By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
theword on 24 April 2009
Edit Thread
NJ5 said:
Words Of Wisdom said:
NJ5 said:
theword said:
It seems most of us use boredom as an excuse to spend company times on personal interest. But responsible employees would find something work related to work on or ask their supervisors to give them assignment during slow times. As a manager of more than 40 employees, this is the work ethics I want to see all my employees have, but seldom find!

Let me put it this way... if people don't waste time reading things on the Internet, they'll spend time daydreaming, taking longer bathroom trips, idling by the watercooler or whatever. Most people have limited focus and energy and they'll always find ways to balance their work time with their resting time.

The argument that employees should be allowed to slack off by reading forums because otherwise they'll just find a different way to slack off is bad one. 

You pay employees for 8 or however many hours of work a day and they give you 8 or however many hours of work a day.  If you have employees that want to give you 6 hours of work and spend 2 hours of work reading forums then you probably need new employees.  With today's economy, there's no shortage of people looking for work either.

I think you misunderstood my point. I'm not saying they "should be allowed to slack off". I'm saying they either do or don't, and the ones that do aren't going to work more because you block one of the ways of slacking off. The only thing that's likely to happen is that they'll be less happy with their job. Micro-managing people to change their habits is very hard.

Incidentally I also believe that the vast majority of employees are not equally productive every day. Do you believe otherwise

 

 

 I notice that most of the people we hired at my company, if they were obsessed with video games, tend not to be very productive.   If their monitor is not within open view of a supervisor, they would play all kinds of games during work hours.   You give them some work assignments, they often do it half heartedly to finish early and try to sneak some game times in.    As a gamer myself, I tried to help these people get some balance back into their work habbit.  But so far I had not been sucessful.    All of these guys,  bright people, we enventually had to let go!

Employers know how much gaming habit can steal their employees valuable productivity.   This is why they blocked gaming sites.   If you finish your assignment early, come bug your boss to give you new assignment.  Organize your desk.  Offer help to people who still have not finish their work. Try to pick up new skill, etc.  There are tons of things you can do during slow times that will benefit your work, help sharpen up job skills, and make you look much better than your peers come times for promotion.