Caught Twittering or on Facebook at work? It'll make you a better employee, according to an Australian study that shows surfing the Internet for fun during office hours increases productivity.

The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive that those who do not.

Study author Brent Coker, from the department of management and marketing¹, said "workplace Internet leisure browsing," or WILB, helped to sharpened workers' concentration.

"People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration," Coker said on the university's website (www.unimelb.edu.au/)

"Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days' work, and as a result, increased productivity," he said.

According to the study of 300 workers, 70 percent of people who use the Internet at work engage in WILB.

Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.

"Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence³" target="_blank">pretence² that it costs millions in lost productivity," said Coker. "That's not always the case."

However, Coker said the study looked at people who browsed⁴ in moderation, or were on the Internet for less than 20 percent of their total time in the office.

"Those who behave with Internet addiction⁵ tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without," he said.

上班时上Twitter或Facebook网被撞见？这会让你成为一个更优秀的员工。澳大利亚一项研究表明，上班时上网能够提高工作效率。

这项由墨尔本大学开展的研究显示，上班时出于因个人原因上网的人的工作效率比不上网的人高9%。

研究负责人、墨尔本大学管理和营销系的布兰特•科克说：“工作时的网络休闲（WILB）”有助于员工集中注意力。

科克在发表于该大学网站的研究报告中称：“人们需要开个小差来重新集中他们的注意力。”

他说：“短时间而无伤大雅的休息，如迅速浏览网页能让大脑得到放松，让人精力更加集中地完成一天的工作，从而提高工作效率。”

在受访的300名员工中，有70%的人称自己在上班时会“上网休闲”。

其中最常见的网络休闲活动包括查询产品信息、浏览新闻网站、玩网络游戏以及在YouYube观看视频等。

科克说：“一些公司花费数百万购置安装防止员工看视频、上社交网或在线购物的软件，以为这样可以弥补生产效率低下造成的巨大损失，但事实并非如此。”

但科克指出，该研究调查的是适度上网、或上网时间不到总工时20%的人。

他说：“那些上网成瘾的人的工作效率自然要低于其他人。”