At first glance, you'd think cyberloafing—when employees use their work time to engage in nonwork-related internet activities such as browsing social media and checking personal email—is a net negative for both employees and companies. It wastes company time and costs organizations money; the Zippia article "25+ Wasting Time at Work Statistics \[2023\]" reveals that US companies lose an average of $1.7 million per year for every 100 employees due to the time they waste.

It's not that simple, though.

Workers may turn to cyberloafing to relieve job stress and provide mental health breaks, according to Natalie Mason's paper, "Using Social Cyberloafing to Cope With Workplace Ostracism," published in Nature Reviews Psychology. Some employees may use cyberloafing habits to find emotional support by scrolling through social media feeds to get through the rest of the day.

Staff may also resort to cyberloafing as a response to job dissatisfaction associated with high workloads, low self-efficacy, and poor time-management skills.