A common complaint for staff is that the network always seems to be “slower” in the early afternoon. They start work in the morning and things are fine. Then they walk away, have lunch, and when they return to their desks, the network or their computer seems slower. Have you ever wondered why this might be?

Here are some possible reasons.

Sometimes IT departments will schedule things to run around the lunch hour, such as virus scans or patch update checks. These can slow your computer quite drastically, so ask your IT staffers if they can change the time these functions run – maybe to something like 7 pm when no one is in the office.

• Have you rebooted?

Leaving your computer on for a few days at a time can have a deleterious effect to its’ performance. How would you feel if you had to stay up for more than 2 days straight, with no chance to close your eyes? Reboots can often refresh a computer’s performance to where it should be.

•  Hardware

Some hardware items like routers and switches need to be rebooted every so often as well. If one day things suddenly start going wonky almost out of the blue, hardware might be something to consider. Don’t do this one lightly though – remember that the impact will be much larger than just yourself.

• Web Surfing

Traffic statistics always show a spike in network usage and internet surfing between 1 and 2 pm, and then again from about 3:45 onwards to the end of the day. Maybe things are slow for the 30% of staff who actually work because everyone else is streaming funnies from YouTube? Or buying Christmas presents on Ebay? Staggered lunch hours will help reduce the bottleneck here, and may help your staff feel less like automatons.

Of course, every environment is different and every situation is unique. And always check with your technical services provider before making any changes – or they might tell management where you’ve been surfing.