"Recession rumination" strikes worried workers.

• Position: Your Life - Brief article

Employees waste 25% of their workday, and that number is up 44% over last year, according to a study by Leadership IQ, Washington, D.C. The biggest reason for this increase can be traced to "recession rumination."

In 2007, these individuals reported wasting 1.6 hours per an average 9.1-hour workday. In 2008, these same employees admitted wasting 2.3 hours per an average 9.2-hour workday. In 2007, the biggest time wasters were the typical culprits: surfing the Internet for shopping (17%), entertainment (15%), and personal e-mail (10%), chatting with coworkers (nine percent), and daydreaming about positive topics (nine percent). This year, though, the top five are quite different and clearly influenced by fears about a potential recession: surfing the Internet for career improvement (21%) and personal finance (17%), worrying about negative topics (12%), chatting with coworkers (nine percent), and surfing the Internet for entertainment...