Does Gaming Reduce Productivity? 349
Scott Taulbee writes "Bob Mandel of AVault has given us his interesting views on why playing games does not reduce productivity, but rather is a stimulating alternative to 'snoozing, daydreaming, overconsuming food and beverages, or sitting like a mindless slug waiting for time to pass.' He suggest that '..compared to other forms of recreational activity that could be enjoyed during work breaks, computer gaming has the greatest chance to hone skills useful for productivity in the workplace.' Should we all take this article to our bosses with requests for installing a GameCube on every desk?"
Something to do. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well, (Score:2)
Or you can bring your own laptop, chock full of mp3s, games, and all the joys of computing!
Go for it. (Score:2, Funny)
Ask for forgiveness, not permission.
My dream! (Score:2)
Games are no different than other distractions (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Games are no different than other distractions (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Games are no different than other distractions (Score:3, Insightful)
Usually when I play those games, my mind tends to go blank and wander around. When someone comes to talk to me, I usually get distracted and must start all over again. Reading slashdot is only a waste of time as it usually
or.. (Score:5, Funny)
Or perhaps, say, actually working?
Re:or.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Bah! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bah! (Score:4, Funny)
What companies should do (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What companies should do (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, you just influence how it gets done (Score:3, Interesting)
No chance this sort of thing happens on a big scale in the white collar sweat shop that is US IT right now. During the dot com boom, employers were into the whole Ping-Pong-for-morale idea, but now they've got us by the short hairs.
But it makes total sense to officially sanction something in a "public" break area or whatever that you think might be a problem for people sitting in their individual veal stall/cube. If it's going to happen, get your spin on how it happens. Use it to make people like their jo
Where I stopped reading (Score:5, Funny)
You HAD to take it somewhere dirty. (Score:3, Funny)
Apparently my boss disagrees. (Score:5, Funny)
Reason:
The Websense category "Games" is filtered.
URL:
http://www.avault.com/articles/getarticle.asp?nam
Find a better work environment (Score:5, Interesting)
8-12 at desk
1-5 at desk
Why doesn't management understand different people work in different ways? My best friend will come in late but he gets shitloads done after lunch. Before lunch he does next to nothing (tries to wake up). Me I'm a morning person I get more done before 9am than most people do all day. However at my last job, leaving early meant you weren't a team player (nevermind I got there 2 hours before everyone else, where were the fucking team players then?).
This is why my current job is my last. They are pretty flexible (my boss respects me, and I can come and go as I please).
Once my company hits the revenue I feel comfortable with I'm going out on my own. I'd rather make 24K/year and be my own boss than make 100k/year and have to put up with bullshit everyday. There is something to be said for Quality of Life.
My future co-workers will be able to set their own schedules (with the exception of support). I'm not going to be the boss, I'm going to be a co-worker (that can fire people). As long as my teams are achieving their goals persuant to the companies goals I don't care if they work 20 hours a week. Just get the shit done and go live your life. I am also going to require 16 hours of community service a month (2 paid days off to do something the co-workers care about). There was nothing worse at my first job than them riding your ass about not doing shit in the community but turning around and making you work 80+ hours a week and work on weekends. I have no problem with hard work. I just hate hypocrites (which I strive not to be one).
Fortunately I will be job free in about 6 months if everything works out. And I'll be job free in 6 months if everything doesn't work out. I guess I'm crazy quiting a job that makes over 60k/year in oklahoma, but oh well....
Re:Find a better work environment (Score:3, Insightful)
You certainly don't have kids or care to have any. 24k/year would never be enough if you care for them.
There is something to be said for Quality of Life.
That is true.
My future co-workers will be able to set their own schedules (with the exception of support).
If you're looking for a bunch of geeks that walk and code around, that's fine. If you're looking for a team, there should be some common
Re:Find a better work environment (Score:3, Insightful)
You certainly don't have kids or care to haveany. 24k/year would never be enough if you care for them.
Not yet, however I own all my cars, I own my house outright and my bills in Oklahoma (very inexpensive to live here) are around $800/mo. I'd be willing to bet I could make it work with kids.
BTW my mother made 11K/year in the late 80's early 90's in KC, MO and we survived just fine, poor as shit but
Re:Find a better work environment (Score:5, Insightful)
Then don't work for me. (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a good weed out question on interviews as well.
