Workplace Productivity

How many of you have a workplace that completely bans many websites such as Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc as a way to "boost" your productivity?

Hopefully not many... many recent studies have shown that just working non-stop from 8-5 without a brain break can reduce your productivity or, having a few minutes here and there to do something else besides work can actually increase your productivity.

Take this study (commissioned by Popcap games, so take that as you will...): http://tinyurl.com/445uwgu.  According to this study, the UK is losing over $4B pounds a year in productivity because people lose productivity if they don't take a break.  That is definitely not chump change. 

A similar study found here shows that taking breaks about every hour improves focus and productivity (the study's results were inconclusive as to whether or not taking a gaming break was better though...).  The study references other research that indicates that taking a gaming break does increase productivity further reinforcing the fact that productivity is not necessarily based on who works the hardest.

While I could cite several other examples of how checking in on your social media once in a while improves productivity like this study, the point I want to make is why do some companies still refuse to let their employees have free reign?  As long as someone isn't looking at porn or some type of hate group (or something as bad), then why are some employers cutting off their employee's access to benign sites such as Facebook?  Hopefully someone will do a study to see if a company's internet policy can actually improve or reduce their profitability, productivity and turnover.  Until then (and even after most likely), some employers refuse to update archaic policies...

Hopefully you aren't trapped in a job where they won't let you have 5 or 10 minutes of down time to surf the web, but if they do, have you noticed a drop in your desire to work hard?