vacations or shopping.
The study found that these were the top 10 personal tasks that employees felt it was OK to do at work:
Leaving early for the doctor or dentist
Personal phone calls
Regular tea/coffee/watercooler breaks
Chatting with colleagues
Sending a few personal emails
Taking a long lunch
Online banking
Leaving work early for a child's performance at school
Paying a few bills
Listening to music