Don't shirk the work

The thing about the office is that it’s damnably hard to get any work done there. There are just too many distractions. Email, coffee stations, gossip, that fit graduate in Finance… No wonder progress on your latest project is about as quick as a two-legged dog crawling up a lard mountain.

Now Careerbuilder has surveyed thousands of people to identify where their time actually goes at work (as reported yesterday) and identified a number of timewasting activities that really put a big dent in productivity.

The top ten were:

Mobile phone/texting (50%). ‘Yo! Wkg l8 2nite but up4 LOLZ @urs @10.’ No. Put the phone away and only attend to it in breaks and over lunch – assuming you’ve worked hard enough to deserve lunch, that is.

Gossip (42%). ‘So apparently David didn’t get promoted because he shagged Sue who knows the HRD and he thought he was being unfaithful to his wife even though his wife’s a lesbian really. But don’t tell anyone I told you.’ Less tittle-tattling, more word processing please.

The Internet (39%). It’s great to check up on the news every so often, and check out your new supplier on LinkedIn to see if he’s as hot as he sounds on the phone. But not too often, because those PowerPoint decks are not going to proof themselves.

Social media (38%). Facebook? Twitter? Don’t bother with either. We have no real friends and no-one cares what we say, cos we’re in HR.

Snack breaks or smoke breaks (27%). Less smoke, more poke. Stub it out and get back to your desk, you dirty thing.

Noisy co-workers (24%). Generally, try not to wear earphones in the office. But exceptions are allowed when you’re sitting next to a Personnel dinosaur who’s forever braying about an ‘industry-changing policy’ she was vaguely connected with back in 1977.

Meetings (23%). ‘I have to rush off to a planning meeting regarding the research process for the Employer Branding strategy.’ No, I don’t believe you do.

Email (23%).  Yes, you do need to check your junk mail folder. Yes, you do need to delete those emails from recruitment consultants. But do you need to do it now? No. Chunk your emails: set mail management aside for a specific hour in every day.

Co-workers dropping by (23%). ‘Hey, Jane! Haven’t seen you since the L&D budget session. How’s it going?’ Politely but firmly send this person back to their desk, and arrange to have a coffee with them when you can spare the time.

Co-workers putting calls on speaker phone (10%). They only do this for two reasons: to show off, or because they need both hands to paint their nails. Discourage this foul noise pollution by breaking wind and/or singing Leonard Cohen songs loudly in the background.

About the author

Andrew Baird

Andrew is the CEO of HRville. He is also Employer Brand Director of Blackbridge Communications, Editorial Director of Professionals in Law and an associate of The Smarty Train. Previously, he was the MD of TCS Advertising.