Re: Wasting time??

Subject: Re: Wasting time??
From: "Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 16:24:37 -0800

Thanks to all who responded, publicly and privately, to my
question about how to tell when an employee is wasting time.
The pattern I see emerging is that it isn't the waste of time
in and of itself that's the concern, it's the lack of produc-
tivity.

Steven, I agree with you. The creative process is not always
capable of being monitored, and in general, as long as the
work is getting done on schedule and with the quality I
expect, I don't care how my employees accomplish it. I have
myself, on occasion, filled my workday with solitaire as I
processed a particularly sticky outline.

The problem isn't in an occasional game of solitaire, an
engrossing web crawl, or even (could it happen???) spending
too much time reading and answering email. ;-) I've seen
employees who do all these things and more and still put out
quality work on time.

So, just maybe, we need to look deeper -- past the time-
wasting activity to the real cause of our employee's lack
of performance. And yes, I know that's a tough call --
both to identify the real problem and to work on it. But,
as managers, don't we owe it to our employees???

Seems to me, accusing our employees of wasting time is,
ironically, a waste of time itself. We should be treating
the problems, not the symptoms.

Just one manager's opinion. ;-)


Susan W. Gallagher Manager, Technical Publications
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com Expersoft Corporation, San Diego CA
http://www.expersoft.com

TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html


Previous by Author: Re: Web Server & Documents
Next by Author: Re: I'm in BYTE
Previous by Thread: Re: Re[2]: Wasting time??
Next by Thread: Re: Wasting time??


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads