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Research Outline

Prepared for Brian R. | Delivered July 25, 2019

Average Workday Analysis

Goals

To understand how the average US worker spend their eight hours at work.

Early Findings

  • In an eight-hour workday, a 2016 study found that the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes. The data was gathered from a study of over 2,000 full-time workers. 
  • In addition, the study found that the average worker spent an hour and 5 minutes reading news websites, 44 minutes on social media, and 40 minutes discussing non-work related issues with colleagues.
  • A study published in 2014 found that although the average American worker spent 8.7 hours at work, they only spent 45% of the time on primary work duty. That would mean that they only spent about 3.9 hours working.
  • The study found that they spent 40% of the workday is spent on meetings, administrative tasks, and "interruptions" and about 14% of the time is spent on email.
  • A different study in 2014 found that about 1.5 hours to 3 hours was spent by workers on private activities during work hours.
  • A 2017 study of 400 U.S white-collar, adult workers found that an average of 6.3 hours per day is spent checking emails, and only about 3.2 hours of the total hours spent on email was devoted to work emails.