Losing time

With the advent of e-mail and Web-surfing, employees have a wealth of new ways to whittle away the hours in the office. Pace Productivity surveyed 690 employees and entrepreneurs across North America to find out what the biggest workplace time wasters are.

The results? Most people blame outside forces for dampened productivity.

Here's where employees place the blame:

*Paperwork: 29.9%

*Customer requests: 20.7%

*Phone calls: 14.6%

*Computer problems: 12.5%

*Other departments' inefficiency: 8.4%

*Slow travel: 6.2%

*Not prioritizing: 5.8%

*Unproductive meetings: 5.5%

*Procrastination: 4.8%

*Socializing: 4.3%

*Not Being Organized: 2.6%

*Stress: 2%

*Doing Others' Work: 1.9%