Valentine’s Day may be right around the corner, but many American workers aren’t thinking about gifts for their beloved spouses – not yet, anyway.
That’s because they’re too busy flirting online with someone else – and doing their online dallying during business hours. Those achy-breaky hearts and twitchy fingers are potentially costing businesses $17 million a day in lost productivity, according to infidelity website Victoria Milan’s survey of 4,000 members.
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The survey showed that working hours, more than any other time of day, are used by online cheaters to connect with others outside their marriage. The average amount of working time spent on computer cheating was 1.17 hours, according to respondents.
Nearly 70 percent of participants said they conduct their online affairs during work hours using a laptop or smartphone, while 25 percent cheat at home. Only 7 percent say they interact online somewhere else besides work or home.
Of those who admitted doing their online cheating from work, 38 percent said they spend about half an hour doing so, 25 percent said an hour a day, and 19 percent said their cheating time took between one and two hours. Those spending more than two hours on online adultery amounted to 18 percent.
“Today we have the advantage of being able to connect with people looking for the same things online,” Sigurd Vedal, CEO of Victoria Milan, said in a statement.
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“Based on our survey, many of our members connect with each other during work hours to spice up their life. We just hope they do it while they are on break,” added Vedal. “Because if not, companies may be losing a lot of money.”
The website, whose tagline is “relive the passion, find your affair,” calculated the $17 million-a-day estimate by using the U.S. minimum wage of $7.25 an hour against its number of members around the world.
As for which day of the week is the busiest for online romantic activity: Ashley Madison, a competing infidelity website, says that would be Monday. “Spouses who’ve had their weekend hopes of marital bliss dashed turn to a discreet affair to fill the void,” reports CNBC.
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