A new survey has revealed that Brits working from home skive off for nearly five hours each week on average. Nine in ten confessed they are regularly distracted by food, FIFA and Facebook, while working remotely. Astonishingly, one in three Brits are so slack they don’t even bother getting out of their PJs all day and just work on a laptop in bed.

With an estimated 4.2 million UK people now working out of the office, not being able to keep an eye on remote workers is becoming increasingly worrying for business owners. Bosses would be stunned to learn that they are paying their ‘hardworking’ full-time employees for 207 hours of work per year for graft they never do – that’s an average 4.5 hours per week.

The research also revealed that while employees are meant to be working, stay-at-home staff scoff snacks (64%), surf the net (57%), watch telly (39%) and play video games (12%), according to a poll of 2,000 people. A further one in ten have the audacity to go out visiting family and friends.

The survey, carried out by Printerland revealed that four in ten people admit to completing less work at home than what they’d usually accomplish in an office. Almost 40% of blokes squirm out of office-working by saying they can “concentrate better” at home. Even having an office set up at home doesn’t seem to get Brits going, as 36% are still doing things unrelated to their work over five times a day.

Roger Turner, Managing Director from Printerland said, “Working at home gives people much more flexibility with hours, considering issues with childcare. But employees have to give something back for being allowed to work at home! If you really think your employees are not working unless you are over their shoulder, you may need to have a good look at their output or consider more time spent in the office. It can be difficult for an individual to motivate themselves when working in a relaxed environment, and interaction with other people can be a driving factor behind their motivation and promotes an increase in productivity.”

A quarter of those surveyed said they liked working from home due to the flexibility of working whenever they liked, while 20% had childcare issues, which prevented them working regular hours. Two thirds of people chose to work at home to save on commuting time and travel costs while others had sneaky plans to catch up on soaps they missed or even do a spot of knitting.