Employees would rather give up their morning coffee than internet access at work, according to a new survey.

Employee internet monitoring vendor, Websense has announced the results of its sixth annual Web@Work study, the company's annual survey conducted by Harris Interactive. From February 21 to February 28, 2005, 354 US IT decision-makers who work for organisations with at least 100 employees were interviewed online, and from February 28 to March 21, 2005, 500 US employees who have internet access at work and who work for organisations with at least 100 employees were surveyed over the telephone on web and software application usage in their workplace.
 
The 2005 survey suggests that surfing the web may be more addictive than coffee. 52% of employees surveyed who use the internet at work for personal reasons stated that they would rather give up their morning java than internet access at work, while only 44% would give up their internet access for coffee.

Furthermore, internet use at work is increasing. 93% of all respondents said they spend at least some time accessing the internet at work. This is up from 86% as reported in the 2004 Web@Work survey.

As the blurring of work and play on the internet continues, 50% of employees surveyed who access the internet at work do so for both work and personal tasks. Among those surveyed who use the web during the work day for personal reasons, the most popular non work-related websites accessed are news (81%), personal email (61%), online banking (58%), travel (56%) and shopping (52%).

Among the employees surveyed who access the internet at work, the average time spent accessing the internet at work is 12.6 hours per week. Among the employees surveyed who access non work-related websites at work, the average time spent accessing non work related sites is 3.4 hours per week. However, IT decision-makers surveyed estimated that employees spend an average of just under six (5.9) hours per week surfing non work-related websites. These numbers are consistent with previous years' surveys.