IT workers caught napping

Far from saving the world from IT terrorism and virus meltdowns, many IT professionals use work to catch up on their sleep.

According to a US survey by Harris Interactive of 5,700 workers, on behalf of job site Careerbuilder.com, 49 per cent of male techies admitted to snoozing on the job, compared to 35 per cent of female IT staff. They are also some of the most amorous, with 44 per cent admitting that they have kissed a co-worker.

IT staff were only outdone in the Romeo stakes by Hospitality staff, 53 per cent of whom admitted to puckering up at work. One in four IT workers admitted to drinking on the job – the worrying average across all professions.

First in the snooze department went to government workers, with over two-thirds of them feeling the need to nod off at work. Retail staff, who spend much of their time on their feet, proved to be the least likely to fall asleep.

Almost a quarter of techies admitted to stealing from the workplace, while 20 per cent confessed to snooping around work after hours. That said, techies seem to be a fairly honest lot when it comes to not falsifying their CVs, with just three per cent lying about their backgrounds and only one per cent claiming someone else’s work as their own.

“Lying about your academic background or on your résumé is getting harder to do because it's getting so much easier for employers to look that info up on the web and elsewhere,” said Tanya Flynn, career adviser at Careerbuilder, speaking to Information Week.