Time Theft Is Unethical Behavior In The Workplace

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Unethical behavior is a prevalent issue that effects every company and corporation in the world. One of the most prevalent unethical behaviors in the organization that I work for is time theft. Not only is time theft unethical, it is a counterproductive work behavior (CWB) as it harms the organization as a whole (Kinicki & Fugate, 2016). For the purposes of this discussion, I will define time theft as any time spent doing things at work that are not work related. Time theft can be small things, such as long conversations about non work things or checking emails and text messages periodically. It can also be large things, such as constantly utilizing the internet for personal reasons or even doing things for a personal business while on company time. The most prevalent time theft that I have noticed in my organization involves technology. People constantly play on their phones and utilize work computers to look at personal things on company time. …show more content…

Employees who have high levels of engagement are employees who devote maximum effort while at work (Kinicki & Fugate, 2016). Employees that are playing on their phones and computers are not actively engaged in their work. Employees who experience stress tend to procrastinate, cyberloafing (surfing the internet) is one of the most prominent ways to procrastinate and cope with work stress (Sampat & Basu, 2017). There are a lot of stressors in my organization, I believe that reducing the stressors would lead to more engagement and less time theft. Not all cyberloafing is negative, small and controlled cyberloafing breaks can lead to enhanced productivity and effectiveness due to reduced stress (Sampat & Basu, 2017). However, it is difficult to strike the correct balance between stress release and time

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