We've all worked with this colleague. While you're getting work done, he or she is making personal phone calls, checking Facebook, clipping nails, firming up fun plans for the weekend, eating snacks, chatting up the cute receptionist, responding to a terse Tweet, booking concert tickets, catching up on the news, finding out the final score, downloading music -- and most likely, doing more than one of these things at once.
Oh, look who's coming! It's the boss. Quick, look busy!
Suddenly, this colleague is switching over to making a sales call, updating a spreadsheet, doing a little mail sorting, firming up not-to-fun plans for the Friday meeting, filing stacks of invoices, chatting up a client, responding to an urgent email (from two hours ago...), booking a table for tomorrow's working lunch, catching an error in a report, finding out the final score on cost, downloading something from the Cloud -- and most likely, frantically doing more than one of these things at once.
This co-worker may assure the boss that he or she is "on it," and "will be done soon." Then the boss leaves, and it's right back to our regularly-scheduled programming.
Goodbye, invoices and hellooooooo, Instagram!
First, it's important to remember this isn't a new workplace problem. These work-avoiding employees existed well before the Internet came along, so they can't blame their "work style" on the Internet or mobile working. It's more complicated than that, I'm afraid.
There are many reasons these office slackers slack off as soon as the boss walks away. They may be burned out, bored with, or overwhelmed by the workload. They may have been on the job for so long they feel little worry in doing very little, especially if they haven't had a performance review in a few years. They may be chronic procrastinators who wait until the last minute, and they think they work best this way.
Or they may, quite simply, think they can get away with it.
Whatever the reason, it's taking a toll on your workplace morale because you clicked on the link to this blog post. Without further delay -- which you're already experiencing on the job, thanks to this colleague -- here are five, quick tips for working alongside the office goof-off:
1. Don't cover for them. Don't work hard to rat this co-worker out, but don't cover for him or her, either. Never pick up the slack by doing his or her work unless it's absolutely necessary to keep a customer happy. If you're trying to keep the boss happy, well, then your co-worker should have turned it in by deadline, right? It's his or her responsibility, isn't it?
2. Don't be so sure the boss doesn't already know. Your boss may seem clueless to this workplace problem, but don't count on it! Many managers are very good at picking up on subtlety, and subterfuge. Your boss has probably turned a corner lately to see this co-worker switch from creating a Someecard to formatting an Excel spreadsheet. Besides, the company may be monitoring key strokes, computer usage and incorporating other slick, slacker-tracking protocols. Now the question is, when will your boss turn a corner on confronting this employee about it?
3. Keep doing your job well. These co-worker can hurt your own sense of morale and productivity, but think of it this way: You're running your own race at this workplace! Unless this co-worker is making it very hard to get your own work done, or is damaging overall team productivity, then look at it as his or her problem. It will get sorted out eventually (please see Tip #3). Just be patient.
4. Gently verbalize your dismay at the situation. You might occasionally say nonchalantly: "When you're done filing your nails, I'm going to need you to pull up that invoice on file, please." It could feel like nails on a chalkboard to this "work" colleague, because it vocalizes the non-productivity and announces that you're...noticing. Is this move passive-aggressive? Hmm, probably. But it sure feels good to call out your co-worker on her workplace passivity every once in a blue moon, doesn't it? Eh, you may want to skip this one.
5. Don't let them drag you down. These co-workers may try to rope you into a life of workplace idleness by making lazy look cool, try to take credit for your work, or try to blame you for their missed deadlines and mistakes. This is why it's important to keep track of what you've accomplished. You might even choose to log important project details in anticipation of any future problems. At the very least, you and your teammates can agree to back each other up if issues arise. It sucks to have to do this, but in some work situations it may be necessary.
Whew. We've slacked our way to the end of this post. I don't know about you, but I need to chill out after all that work! I won't get caught, because I'm my own boss.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
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