I am not religious, however a few of the people I've started the company with are. I give them the ability to do activities with their church (as long as they affect people outside their congregation) and I respect their beliefs.
Requirement stays until I get a goo
Re: Amen! (But you're fighting a big battle) (Score:3)
What happens is this: Your co-workers (and superiors) observe you coming in late or leaving early, or heading out for lunch at a non-typical hour, and they automatically assume the worst.
Actually, to be more specific about it - your co-workers actually *in* your department, working along-side you, probably *do
Wrong. It's all attitude. (Score:5, Insightful)
I guarantee a work slow down every time someone at my job gets bitched out because the boss doesn't know any other way to motivate.
Granted, people can take advantage. But if you're a good manager and have good managers/workers around you it's less likely some bad seed will slip through.
Gamecube? (Score:2)
Re:Gamecube? (Score:2)
We got a foosball table in our NOC after securing a large client account when I worked at a data center company.
Geeks make great foosball players!
Re:Gamecube? (Score:5, Interesting)
But it was fun and enjoyable. It didn't pay as much as I wanted, but the people were cool and you could do pretty much what you wanted as long as you took care of business.
Among my coworkers, some regularly surfed porn, some played games, and one left p2p software running all shift, which is cool when you have 10Mbit bandwidtch to the internet. (For the NOC; the whole center had much more of course. We were setting up gigabit internet set up for one customer.) My coworkers and I would gather at an exceptional example of porn, but I never surfed it myself. To me, porn and work don't mix. Why do I want to be horny at work? Especially on the weekends by myself for 12 hours. That would be a bad habit to start!
We did more than just monitor, though; we were remote hands for the customers, we racked equipment and cabled for new customers, we gave data center tours for potential customers, etc.. And we were encouraged to develop new ideas for services to offer customers and services to improve our network.
I spent my idle time soaking up all the new info...I hadn't worked that closely with that much network equipment before and I was a kid in a candy store. I miss it except for the insecurity and low pay.
No reading printed material at your workstation? WTF? All of our alerts had loud sounds, emails and pages in addition to the screen flashing. Our more serious alerts (e.g. main switch problem) had the Star Trek red alert sound. Syslog entries from the routers made a "thunk" sound, and we had comprehensive monitoring system that spoke the location and nature of the problem. (Well, the sounds were configurable and we used AT&T's online voice synthesizer to create alerts.) Anything in the data center moving or behaving in a noteworthy fashion made an audible and visual alert, and anything that definitely needed immediate attention would page and email, too. And of course we'd periodically audit and test the alert system.
The drinking and eating rules are actually kinda smart, but we ate and drank at our stations, anyway, although there were at least 5 other usable stations if I fried mine.
We mixed our music into the alert speakers for loud entertainment. Plus we had DSS satellite on one of our many monitors.
I don't recall a dress code, but I usually wore khakis and a patterned button-up cotton blend shirt.
We couldn't leave the building empty, but we could leave if there were coworkers working. (I worked weekend 12-hour shifts and was by myself the whole time so I couldn't leave.)
I only brought my personal computer in the weekend before my last day. But that was because our data center hosted WWII Online [wwiionline.com] and it had just released and I wanted to try it, and mucking with a NOC workstation was not something I wanted to do. Plus, how often do you get a chance to play a MMOG with ping times under 20ms?
Sleeping: We weren't supposed to do that, and I didn't, but I think the midnight guy did. He was the only one who repeadedly had problems like "the phone never rang...I was making a walkthrough check of the building and the phone must've lost connection" when the same phone always rang for everyone else all the time no matter where they were in the building.
Propping feet up: not a problem.
But if customers were around we were supposed to have the NOC looking net, of course. We had a fishbowl-type NOC with a glass wall between us and the entry way (cool because the receptionist was gorgeous) and large windows into the data center floor.
For those tempted to say that our 'slacker' practices are why the company got in trouble, I don't think
Now that you bring it up... (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting that you should mention that. I'm a free-lance artist working in 3D. I recently discovered that when I play graphically interesing games on my GameCube (Star Fox Adventures, for example...) I get inspired with a new energy to work in Lightwave. I think I'm in an unusual scenario, though...
