commentary You will be surprised... or won't you?
From September 2004 to January 2005, Microsoft conducted an online survey of more than 38,000 people in 200 countries to gauge productivity trends at the workplace.
| Approximately 17 hours out of a 45-hour work week were deemed unproductive by the participants. |
In Australia, 420 people responded to the 30-question assessment and the results showed there were many similarities with our overseas counterparts. Similar to Europe, 71 percent of respondents here were men in management positions (including 16 percent from upper management), with an average age of 40.
Approximately 17 hours out of a 45-hour work week were deemed unproductive by the participants. The main culprit responsible for time wasting was procrastination (42 percent).
The results got me thinking... why do we procrastinate in the first place? Is it habitual? A workers' ethos? Or, simply the product of overworked employees?
Before we continue this analysis, bear in mind that true procrastinators (consistently) drag their feet until the very end... just like one ex-colleague of mine who suffered from a symptom his co-workers christened "last minutitis".
It was difficult working with Jay (not his real name) because we couldn't depend on him. Either he had difficulty understanding his job responsibilities or simply pretended to have last minutitis in order to gain exemption from doing actual work. The situation was so bad that every other member had to pick up after him.
On the other end of the spectrum, any worker inundated with numerous tasks -- at one go -- will tend to prioritise. More often than not, the least time-sensitive (and usually most boring) assignments are shoved to the bottom of the pile, which in time grows bigger and bigger... then wham! Without much notice, the job that had a three-week deadline is now due in three hours. Procrastination, in this case, is not a matter of choice, rather, a by-product of the immense workload.
To this day, I find it baffling (and subsequently demoralising) as to why Jay was kept on the payroll. Some believe he was a slick operator who managed to cover up for his laziness. Or perhaps he was a multi-talented soul who only showed his true colours to the right people in management. These skills were undoubtedly elusive to us but looking back, maybe it was a communication problem.
Which brings us to the second-highest item that erodes productivity -- the lack of communication, according to 35 percent of respondents. This ranked higher than ineffective meetings, spam, surfing the Web, unclear objectives, and unstated priorities.
Dr Larry Barker, the person behind the survey questions, didn't express surprise at the findings.
"In my three decades of studying what makes workers productive, I've found the most crucial skills are their ability to efficiently communicate across all kinds of boundaries, share important documents, and manage the increasing volumes of information."
"These new survey results confirm those trends and highlight the opportunity for workers to get better training," the associate professor at Shorter College in Georgia says.
I'm a firm believer in training. I also believe that companies have to be more proactive in identifying the rot in the system and deal with it swiftly and appropriately. Otherwise, people like Jay will fast become a standard feature in Australian enterprises.
Have you ever worked with a person like Jay? Is procrastination one of your weaknesses? Send your feedback to edit@zdnet.com.au.
Fran Foo is ZDNet Australia managing editor and contributing editor of T&B.
This article was first published in Technology & Business magazine.
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