Time wasting is a management issue, not a social-media problem

In my former life as a systems analyst, I had a cubicle neighbour named Norm. He was a friendly chap. Too friendly. For approximately two to three hours a day, Norm would visit the other analysts’ and programmers’ desks, to update us on his scintillating life: his award-winning meatloaf recipe, the latest sin committed by his greedy ex-wife, his mother’s health crises, and so on. A week after I joined the company, I wondered why the heck Norm was hired, and why he was still there.

Once, when he was away on vacation, one of his clients needed me to run a report. I turned it around in one day. When Norm returned, he was upset: “I tell them it takes a week! What can I do now that they know it can be finished in 24 hours!”

I left the company after a short time (can you wonder why?), so I don’t know what happened to Norm.

The issue is: Many organizations have a Norm or Norma or two. In today’s competitive economy, time wasting may be less overt, but it’s still happening.

Perhaps you’ve seen one of the many recent studies stating that organizations are losing millions to employees Twittering or Facebooking the day away.

These studies bother me for two reasons:

1. They seem to measure only “costs” or “wasted time,” not the benefits gained from employees’ presence on social networks.
2. They fail to account for the time the employer gains while the employee checks email at home, answers mobile phone calls at all hours, etc.

As my example shows, people who want to waste time will find ways to do so, whether they’re chatting on the phone all day, taking endless smoke breaks, playing computer solitaire, or excessively updating their Facebook status.

This is a people-management problem, not a social media problem.

Comments

[Barb Sawyers]

Good points, Donna. Shel Holtz called for work-life integration instead of work-life balance, which means you can check your Facebook page or tweet at work because you're responding to your Blackberry on evenings and weekends. There will always be slackers, but most people I see are working so hard for so many hours, they need a break.

[Donna Papacosta]

Well said, Barb. Thanks for commenting!