Cost of Poor e-Mail Communication: $309,000/yr per Person. What’s the Cost of Internet Addiction?

The market research firm Best Practices LLC just released a study showing that poor e-mail and other communication between pharma sales reps and their managers causes an estimated $309,000 in lost sales per rep each year. The study (download a summary here) found that 4.4 hours per week , or 32% of communications management time, was "unnecessary."  Although the dollar figure may vary, this has to be true for any occupation, in any industry. But how about "unproductive" Internet use during working hours? Many famous bloggers have written about how addictive blogging can be. Are social media also becoming dangerously habit-forming for some users? Let's consider pharma sales (since the Best Practices study did). Pharma sales reps today complain that it's getting harder to gain access to physicians and close sales. In fact, these issues are at the heart of a major and recent lawsuit. But, if "Boogalou Shrimp" (a pharma sales rep who allegedly posted the equivalent of one comment per hour, 24/7, on the Cafe Pharma message boards) is any indicator, there may still be some sales reps with far too much time on their hands, who may be at risk of becoming addicted to Web 2.0.  John Mack and Jane Chin had more on that . No drug manufacturing professional, no matter how much he or she liked social media, could ever develop a full-blown addiction. The cleanroom garb alone would put a stop to that. Every excursion to the computer would take 20 minutes or more, not to mention the documentable waste in disposable booties, jumpsuits, and hairnets. How about R&D? It might be possible. (Click here for more). If you have a minute, please take this short survey and 'fess up about your web use during working hours.