$178 billion of baloney

How dumb do these bozos think we are? The breathless headline on the press release from Websense reads: "$178 Billion in Employee Productivity Lost in the U.S. Annually Due to Internet Misuse." Yow! Keep reading and you'll discover that Websense, which sells software for monitoring what employees do on the Internet, claims an average annual waste of $5,000 per employee due to time spent performing "personal tasks" on the Web on company time.

Is it true? Of course not.

Never mind the bizarre methodology of Websense's study, which includes guesstimates by IT managers for generating that $178 billion number. Just ask yourself this: If it were at all likely to be true, wouldn't Mark Hurd cut off Internet access to HP's employees tomorrow, instantly generating an extra $725 million for HP's bottom line and increasing the company's net income by 20%?

He won't, of course. And he probably won't waste money on Websense's monitoring software. It wouldn't add $725 million to HP's bottom line. It probably wouldn't add a single nickel.

Face it: Employees who get their work done don't need that kind of electronic nanny to make sure they don't wander off into the weeds. And employees who don't get the job done will waste time regardless -- whether it's on the Internet or by the water cooler or walking around with coffee cup in hand. Wally doesn't need the Internet to waste time. He can do it anywhere.

Of course, anyone who's obsessed with micromanaging employees instead of achieving business goals is an easy mark for this $178 billion nonsense.

The rest of us can do without having our intelligence insulted.