Wasted Time on the Job

My friend Michael Ballard sent me an interesting set of statistics compiled by On-Line Schools, about wasting time on the job. It is a great graphical layout of the stats so I highly recommend you click on and visit the link.

It seems the average American worker wastes 1.7 hours per work day. Please note that is not per week but per day!

What do these employees spend their time doing? The answers may or may not surprise you.

44.7% Distracted by the Internet
23.4% Socialized
6.8% Handled personal business
3.9% Spaced out (and they actually admitted this!!)
1.3% Applying for other jobs
19.9% Other

Employers in the U.S. end up paying out $759 Billion dollars per year for work that isn’t actually performed.

Remember there are only seven reasons why people don’t do what you want them to:

1. No Expectations
2. No Feedback
3. No Training
4. No Resources
5. Reward Wrong
6. Punish Right
7. Ignore Either

No Expectations: If you don’t spell out what you want people to do and why they lose focus and of course get distracted. Tell them what’s expected of them and then get out of their way.

No Feedback: OK. So you told them what you expected of them. Now, how are they doing? People want to know how their performance stacks up against others. If they are on track tell them. If they need a simple course correction, coach them along.

No Training: How can we expect people to know all the skills, competencies and abilities to do the job perfectly? We may need to provide education and training, job shadowing and mentoring. Show them what to do.

No Resources: Nothing is worse than being told to do a job and you’re not given the proper tools or equipment to do it right. Make sure you provide people with the software, the hardware and the knowhow to do what you need them to.

Reward Wrong: Looks like many companies are rewarding employees with the opportunity to waste almost 2 hours a day at company expense. The leadership, management and systems in place are allowing this negative behavior to be rewarded – and in cash too!

Punish Right: Someone might try to speak up against wasting time and be shot down by peers with lines like, “well everybody does it!”, “Trying to be a goody-goody?” We need to create an environment where employees can bring up concerns and issues without retribution.

Ignore Either: Occasionally negative behaviors are totally ignored. They are neither directly rewarded nor purposely punished. Managers simply ignore what’s going on and when the cat’s away the mice do play.

Let’s be careful with allowing wasted time to eat away at productivity. We must ensure employees have a clear purpose in their work and that it’s meaningful for them. We must ensure their actions and results are valued and they can see how they are making a contribution.

Now stop reading this blog entry and quickly get back to work!!