Montgomery County workers spent vastly more hours in recent months browsing Web sites “not usually related to their jobs,” a county analysis on Internet usage shows.
Last fiscal year, general government employees devoted 36 percent more hours than the year before to Web sites labeled a “productivity loss” — or more than 15 hours annually on average — according to the county’s Department of Technology Services.
Among the most flagged uses: Personal e-mail, social media, shopping and sports Web sites.
However, county officials aren’t planning a crackdown on computer usage. In fact, they expect such activity to increase this year — even with a smaller work force.
Information technology officials estimate that general government workers this fiscal year will spend 165,000 hours collectively, a 10 percent jump, on “potential personal usage.” In comparison, 200,000 hours are expected for business purposes.
“We do not want to be the judge of productivity loss,” said Steve Emanuel, the county’s chief information officer, citing employees’ increased reliance on social media and other Internet resources for legitimate work purposes. “We can’t say exactly what [the Web sites] are being used for. We don’t encourage personal use of the Internet.”
Information technology employees don’t report the Web traffic to supervisors, but instead provide the breakdown of an employee’s computer activity if asked to do so by a department head.
“Typically when somebody knows there is a cop at the intersection, they slow down,” Emanuel explained. “If it becomes more serious, we’ll look at putting more resources into it.”
The county is in the process of developing more efficient standards for worker productivity.
Just a 1 percent increase in worker availability — or about 20 hours per person annually — would net the equivalent of nearly 100 additional workers, according to a recent report by CountyStat, Montgomery’s data-driven oversight agency.
The DTS analysis also found an estimated 40 hours-worth of Internet browsing deemed a “legal liability.”
The main culprit?
“In one word: Porn,” Emanuel said, before adding that Web sites with phrases such as terrorism could also be grouped in the category.