Gaming during work hours is a double-edged sword. It can be used effectively, it can be abused. At my full-time job, I'd occasionally fire up a game of Starcraft and spend about 45 mins or so (part of it during lunch break) playing it. But then when it came time to go home, I was comfortable leaving later. Instead of leaving because it was time to leave, I was leaving because I'd finished what I was working on. I'm not sure if that makes sense or not, but when you have to put off getting off, you look for whatever rational reason you can think of to leave work.
So yeah, I'd say there's some truth to it. If I could take say an hour during my day to pursue an interest of mine, I'd be less restless.
Re:Now that you bring it up... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is insightful? Have you noticed that a lot of modern games use art these days? Have you noticed that in school, artists study other works of art?
Creativity is not a scientific process. It's not something that works better just by throwing more hours into it. It's something that comes along when your brain is stimulated. I can't imagine you listening to music and not understanding that concept.
Interesting note:
- In the movie Final Fantasy, the scene where the soldiers drop down from a ship and land in a goo like substance to cushion their fall was inspired by a scuba diving trip.
- In Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, the pod race scene was inspired by a woman walking her two dogs that were nearly dragging her along by the leash.
- The game Tempest was inspired by a nightmare Jeff Minter had about monsters that'd crawl out of a hole in the ground.
So yeah, tell me all about how 'time wasting activities' aren't inspirational.
Re:Now that you bring it up... (Score:3, Informative)
Close, but not quite.
Jeff Minter was not the original programmer for Tempest, it was Dave Theurer (KLOV - Tempest [klov.com])
Jeff Minter DID do the Atari Jaguar Tempest 2000 game however. (Jeff Minter [dadgum.com]
Jeff "Yak" Minter is probably better known for his "Revenge of the Mutant Camels" and "Llamatron".
Re:Now that you bring it up... (Score:3, Funny)
Ignorant comments like that have made my life very difficult. I had one guy try to get me written up claiming that I was playing Quake at work. He didn't know the difference between Lightwave and Quake, even though Quake doesn't have a bunch of buttons labeled as tools surrounding the play area. That guy INSISTED on trying to get me fired even though I met all my deadlines and
Sure... (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly what useful skills am I honing? Mouse skills? Spatial relations? Ye olde Hand-I co-ordination
If anything, it increases my odds of going blind, getting carpal tunnel syndrome, and losing social skills, (Thou it might help my 733t h4x0rz r4p).
Re:Sure...733t Skillz (Score:3, Insightful)
So how did he learn to use the mouse and keyboard simultaneously? By playing Quake, Warcraft, and Castle Wolfenstein to name a few.
I am a linux game addict (Score:3, Funny)
Very true... (Score:5, Funny)
Does gaming reduce productivity? (Score:5, Funny)
No gamecubes.... (Score:5, Funny)
Sure...sounds great... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Sure...sounds great... (Score:2)
Is there any wonder? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Is there any wonder? (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with western people is they don't understand they are alive to serve their manager, nothing more. Eastern people however... they have a long and elustrious tradition of efficiency. India still has their wonderful caste system, the perfect social system for labor. China just prefers to use "prisoners" for the real dirty work.
The Americans better realize that you cannot be both free and be productive. If you have to work, you better shut the fuck up and do your job at all times you are conscious and not eating, sleeping, defecating, fucking...
Re:Is there any wonder? (Score:2)
Re:Is there any wonder? (Score:3, Insightful)
I couldn't disagree more. I think the best employees are those who love what they do, and would continue doing that as a hobby even if they weren't being paid to do that. It's been discussed here and elsewhere before: success comes not from following the latest business fad, but simply from doing what you love.
It's amazing how many people keep dividing their lives between work as something they don't like but they are forced to
Re:Is there any wonder? (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with that is that you've completely reversed cause and effect. People aren't motivated, because the company sees people as 'Human Resources'. I was told in my second performance review 'Most people here work more than 40 hours a week. If you want to do well, you have to work over 50.' I im
slashdot reduces productivity (Score:2, Interesting)
anyway, back to tuxracer
not gaming per se, (Score:5, Funny)
I got a bit of knowledge early own by devising novel ways to get the game onto locked down machines, or how to get it to work without copy protection, or how to hide it from the admin's game purging cronjob or...
I agree (Score:5, Insightful)
Next up ... (Score:5, Funny)
Study Concludes Employers Should Provide Open Broadband Access and Kleenex.
