I work in \”The Dept of Redundancy Dept\” Finally a study that hits the nail on the head! Unproductivity in employees starts at the top w/ poor mgmt – I wonder how much that report cost to find that out – duh!
too funny – here\’s how just one piece of mail is handled in my office-opened by receptionist-given to assistant-given to another person to \”scan\”-given back to assistant-activity set to CSR by assistant-CSR handles-why can\’t I have my mail? I\’m the CSR – this is how MANAGEMENT wants the mail done – truly the department of REDONEdancy depart!
AFEFE: Another —- Excuse For Everything! Its so easy to blame management for all ills, but, if the employee has the initiative to spot a problem in the productivity process, can propose a positive change to management, and the change is effected, then there can be several outcomes: the inefficiency is solved and the ineffective manager is made to look good, or, if the employee is smarter than the manager then the employee makes sure that upper managemnt sees the change and knows from where it came, then the employee looks good…Pointing fingers is inefficient in and of itself, just fix it and get on with it!
I stopped by a potential client one day and when we walked into the back of the plant I asked him how many people he had working for him? He quickly stated \”Oh, about half of \’em!\” Guess he wasn\’t too far off………..
Oh Please! If an employee points out unproductive employee(s) or the work process of another employee that is unproductive, the employee is either labeled \”jealous\” or is told they obviously don\’t have enough work on their desk to keep them busy.
Management and management alone sets the tone in the office and that includes allowing for unproductive employees.
Jarana: Sure, that happens sometimes, and, I do agree that management sometimes thinks \”jealousy\”, but making a generalized statement about managers is negative, too. Suffice to say, you wouldn\’t be working for me with your negative attitude– all is perception and I perceive you have had a bad experience or two– you might try changing your delivery to management!
No, not naive– just wildly successful– our mga has increased production by 800% during the last 12 months by using a positive attitude and constructive criticism toward problems with our employees–Our aency partners chose us over other larger mga\’s because of our attitude and professionalism and contracts. I have survived bad management, I have grappled with poor and inept managers, and I\’m here to say that negativism only causes roadblocks and is time wasting. I have not attended any of those meetings promoting \”how to have better employees\” or \”how to sell effectively\” or \”how to be a super manager\”– I simply took a rational look at the other offices in which I\’ve worked andchosen not to use those techniques that I have seen fail. I\’m not new to the world, I have 30 years of success with the big alphabet houses and the small local offices– what I do works for our office and we thrive.
These idiots obviously have way too much time on their hands. Maybe they should get into the nitty gritty and see how they can handle a real job!
I know most of them couldn\’t
It\’s so funny how worked up you all get on the insurance journal\’s website! Talk about lack of productivity! I\’ll be the first to admit that I am not being productive reading this website, your comments, or even responding to them, but hey, I\’m an admitted slacker and not in denial.
As I sit here umemployed my our recent office closing in this town, I look at the times posted for these comments and shake my heads. Do any one of you want to give up your job for me, productive or unproductive? Looks as though every one of you has stolen some time from the companies that you work with to bicker over a productivity article. What happened to that client that you are serving when we take time for arguments on the job?? Come on guys….\’fess up. We all have come short…whether it be management or employees. Let\’s just use this day to re-examine ourselves and our work habits to see how we can cut the lag and better serve the clients. Peace.
If normal human beings were 100% productive or anywhere near 50% by these standards, they would get burned out. People need time to unwind AT WORK. People have a right to be happy. Anywhere near 60% productivity and turnover slash suicide rate would skyrocket.
First, I have noticed that office politics and corporate \”culture\” – which tends to be very ageist, classist and other \”ists\” not mentioned. So when someone who is a good worker wants to help the company they usually find that:
1) They end up working so efficiently that they work themselves out of a job.
