I was working as a charger the other day, and my co-worker at times would keep talking to people that come by. Now, I dont care if its a simple "how are you" etc, but these conversations went on to last about 5min each. Meanwhile, I'm charging all by myself and the slide fills up. I'm a pretty mean person in real life, and kept thinking to myself :"***? Why is she talking for that long, what kinda BS is this?"
Don't get me wrong, I talk to people WHILE working all the time, and believe that a casual conversation while working is appropriate, however, to engage in a 5min conversation while your co-worker is working is not cool, AT ALL.
So, yes, I do believe that talking while working without actually doing work should be prohibited and warning letters in that regard should be send out.
It's only fair to the people that ACTUALLY work. Talk on your break.