Re:Next up ... (Score:2)
Re:Next up ... (Score:3, Funny)
Log Some Time in the Bathroom (Score:5, Funny)
Huh uh huh huh... (Score:2, Funny)
No time for such stuff... (Score:5, Insightful)
I know I'll sneak in a game of Tetris, I'll throw in a game of Samurai [klear.com], but as for a Quake or a Command and Conquer, it has to be while The Boss is Gone and I Know He's Not Coming back.
I wouldn't say it hurts on productivity, because people are going to goof off whether its video games or porn or email (the latter there is a HUGE productivity waste, and all fellow sys admins know it).
I don't necessarily see Half Life 2 or Doom 3 sucking the life out of any office/shop, but I certainly don't see myself with the time to play them. In my line of work, calls come in all day long, and I need my desktop applications available to do my job (VNC, et al).
Plus, my dual LCD setup is a pain in the ass for gaming.
Maybe the article has call centers in mind. Or programming houses. But in my business-type environment, there is simply no time for it.
Didn't they try something like this... (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's face it, the only reason anyone does any work at work is because it's marginally less tedious than the alternative activities that you can engage in until 5pm. Excluding the ones in the stationary cuboard with your secretary of course.
Re:Didn't they try something like this... (Score:2)
That, and deadlines...You stop missing deadlines, whether you're playing games or diligently working 9-5, and you wouldn't have that tedious job to go to.
Truth is, if you're playing games, but turning in excellent work to your boss on time, he won't care. If you're not wasting your time at all, but you're still not being productive, you're not going to hol
Reality vs. Your Boss's Fantasy World (Score:5, Insightful)
You code in the shower in the morning and transcribe your ideas into your IDE. You take long breaks at work to figure out problems. You think best when your hands are occupied or when some other minor task is distracting you slightly. You frequently work late or at home because thats when your mind is working. You are paid based on an avarge number of the lines of code you write per time measured. Big, time-consuming projects are intersperesed with smaller, less intenstive projects.
Your Boss's Fansty World:
From 8:00AM to 5:00PM your mind belongs to the company. You are able to transform business ideas into code every minute of that time and can do so without fail, regardless of the problem being presented. You are interchangable with other programmers and need not understand the whole project you're working on at any given time. You are capable of producing bug-free code on the first revision given normal working conditions. Application code is a commodity and is of the same quality, regardless who wrote it. You frequently work late because you are a salary employee and can be demanded to make more application code per work-day. You are paid per workday rather than code per average unit time.
The result: You sneak goofing off when you're able and end up working more 'off the clock' hours.
Games are good for fatigue, too (Score:3, Interesting)
I suspect it's because it gets other areas of your brain working and eliminates eyestr
Gaming on breaks doesn't hurt productivity. (Score:2)
-Restil
One word.... (Score:2)
We had our share of worktime gaming going on... (Score:2, Interesting)
Unfortunately, management didn't see it that way and put a big kabosh on the whole thing. So now I just troll slashdot instead!
We're a gaming company (gambling) too, you'd think they'd be more forgiving..
Productivity and time wasting (Score:2, Insightful)
Likewise, the last thing most bosses want is to be seen with an unproductive team. So even if you are just posting to Slashdot, it appears much more acceptable. Hell I g
Abuse potential too high (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not even touching the problem of support. Now I've got to open holes in the firewall so the good strong employee can play Star Wars Galaxies. Oops, looks like Doom 3 just hosed up the graphic drivers on everyone's laptop again. If having Solitaire and Minesweeper on every computer weren't bad enough...
Re:Abuse potential too high (Score:2)
My company removes those games (completely, not just the shortcuts). Mostly I just slack off by reading stuff on the Internet (www) myself. I don't even surf much at home anymore - today being an exception as it is a holiday.
Re:Abuse potential too high (Score:5, Insightful)
The addictive potential of the drug is highly overrated.
Speaking from years of personal experience, I painfully disagree with your "coke ain't so bad" dismisall. It is a bad, bad, dirty drug.
I know MANY people who get far more work done using stimulants than not...
Maybe for a year or two.
Check back on your superstar buddies in a few years. I've seen both crank and blow destroy MANY people, included ace programmers.
You're pro-drug bias needs to be reality checked, it sounds like you're probably too young to have witnessed your friends going down hard from drugs... hopefully you won't see that.
