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The Art of Employee Procrastination
Procrastination zaps employee motivation when it interrupts workflow. One characteristic of motivated
employees is their ability to move from one task to another with ease and without long
delays or "stall-time" between tasks. Employees who easily move from task to task are
known as having "flow."
Procrastination stops employees from moving from task to task and therefore it stops their flow.
Procrastination undermines flow because it causes the employee to stall between tasks in order
to focus on their negative emotions.
Managers and supervisors can help employees overcome their procrastination stalls. In order to
help employees, it is important that supervisors understand that procrastination is a behavior
that is caused by negative feelings and negative thoughts. The negative emotions that lead to
procrastination include fear, anger, and hopelessness. The negative thoughts that lead to
procrastination include perfectionist thinking, last-minute-crisis thinking, and denial thinking.
A supervisor, who notices that an employee is constantly late with his or her tasks, should
check to see if the employee is procrastinating. Simply ask the employee if he or she sometimes
postpones starting their projects or tasks, until it is too late to complete the type of high
quality work that is expected within the organization. Some employees will have logical excuses
for being late, e.g., they depend on other employees to get their work done or they were out
ill. However, unless the employee can provide a logical explanation, it is fairly safe to
suspect that procrastination is the cause.
Once the employee admits that procrastination is the cause or part of the cause of their poor
work performance, a supervisor's next step is to discover the negative feeling and/or thought
causing procrastination to develop and hinder the employee's workflow.
Procrastination can be caused by negative feelings:
1.) Fear: An employee fears that a negative outcome will occur if they engage in a task;
therefore, the employee avoids engaging in the task. Since most fear is unfounded and
irrational, a manager can help reassure the employee that they will not be blamed for the
negative outcome that he or she is worrying about.
2.) Anger: An employee is resentful that he or she was given the task or project to complete;
therefore, he or she rebels by delaying the task. In this situation, the supervisor should
provide the employee with a choice in how they complete the task or project; thereby, reducing
the amount of rebellion.
3.) Hopelessness: An employee is hopeless when they feel they are in a lose-lose situation.
Here the employee may feel that they will lose if they complete the task, and they will lose
if they do not complete the task or project. This employee is truly stuck between no two good
options. Supervisors can help employees by coaching them on the best alternatives, and what
future wins may occur down the road for the employee.
Procrastination can be caused by negative thoughts:
1.) Perfectionist Thinking: This employee's thinking tells him or her that the project or task
he or she is completing must be absolutely perfect or the conditions must be perfect before the
task or project can be completed perfectly. A supervisor can help an employee with this type of
procrastination by coaching an employee about the balance between efficiency and quality. Also,
that high quality work does not mean the work must be completely free of minuet errors.
2.) Last-minute-crisis Thinking: These employees believe that they work best under crisis;
therefore, they delay projects or task in order to perform under pressure. This thinking may
work well for some, but if the employee works in a team-it will drive their teammates crazy. A
supervisor can help this employee by coaching him or her that last-minute-crisis thinking
creates crisis for their coworkers even if it makes them productive at the last minute.
3.) Denial Thinking: These employees believe that they do not really need to complete the task
or project given to them in the allotted time. Perhaps this employee is so bogged down in other
work that they cannot think about another task until they are more caught up. A supervisor can
help employees procrastinating due to denial by offering time management training.
Read more about procrastination and see a list of excellent books on the topic at:
Procrastination in the Workplace.
Happy Working,
Gary Vikesland, MA LP CEAP
Employer-Employee.com
Motivating Employees From Afar
Today more and more supervisors are given the task of supervising employees who they
rarely see face-to-face. These employees may be working at home, in different states,
or sometimes even in different countries.
Luckily, when a supervisor is given the task of supervising remote employees, those
employees usually are fairly autonomous and self-sufficient; therefore, they are not
likely to require a supervisor monitoring their every move. However, remote employees
still require the same amount of motivation as office employees, and in some cases
even more than what office employees require.
Tips for motivating remote employees:
1.) Out-of-sight should not be out-of-mind. Yes, this tip is obvious; however, it is
the one that most supervisors adopt when supervising remote employees. Supervisors
should not forget that remote employees should be teleconferenced in during staff
meetings, team meetings, and goal setting meetings. You may also want to consider
placing pictures of your remote employees in your office or cube so you and other
employees will remember them.
2.) Remote employees should not be declassified as UNIMPORTANT PEOPLE because they do
not come into the office. A supervisor of a remote employee should frequently ask for
his or her opinions, and they should champion his or her opinions with their coworkers.
3.) Allow remote employees to built friendships with the office workers and other
remote workers by using the telephone, e-mail, or by using a company based Internet
chat-room. Remember, if you want "sticky" remote employees; allow them to build
friendships with the other employees in the company.
4.) Short-term goals work best for your remote employees, and long-terms goals work
best for your office employees. It is okay for office employees to have long-term
goals because they frequently receive informal short-term feedback while accomplishing
their long-term goals. However, remote employees frequently do not receive the same
informal feedback; therefore, by setting up short-term goals it will force you to
provide them with the positive feedback to keep them motivated.
5.) Communicate value to your remote employees by helping them understand how their
work adds to the overall success of the company. Office employees require less
"value" communication because they can see what they are creating, while remote
employees can usually only see their own work.
6.) Build company loyalty with your remote employees by sending out coffee cups,
hats, and shirts with emblazon with your company's logo. Instead of sending out
your remote employee's paycheck in a plain white envelope, stick it inside a logo
emblazon coffee cup in a nicely wrap gift box.
Happy Working,
Gary Vikesland, MA LP CEAP
Employer-Employee.com
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