2) The hiring/firing decisions are based more on non-related stuff like \”personality\” and \”image\”(read as: upper-middle class, under age 30 and not overweight, and willing to sacrifice family needs and any type of home life all for the greater good of the corporation – which usually does not reciprocate loyalty to the worker or job applicant)
3)Productivity has been rewarded with millions upon millions of pink slips and empty pension promises – Enron ring a bell anyone? Just ask all the IT and finance professionals who were told to train their foreign H-1B and L-1 \”guest\” replacement workers in preparation for offshoring massive jobs, and if they refused to help dig their own graves what the companies would do to them: Deny unemployment benefits, renig on severance pays, black-ball you from future potential job prospects for \”insubordination\” – you name it.
For the past 25 years, starting with the manufacturing sector, we the people have been told by the corporate elite that we needed to make sacrifices in wages and health benefits, that we needed to choose between a sick child/elderly parent/sick spouse or our jobs, and that we had to work harder and smarter if we wanted ANY semblence of economic security in the form of longevity in the jobs we had. And look how we were collectively repaid for doing all those things. We have found 13 million of us downsized, right-sized, smart-sized out of jobs and because of ageism – not getting chances for other good jobs while the jobs went to inexperienced 23 yr old Barbie Dolls and spoiled frat boys, foreign guest workers, immigrants, and off-shore to Bangalore.
We have found an eviscerated middle class and a diminished standard of living with less and less hope for being able to be rewarded with some basic material comfort and security in our old age for our conforming to the corporatists\’ agenda and expectations of us. There\’s no incentive left for anyone to want to be productive because the reward for past loyalty and productivity has been to get told to assume the position – with no company-issued jar of K.Y. Just look at the number of people working at their laptops, i-pods and cell phones while stuck in traffic on any given day on any given highway. People are tethered to their employer by cell phones and laptops – even on weekends and on so-called vacation time! If anything, those Americans fortunate enough to still be employed in good jobs are working harder and longer than in any previous generation and getting nothing for it but the shaft! If we are all going to just end up impoverished struggling to survive in a banana republic, what\’s the point in working at all – never mind more productively – if all we\’re going to get is to be poor anyway?
I work in \”The Dept of Redundancy Dept\” Finally a study that hits the nail on the head! Unproductivity in employees starts at the top w/ poor mgmt – I wonder how much that report cost to find that out – duh!
Ditto on poor management and I would add poor communication skills as well. I have had managers who can speak to their peers but can\’t manage down.
too funny – here\’s how just one piece of mail is handled in my office-opened by receptionist-given to assistant-given to another person to \”scan\”-given back to assistant-activity set to CSR by assistant-CSR handles-why can\’t I have my mail? I\’m the CSR – this is how MANAGEMENT wants the mail done – truly the department of REDONEdancy depart!
AFEFE: Another —- Excuse For Everything! Its so easy to blame management for all ills, but, if the employee has the initiative to spot a problem in the productivity process, can propose a positive change to management, and the change is effected, then there can be several outcomes: the inefficiency is solved and the ineffective manager is made to look good, or, if the employee is smarter than the manager then the employee makes sure that upper managemnt sees the change and knows from where it came, then the employee looks good…Pointing fingers is inefficient in and of itself, just fix it and get on with it!
I stopped by a potential client one day and when we walked into the back of the plant I asked him how many people he had working for him? He quickly stated \”Oh, about half of \’em!\” Guess he wasn\’t too far off………..
Oh Please! If an employee points out unproductive employee(s) or the work process of another employee that is unproductive, the employee is either labeled \”jealous\” or is told they obviously don\’t have enough work on their desk to keep them busy.
Management and management alone sets the tone in the office and that includes allowing for unproductive employees.
Jarana: Sure, that happens sometimes, and, I do agree that management sometimes thinks \”jealousy\”, but making a generalized statement about managers is negative, too. Suffice to say, you wouldn\’t be working for me with your negative attitude– all is perception and I perceive you have had a bad experience or two– you might try changing your delivery to management!
Please VDC wake up from your dream world and join the rest of us in the real world. Are you new to the corporate world or are you really this naive?
