Office chit-chat costs employers £2bn a year

Office chit-chats are costing employers more than £2bn each year, with the average UK worker spending over an hour a day talking to colleagues about their social lives.

A poll undertaken among 1,546 workers by recruitment agency review site HireScores.com revealed that personnel spend on average 67 minutes each day chewing the fat with colleagues, while 8% admitted to chattering away for three hours or more.

The favourite topic of conversation was TV (52%), followed by weekend plans (49%) and food (46%). Next on the list was sport (43%) and what people had done the previous evening (41%), although 37% liked a good gossip about their colleagues.

Lisette Howlett, managing director of HireScores.com, said: "We all know the excitement of coming into work and wanting to talk about last night's events, whether it be on the TV or what you got up to last night, but with over £2bn being lost each year, it’s important to rein it in a little bit."