Perceptions of time at work: Why the clock ticks differently for men and women when they are not working at work
Purpose Activities such as making personal phone calls, surfing on the internet, booking personal appointments or chatting with colleagues may or may not deviate attentions from work. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to examine gender differences and motivations behind personal activities employees do at work, as well as individuals' perception of the time they spend doing these activities. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from 35 individuals (M age=37.06 years; SD=7.80) from a Portuguese information technology company through an ethnographic method including a five day non participant direct observation (n=175 observations) and a questionnaire with open ended questions. Findings Results revealed that during a five working day period of eight hours per day, individuals spent around 58 minutes doing personal activities. During this time, individuals engaged mainly in socializing through conversation, internet use, smoking and taking coffee breaks. Results revealed that em.