Category Archives: Time management

The downside of presenteeism

Posted on February 26, 2012 | 17 Comments

Presenteeism has crept into modern day business vocabulary and is now listed as a new word in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, defined as “presenteeism (noun): working when sick especially to avoid the stigma of being absent. “  Research about the negative impact of this trend is significant,  with an estimated impact on workplace effectiveness and productivity amounting to billions.

Missed point
The focus has hitherto been on the health aspect of the definition,  which is of course completely understandable.

But perhaps a little brazenly I think we’re missing the main point.

For me, the key part of the definition is ” to avoid the stigma of being absent“. This extends the insidious and more extensive reach of presenteeism beyond macho, masters of the universe,   boiler room cultures,  into business practises, which many of us encounter every day, as organisations become  “lean, mean and keen”.

  • Not taking vacations  – despite all the occupational health information about the value of annual holidays, even in countries with statutory entitlement provisions  - many still don’t take their full quotas.
  • Staying late when there is no work to be done  – I have much first hand anecdotal evidence to suggest that this practise is rife and that employees who work their contracted hours are viewed negatively, even if there is no specific deadline to meet.
  • Working to unnecessarily tight deadlines set by disorganised management or power playing superiors.
  • Working late and at weekends to avoid seeming uncommitted.  Technology has created a culture of 24/7 availability and those who don’t respond to messages on their iPhones within nano seconds are perceived to be “slackers”.  I have one contact who stores his emails and sends them out at what would be post business hours in various global time zones,  to give an impression of super  diligence.
  • Skipping lunch  -   the ” lunch is for wimps” mentality is prevalent in many organisations, with one connection fainting with hypoglycemia after working for 9 hours without eating.  Many eat unhealthy snacks at their desk which drains energy and reduces output.

Fallout
The fallout from this culture reaches and impacts entire workforces and in particular those who can’t subscribe to this charade and for any number of reasons have to work their contracted hours.  Working mothers are one category to feel the judgement heat.  Anyone who knows any working mum  (or who has been one)  understands all too well,  that even if they work part-time,  this phrase generally refers to compensation,  rather than the hours worked, while the workload managed almost certainly hovers around 100%.

Victoria Pynchon  highlights this in her  Forbes  piece where she boldly talks about the amount of  ”face-time “  wasted in her career,  suggesting that having a family  might have forced her  “  … to work in a more focused manner, to organize myself and my working teams better”  But truthfully having  children isn’t a prerequisite for being focused, although it is certainly necessary .

But on a general workplace level isn’t it time to over turn this outdated culture , which  all research suggests leads to a  dramatic decrease in individual and therefore organisational productivity.  Or as Brendan S  maintains  that  as  “offices are inherently inefficient places“   we should be measuring productivity by the results obtained and not the hours spent at a desk.

The irony is that “presenteeism ” does eventually lead to “absenteeism”,  with stress from heavy workloads and job insecurity fears,  being the highest causes of  sickness absence.

Or will we reach a situation such as we see with the Apple manufacturers in China where shamefully,  a new spin on workplace Health and Safety  is to install safety nets  around their buildings to reduce the suicide rate.

Being present isn’t a barometer of value.

What do you think?  

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Posted in Presenteeism, Time management, Workplace practises

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Running late – Life as a bus

Posted on December 28, 2011 | 6 Comments

An epidemic of tolerance as though being late is always outside our control

Poor timekeeping
I have to confess that in my time I have indeed been guilty of some erratic time keeping. I was very much  ” a one more thing before I go“  type of girl  and a great subscriber to the phrase “fashionably late“.  But then I worked for a manager who would monetize  the communally wasted time whenever any of his team was late for a meeting.   It was actually quite shocking. If we had all been held financially accountable,  our pay cheques would have been significantly lighter.   When I transitioned into sales I had to replace ” better late than never ” with  “never late is better”.  Arriving late isn’t actually a recognised commercially winning strategy.

Running late
I have become acutely aware in recent weeks how erratic general timekeeping seems to have become and how easily  the phrase  “running late “,  has slid into our daily business and social vernacular, including my own. Very often people apologise, (sometimes they don’t), explaining that either they, someone, or something else was “running late“, as though they were a bus service,  entirely passive and had nothing to do with it at all. Clearly there are always unforseen circumstances. Only recently I scooted into an important meeting with only  minutes to spare,  because a journey scheduled to take 10 minutes,  took 45,  due to traffic congestion.  But, I wondered, are we all becoming more tolerant of  poor time keeping,  as if  we are communally raising our hands saying ”  I know life is tough for you  – but it’s Ok – I don’t mind waiting here wasting my own time….. I’m a bus too ?”  Whatever happened to William Shakespeare’s “Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late?”

Consequences
A candidate was recently late for an interview. He hadn’t properly checked the company’s address the night before and arrived 15 minutes late,  having been to the wrong building at the designated hour. What should have been a walk in the park (he was the preferred candidate) became an interview nightmare, as his anxiety levels rose and he fluffed even routine questions. A hiring manager similarly kept a candidate waiting so long that she eventually left and then withdrew from the process.

Julie Morgenstern, author of Time Management From the Inside Out,  tells us that the first step is to make promptness a conscious priority,  but also we need to  gain an understanding into why we’re always late.   Poor timekeeping can  be very costly, both directly  but also via damage to our reputations suggesting we are unreliable,  untrustworthy and/or disorganised. The reasons she maintains tend to fall into 2  categories: technical or psychological.

Technical Difficulties

Life as a bus

If we are always late but at different time then, the likelihood is that it is the result of  bad planning and under estimating how long things will take.

Morgenstern advises establishing patterns by keeping a time log of all tasks and finding out exact how much time each task takes. Then factor in a margin for some unforseen contingency.

Inability to say no
Linda Sapadin, PhD, author of Master Your Fears believes there are deeper underlying implications of poor timekeeping,  which are linked to procrastination. Very often many of the difficulties come from lack of confidence and an inability to say no,  or even to tell another person we have another appointment in our diaries.

Do you choose to be late?
If we are always late by the same amount of time, there could be a number of reasons – but no doubt, it’s about us!  We might be:

  • Rebellious   – not doing what’s expected
  •  A crisis maker   – need an adrenalin rush to get going
  • Attention seeker  - which comes with being last through the door and going through the apology ritual.
  • Power playing  – I’m more important than you are,  sending a message of disrespect
  • Avoider - you don’t want to meet the person, or attend the meeting, so leave it until the very last-minute.

During a recession when employers are tightening up on time keeping with threats of dismissal after the second or third offence, there are so many challenges in the workplace, it seems crazy not to take responsibility for the things we can control ourselves. It’s also really rude!

So next time instead of saying something “ ran late“, perhaps we should all just be honest and admit to being bad planners,  power players, attention seekers or avoiders.

Or is the alternative to opt for carrying on living our lives as buses?

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Posted in Absenteeism, Procrastination, Time management, timekeeping

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