Question

The textbook authors define Non-Productive time as paid time away from work. But there are times when we are at work that we are not very productive. What are some of the things that staff do each day that waste time? What can you as a manager do to eliminate time wasters?

250 words

Answer 1

There are certain activities done by employees or staff that can be counted as counter-productive in nature. Some of those activities are the following:

1. Frequent breaks: It is one of the most common counterproductive activity. Staff who tend to bore out of work take breaks (apart from the scheduled ones) very frequently therefore leading to wastage of time in such breaks. It might not seem a big issue on a daily basis, however, if aggregated, it is a major issue that firms have to deal with to maximise their profits.

2. Gossip: Gossiping while doing a job not only results in wastage of time but also it breaks concentration thereby deterring the quality of the work.

3. Procrastination: Procrastination happens when employees are not bound by deadline-based targets. Something that can be done in a week is done in twice due to availability to plenty of time to waste. Moreover, the lack of accountability worsens the situation as well.

Now, as a manager there are two paths that one can take: a) positive reinforcement; b) negative reinforcements.

Under positive reinforcements, one tends to encourage an employee for doing something by providing some incentive while in negative, one actions discourage an employee from doing something again.

So, positive reinforcements,in this case, could be to provide incentives like awards and recognition for actions like always coming on time, always delivering results on time and others. In some cases, one, if possible, can also provide monetary benefits to employees who are more into doing productive work than others. Such reinforcements will create a healthy competition in the company thereby leading to growth of the company through increased efficiency.

Negative reinforcements would mean to punish unproductive employees so that they work upon their behaviour and do their jobs properly, which in this case, could be through, communicating inefficiency to the employees through a mail or in person and strictly advising not to repeat it, reflecting the employees actions into his/her performance reports in terms of low scores leading to a reduced bonus package or loss of chance of getting promoted and it could go as far as demoting or expelling someone if improvements are not observed.