The Effects of Online Games on Work Productivity

How does it happen?

There are many activities in multiple areas of interests that can be performed on the Internet, but playing games online is one of the most addicting. It’s true that some of them are great for playing as time wasters on short breaks. Nonetheless, others can require frequent logins, such as business management, strategy and RPG games. To keep playing such a game, people have to login daily or multiple times per day, at specific times, which interrupts them from their job and causes them to waste time on playing online games, instead of spending it to work.

How to prevent it

To limit the access of their employees to distracting online activities, many companies are using web filtering solutions that allow them to restrict access to any website they consider it may decrease the productivity of their staff and are not needed to do their jobs. As a result, companies tend to restrict the access to social networks, news websites, online flash games websites, video streaming websites and other online content considered to be distracting.

Derived from boredom, addiction as well as other reasons, employees strive to find other ways of accessing their favorite websites and online games. Among the most used methods are web proxies. By using a web proxy, employees are able to bypass restrictions imposed at work and visit otherwise unavailable websites. People that are severely addicted to their Internet habits, like social networking and games can often have problems keeping their jobs and relationships. There are also milder cases that can experience diminished performance at work among other effects.

To prevent their employees from wasting time surfing the web instead of working, some companies prefer to monitor the online traffic of their workers to see whether they’re using the Internet for productive purposes or not. This method is less aggressive and offers a certain degree of flexibility for employees, allowing them to moderately use the Internet for leisure. In this case, they can occasionally visit their favorite websites, social networks and even play online games, for short periods of time, during coffee or lunch breaks.

On the other hand, when performed with moderation, these online activities also have benefits. Sometimes people just need a quick break from whatever they were doing, to clear their mind and return to their task refreshed and relaxed. That is why restricting access to all leisure online activities in offices, schools and institutions can have negative effects. People will feel their freedom is severely limited and their employers don’t trust them.

Conclusion

The Internet has a lot to offer and not all is bad. In this case, like in many others, moderation is the key to success. Everyone needs to take a break from their chores, every once in a while. Nevertheless, long is that break and what you chose to do in that free time is very important. There’s nothing wrong if you use it to visit your favorite blogs or social networks and even play online games. Just make sure it doesn’t turn into an obsession. Such behavior can have an impact on your career and social life.