If your employees waste  time at work (yours surely don’t, right?), they’re not alone. A recent survey reported that, out of  2,000 workers in a variety of jobs, two-thirds said they wasted time while on the job. How much time? On average, workers said they wasted almost two hours of work out of an 8.5 hour day.

This actually is good news, because the amount of time wasting has declined by about 20 percent since 2005. The reason for the decline is basic: the economy has been in a huge slump for the past few years. Employees who survived job cuts have been asked to complete more tasks in a day, thus leaving them less time to goof off. While great for companies, the decline in “free” time means more and more employees are feeling overwhelmed, inadequate to the tasks before them and greatly stressed, leading to employee burnout and high turnover.

Where do slacking workers spend much of their non-work-related activities? Using the Internet for personal needs/matters, talking with their colleagues, making personal phone calls at work, and taking longer lunches and more time than is necessary to run personal errands.

It appears the younger an employee, the more time he spends at work working on things non-work-related. Employees between ages 20-29 used a bit more than two hours a day for non-work activities, while their elders (ages 30-39) spent a bit less than two hours. Workers between 40-59 years of age spent the least amount of time in non-work-related activities: about 1.5 hours.

What reasons did employees give for wasting time? Some of the answers included not having enough to do, not getting paid enough for the job, having hours that are too long, and not having challenging work. Employees also said they felt some work activities were a waste of time themselves: playing company politics, reading and answering e-mails and correcting mistakes made by others.

The takeaway for employers? Companies should aim to give employees work that is challenging and engaging.

This survey highlights the need for companies to give their employees work that is challenging, and to implement activities to make sure employees remain engaged in what they do, according to human resource specialists.  If they do this, they will have a more productive workforce.

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