A recent survey indicates that contrary to the recent trend of companies making employees work extra to beat the recession, the productivity of staffers working beyond the nine hours is actually a negative in the overall scheme of things.

The survey conducted by Websense indicates that productivity loss per employee is to the tune of 5.3 hours a week while surfing non-business websites and there is also the administrative overheads to account for in such cases.

A report published in Silicon India quotes Diana Joseph of Fourth Wave to state that extra hours spent at work does more harm than good in the long run as the efficiency levels of an employee decreases as time prolongs.

The same happens when an employee starts to work late. Therefore, companies must give more preference to higher efficiencies and the work output than on how long a person occupied his pod, she says.

The article further quoted Sadhana Somasekhar, Joint MD of Focus Infotech, to say that productivity may or may not increase depending upon two critical criteria. If the staffer is motivated to finish a piece of work and sits late, there is likely to be a positive impact. But, if the staffer sits late due to pressure or under compulsion, then productivity is deemed to see a negative influence.