In all seriousness, there's little reason to doubt the general point: Productive workers need periodic breaks, both physical and mental, or at least that's what I tell myself every time I point my browser at The Onion or take a stroll into the staff lounge.

However, if that's such an article of faith -- and now, thanks to Coker's research, scientific fact -- what about that 30%f workers who admit they're cheating the company by not taking their therapeutic surfing breaks? Not only are they not being team players, it seems to me they're taking a huge risk of being labeled unproductive in this down economy that has a new round of layoffs being announced virtually every day.

Perhaps the answer for these laggards should be mandatory surfing breaks?

I think I'm on to something here.

Online brokerage: "We're not stupid, we're screw-ups"