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8 Biggest Time Sucks at Work

Published: Sep 09, 2015

 Technology       Workplace Issues       
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Below are the eight biggest time sucks at work, according to Tim Eisenhauer, a tech entrepreneur with more than 15 years of work experience and the co-founder of a company called Axero SolutionsAxero (which doesn’t have offices, workspaces, or weekly meetings) provides companies with a social collaboration platform that’s said to be more effective than email and traditional intranets.

1. Non-work-related social networking (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc.).

EISENHAUER: People checking Facebook and watching YouTube while at work is probably the biggest time suck on this list. Yes, some people need to do this stuff for their job, but everyone's doing it (not just the people who do it as part of their job). Solutions to this issue would be appealing to intrinsic motivators. Most often this is a management issue. Do people feel as if they're doing something valuable for the company? Do they like their job?

2. Hunting for a new job while at work.

E: This happens more than most people think it does. And this has more to do with how people perceive their job than the job itself. If people feel like they're doing something of importance, then they'll be more inclined not to search for another job.

3. Responding to personal texts or phone calls.

E: These are distractions. When people are distracted, it takes them a while to get focused and back in the game. 

4. Gossiping or complaining about coworkers.

E: First shift is pissing and moaning about second shift because they feel that they work harder and second shift doesn't get anything done. Meanwhile, second shift is complaining about first shift because they don't do their work and leave it for second shift to do. This is a management and communication breakdown. 

5. Watching movies and shopping.

E: I have personally seen people at work (when I worked for other companies) doing a whole lot of this.

6. Randomly browsing the Internet.

7. Red tape.

E: Not trusting your employees to make decisions. So they have to wait for your OK to finish everything. This is also along the lines of micromanagement.

8. Blowing time, killing time, running out the clock.

E: I've worked on teams with employees who would finish their work, and then just sit around and knowingly waste time for the rest of the day. This mostly happens with disengaged employees. Sometimes the company was at fault, and other times they were just bad (or the wrong) employees.

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