No, not naive– just wildly successful– our mga has increased production by 800% during the last 12 months by using a positive attitude and constructive criticism toward problems with our employees–Our aency partners chose us over other larger mga\’s because of our attitude and professionalism and contracts. I have survived bad management, I have grappled with poor and inept managers, and I\’m here to say that negativism only causes roadblocks and is time wasting. I have not attended any of those meetings promoting \”how to have better employees\” or \”how to sell effectively\” or \”how to be a super manager\”– I simply took a rational look at the other offices in which I\’ve worked andchosen not to use those techniques that I have seen fail. I\’m not new to the world, I have 30 years of success with the big alphabet houses and the small local offices– what I do works for our office and we thrive.
These idiots obviously have way too much time on their hands. Maybe they should get into the nitty gritty and see how they can handle a real job!
I know most of them couldn\’t
It\’s so funny how worked up you all get on the insurance journal\’s website! Talk about lack of productivity! I\’ll be the first to admit that I am not being productive reading this website, your comments, or even responding to them, but hey, I\’m an admitted slacker and not in denial.
A related survey showed that 100% of employees who read emails about productivity surveys and then posted responses were also unproductive.
As I sit here umemployed my our recent office closing in this town, I look at the times posted for these comments and shake my heads. Do any one of you want to give up your job for me, productive or unproductive? Looks as though every one of you has stolen some time from the companies that you work with to bicker over a productivity article. What happened to that client that you are serving when we take time for arguments on the job?? Come on guys….\’fess up. We all have come short…whether it be management or employees. Let\’s just use this day to re-examine ourselves and our work habits to see how we can cut the lag and better serve the clients. Peace.
If normal human beings were 100% productive or anywhere near 50% by these standards, they would get burned out. People need time to unwind AT WORK. People have a right to be happy. Anywhere near 60% productivity and turnover slash suicide rate would skyrocket.
First, I have noticed that office politics and corporate \”culture\” – which tends to be very ageist, classist and other \”ists\” not mentioned. So when someone who is a good worker wants to help the company they usually find that:
1) They end up working so efficiently that they work themselves out of a job.
2) The hiring/firing decisions are based more on non-related stuff like \”personality\” and \”image\”(read as: upper-middle class, under age 30 and not overweight, and willing to sacrifice family needs and any type of home life all for the greater good of the corporation – which usually does not reciprocate loyalty to the worker or job applicant)
3)Productivity has been rewarded with millions upon millions of pink slips and empty pension promises – Enron ring a bell anyone? Just ask all the IT and finance professionals who were told to train their foreign H-1B and L-1 \”guest\” replacement workers in preparation for offshoring massive jobs, and if they refused to help dig their own graves what the companies would do to them: Deny unemployment benefits, renig on severance pays, black-ball you from future potential job prospects for \”insubordination\” – you name it.
For the past 25 years, starting with the manufacturing sector, we the people have been told by the corporate elite that we needed to make sacrifices in wages and health benefits, that we needed to choose between a sick child/elderly parent/sick spouse or our jobs, and that we had to work harder and smarter if we wanted ANY semblence of economic security in the form of longevity in the jobs we had. And look how we were collectively repaid for doing all those things. We have found 13 million of us downsized, right-sized, smart-sized out of jobs and because of ageism – not getting chances for other good jobs while the jobs went to inexperienced 23 yr old Barbie Dolls and spoiled frat boys, foreign guest workers, immigrants, and off-shore to Bangalore.
We have found an eviscerated middle class and a diminished standard of living with less and less hope for being able to be rewarded with some basic material comfort and security in our old age for our conforming to the corporatists\’ agenda and expectations of us. There\’s no incentive left for anyone to want to be productive because the reward for past loyalty and productivity has been to get told to assume the position – with no company-issued jar of K.Y. Just look at the number of people working at their laptops, i-pods and cell phones while stuck in traffic on any given day on any given highway. People are tethered to their employer by cell phones and laptops – even on weekends and on so-called vacation time! If anything, those Americans fortunate enough to still be employed in good jobs are working harder and longer than in any previous generation and getting nothing for it but the shaft! If we are all going to just end up impoverished struggling to survive in a banana republic, what\’s the point in working at all – never mind more productively – if all we\’re going to get is to be poor anyway?
Jacquiline, I have one question.
BITTER MUCH?