Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2012; the references to Messenger (MSN Messenger), to Spain’s national team at World Cups and league finals, and to Victoria Bernal as ‘our colleague’ reflect that time.
The working week is 40 hours. Some companies work 45 hours and others up to 60, but when it comes to measuring how productive that time is, the figures may not match the hours worked. A Swedish video once claimed that we Spaniards work long hours, but that for most of those hours we weren’t actually working. We may not have liked hearing it, but we can’t say the video didn’t have a point.
On the other hand, Microsoft carried out a study which said that out of a 45-hour working week, there were 17 hours in which we were not productive. That is the equivalent of saying we only work three days a week. The rest of the time we are working without working, at least not in any useful way. What are the causes that kill our productivity at work?
The most common threats to productivity are unclear objectives, poor communication within the team and ineffective meetings
1. Ineffective meetings
This is the number one cause of unproductive time. There are two kinds of meetings: the ones last thing on Friday and the ones first thing on Monday. Both have something in common: nothing is said that we don’t already know, and no clear conclusions are reached by the end.
Most experts even say that when a company needs a weekly meeting, it is because the staff don’t have very clear objectives or their work isn’t well defined.
In other companies it is not only a waste of time but also a financial loss, since some firms have sales reps from different cities meet once a week.
Possible solutions: Our colleague Victoria Bernal favours holding meetings only when they are needed to deal with matters of real importance; a weekly meeting at which we sometimes have nothing new to say since the last one should not become a routine. And if our company has people who have to travel hundreds of kilometres for a meeting, that is when we should make smart use of technology, because these days a worker doesn’t need to turn up in person; they can attend remotely. That saves on fuel and travel allowances, and we don’t wear out the employee, who would otherwise have to spend several hours travelling to attend. If, on top of that, they come away feeling the meeting wasn’t productive, over time they will end up tired and demotivated.
2. The boss
When it comes to unproductive work, we can’t deny that the boss bears part of the blame. As a rule they don’t do it consciously, but they often break people’s concentration at work.
Suppose your boss asks you to finish a project as soon as possible because it’s urgent. The project requires attention, dedication and concentration. Once you’re on it, your boss knocks on your office door to ask: “Have you finished what I asked you for yet?” To which you reply: “No, I still need about 20 minutes.” It’s an unnecessary interruption, since they should take it for granted that you will tell them when it’s done. Others waste even more time by calling you into their office to ask the same question, or any other question that could wait.
Other bosses can’t live without stopping the company every day to organise little “meetings” between departments.
Solution: Email should be encouraged in the company, because if we are busy and concentrating, we will read the email when we finish. Often the content of a general talk would fit into four lines that could be sent by email. If anyone has a question, they will ask it.
3. The internet
The internet has become a necessary and productive tool at work, but of course it is also one of the biggest risks to a business’s productivity. Most workers admit that, since they don’t have much free time, they have to deal with small personal errands from the company computer.
Among those small errands are the necessary ones, such as making a personal bank transaction or sending a message to your partner to say you forgot something and they’ll have to do it, and so on.
Then there are the less necessary ones, such as booking a weekend trip from the company computer or browsing clothing deals online. A high percentage of workers say they planned their wedding from their work computer, choosing the dress, looking for restaurants and so on.
Porn. More common than you’d think. While women tend to visit travel, bridal and clothing websites, men are somewhat more “classic”. The companies behind the biggest porn websites say their highest traffic peak comes during working hours.
Solution: Perhaps internet use at work really would deserve a meeting to explain certain things many workers don’t take into account, starting with security, since browsing certain pages can expose every computer in the company to a virus or data theft. Victoria says she saw it happen in her own company: indiscriminate use of “Messenger” and websites of all kinds cost her company more than 10,000 euros to restore the computer system. “Nobody did it on purpose, so the mistake was not warning the staff about these dangers.” Even so, there are various tools for measuring how productively we use the internet at work.
4. Sporting events
World Cups, league finals. In short: La Roja, Spain’s national football team. When Spain plays, we all play. Unless your company is a chain of bars, major sporting events that fall during working hours will probably cost you money and productivity.
Solution: There is no solution, because even if you forced your workers, most of the country tends to grind to a halt on those days, so it can be a good moment to strengthen bonds and build team spirit in the company. Don’t swim against the tide: put a big TV in the office so everyone can watch the match and enjoy it together.
Important: Strengthening bonds at work is not advisable during a Madrid–Barcelona final if there are fans of both sides, as things could end badly 🙂
5. Relationships at work
Some companies have a very clear policy on romantic relationships at work: one of the two is transferred, one is fired, or both are fired. Even so, we may be swimming against the tide here too, since in a world where we devote practically the whole day to work, most relationships start at the workplace.
While everything may seem very… “sweet” at first, the biggest problem can come if the couple end up fighting like cat and dog. In the same way, a distinction should be made between the penalty deserved by a relationship between two single employees, between two married employees (or one married and one single), and the most dangerous relationship of all, between a boss and an employee. One thing is clear: a couple whose relationship has just started at the company is more likely to go through unproductive periods.
Solution: I admit that personally I couldn’t fire someone for falling in love with a person at work; I even see it as something that can’t be controlled, but at the same time as healthy. That said, I’m sure I wouldn’t hesitate to fire a boss who, out of lust, has casual relationships with an employee, married or single, since he should know that she could file a complaint for harassment, rape and so on.
One thing is clear: few business owners like romances at work, but… once one starts, it’s hard to choose which path to take, especially when the relationship is healthy. Even so, if hundreds of manuals written about relationships at work agree on anything, it’s that if the two can be moved to different departments of the company, so much the better.
Featured image: JuergenG, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