Gaming can be good, yes. (Score:4, Interesting)
However, my PHB saw it as "just" playing games (despite my winning streak of nearly 20 games), and I was told to stop it. My productivity dropped, though it was still better than the rest of the group.
Nothing I could say would change his mind. His decree was final.
The company was bought out by a smaller competitor, in large part because it was not able to turn out a bug-free product on time and under budget. However, they *were* able to ensure that their best debugger was not "wasting" ten minutes a day playing games.
Lucky... (Score:4, Informative)
I just got done losing in a work sponsored pool tournament, and no, I don't work for some start-up internet company that's about to go under.
In my specific department we were given a PS2 by a client for research into doing an advertisement for their game, and we still have it hooked up, and the guys bring in games from home for an occasional break.
No games on company computers, though, and I believe the reasons are valid - we have clients that walk through our work areas and it just doesn't look professional when we are on their time, new equipment is technically only a tax write-off if you don't use them for anything else, and they don't want you to disturb others in your work areas.
first post! (Score:3, Funny)
Depends on the person (Score:4, Interesting)
There's huge variation in individual productivity both within and across jobs. Some people can put in very little tangible effort, yet end up producing a tremendous amount of quality output, while others work their tails off all day and produce very little. For this second group, computer gaming poses the greatest threat to continued productivity.
My take on this is that since not every person who plays games can be as productive as the company expects, bosses choose to ban game playing for everyone. Little do they know that most people need to take breaks during the day so they don't get burned out. I don't think gameplaying automatically indicates you're not productive. On the contrary, if I have time to play games it's because my works all done.
Some companies know. (Score:4, Interesting)
What he's really trying to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course the obvious ability to abuse such a system exists, but when it is encouraged as a stress reliever for little breaks here and there, rather than discouraged completely, it becomes a VERY USEFUL "tool" in the workplace. IMHO, anyways...
Games at work... (Score:5, Funny)
Luddite.
Can't Reply, Busy Gaming (Score:2)
I could answer this question, but first I have to play some Unreal Tournament
Give Me More (Score:5, Funny)
I used to like... (Score:2, Funny)
Does gaming reduce productivity? (Score:2)
I used to play NetHack on a Psion handheld in my math classes. Does gaming reduce productivity? Well, just take a look at my math scores and draw your own conclusions... :)
Read while at work? (Score:5, Funny)
Without a doubt (Score:5, Insightful)
I would say without a doubt obsessive game playing reduces productivity. Every time I get hooked on some new game there's the terrible tendecy to jack in and play for oh, 24 hours straight, during that time, NOTHING gets done. I can't imagine how these people that get hooked on Everquest and TheSims manage to have lives, especially if they're working all day (yeah, I know someone will toss in the inevitable "they have no lives" comment).
One of the saddest aspects of my college life was meeting these people who were involved in MUDS who literally spent all their time online, in their dorm rooms or holed up in the library sleeping on cots. They would LIVE online, have relationships with people online, and let's just say their "real world" lives suffered. And this was over text-only virtual worlds. I can't imagine what these people do today with realistic games. Probably a one way ticket to the insane asylum.
Conversly, I think though, used in moderation, games can stimulate productivity. Especaially if you use it to blow off some steam, or get into game creation, hence improving your skills in the real world. But, anything in moderation can be good. I don't think most people have the tendency to get obsessed over games, and if it wasn't a game, it'd be alcohol, heroin or donuts.
And lastly ... unless you're going into game programming I have yet to find any good reason for putting "Reached level 88 Amazon in Diablo II" on your resume. Gaming has little worth in the real world. I'd go so far as to say it has a negative stigma attached to it ... for anybody over 30.
Re:Without a doubt (Score:2)
If anything, it reveals you have a sense of humour. I may just do something like that if I ever find myself job hunting again, since I prefer to work for people with a sense of humour.
Missing the point (Score:2)
This, however, also doesn't make sense. How often does your boss require you to run around the office killing demons? When have you been in a business meeting and missed the opportunity to be productive because you didn't know the correct way to man the gunner position on a Hal
Whatever works... (Score:3, Interesting)
And it was good. Then it changed, and there was much grumbling.
But having stuff like that, gaming fridays for a few hours, would probably really increase worker morale... Unless they're totally getting fragged all the time. Plus, if you designate a certain time for gaming, they will probably waste less time gaming when they're supposed to be working.
does anyone else need any proof... (Score:2)
if there is an ideology to geekdom, it is found in stories like this, not in "there is no spoon" matrix movies.
this story, as read here, has the air of common sense all about it, amazingly enough.
posted to absolutely any other news site, and this story would presented for news of the weird/ fark-esque laughter eliciting.
c'mon guys, less blatant wish-fulfillment fantasies please!
It depends on the game (Score:2)
Oh Yeah! (Score:2)
(That's First Person Word Processor to the lay-person).
Diminishing Returns (Score:2)
I think that skills are enhanced by gaming, but only to a point. FPSs might be a problem, as an overstimulated employee would probably be too distracted to focus on a low-stimulation project. And besides, what do you do if someone quietly walks into your cubicle and surprises you--whip out a chaingun?
FWIW, I didn't bother to read the article before posting--I didn't want to decrease my productivity any further!
daydreaming? (Score:2)
But I imagine daydreaming is better than playing a game. Daydreaming is relaxing and creative and doesn't constrain you to a specific task. You might come up with some useful ideas and insights when daydreaming.
From my experience, yes (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, it can . . . (Score:4, Interesting)
For the rest of us who "do the eight & hit the gate", our work is either not on such a tight timetable or is on a stable production environment where EVERYTHING is done carefully and deliberately to avoid downtime, gaming doesn't make sense.
Don't get me wrong, I read slashdot and do NOT agree with the boss who says "The company is losing MILLIONS OF $$$$ while the slacker trenchers screw around with the internet."
Work is for work, home is for home and lunch & after hours are for LAN parties (if IT & boss permits.)
And what if you are a game developer? (Score:4, Funny)
What are you comparing it to? (Score:3, Interesting)
So, we'll all agree that you can't work 8 hours at a stretch, with zero interruptions. I can get close if deadlines are coming up, but the caffinated beverages get to me eventually, and I start freaking out (The Mouse is talking to me! The Mouse is talking to me!), not including the bathroom breaks.
So, in a stress environment, I can see putting some sort of game system around to blow off steam every couple hours or so. Of course if you have a bunch of addicts around, you're going to go out of business...
The thing is, people compare it to PRODUCTIVE time. So, no, compared to actualy PRODUCTIVE time, playing games is a time waster.
On the other hand, compared to sitting mindlessly and passively in front of the TV, games achieve a level almost approaching productivity! So it depends on what you're doing.
how about excercise? (Score:3, Insightful)
stimulating the mind (Score:3, Informative)
Much better than sogging ever so slowly-but-surely toward that I-Need-a-Nap afternoon lull...
.
My company bought us.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't know, but I know one thing for shure... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hand-eye co-ordination (Score:4, Insightful)
Typicaly management frowns down on these two games, and it's not unusual for the boss to ask for these to be removed. A careful reminder, before that choice is made is imporant. Both games are excelent for hand-eye co-ordination skills and serve to promote mouse instruction. You may think i'm nuts for saying this, but working with older people who didn't play video games who don't have much in the way of computer experence are not going to be the best at operating a mouse... so bad that often times I see the simple click motion translate into a forward motion, and they ask why the computer isn't doing what it should be doing.
As far as me personaly, switching from a standard issue mouse to a trackball, I found quake II to be invaluable. This could apply just as easily to solitare.
So would I say playing solitare on the lunch break improves productivity. I'd say, "YEP, SURE DOES". It teaches inexperenced users how to operate the mouse, it helps users to become familar with the particular choice the work place made on mice.
Depends on the Game (Score:5, Insightful)
The sad fact is, today's console and PC games are designed to take over your life, which is just what the boss won't allow on the job.
something to add (Score:3, Insightful)
add reading slashdot [slashdot.org] to that list - that's certainly my biggest waste of time while at work.
Re:Concentration (Score:2, Insightful)
You would have an easier time convincing me that I'm made out of 100% metal than you would convincing me that EverQuest is on
Good article. (Score:2)
~Philly
Re:Please (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyway, working 9-5 is highly unnatural; it's about time we put all that psychological research to good use by implementing it's findings and changing the workplace to a place where people would actually be more productive while feeling good.
Burnout rates would drop, saving money right there. Stress would be reduced, making people happier, upping morale. The only reason this doesn't happen at more places is because people tend to stick to traditions, no matter how dumb they are.