I came across a blurb about a recent CareerBuilder survey while reading Real Simple magazine. I had to laugh—the excuses people will come up with to miss a day of work are just incredible. My favorite is
“Employee hit a turkey while riding a bike.”
The full survey results are here on Career Builder’s site: http://preview.tinyurl.com/b5gh8b
But this survey points to the fact that people will do just about anything to get a break from the daily office grind. A person very close to me has admitted that during his office meetings most people are tuned out because they have their Blackberry/iPhone/laptop with them so they can be “doing something useful.”
In the corporate office meetings are a mainstay. When I worked in an office meetings pulled me from my work day up to 75% of the day at times. Some were useful, many could have been accomplished via conference call and WebEx, both of which can be done while telecommuting. If employees are given a chance to work from home on occasion at least it would shake up the routine a little bit and maybe even provide a fresh perspective. An article I read many years ago (and which I cannot locate) summarized research about the effect of color on worker habits. It concluded that the standard grays of office cubes were not conducive to creative and productive work. I’m not sure research was really needed on this–just ask just any office worker or read Dilbert and you will come to the conclusion that office décor is pretty soulless. But, the article revealed, changing the color of the cube could be helpful to workers’ attitudes. I think changing the “office” once in a while could be helpful, too.
Check out this article titled “Good work environment improves satisfaction, productivity”from The Chicago Tribune.
Filed under: office tips, office tools, productivity, telecommuting facts
I had to lol at the turkey. I find that I get way more work done at home because office interruptions are the biggest pain. Unfortunately, bosses who require you to work in the office do not realize just how many interruptions there are in the actual office and just how it slows you down. Then again, I had a boss once who wanted everyone to answer the door and phone no matter what job you did. It’s no wonder the company is still at 10 people after 15 years–no work can ever get done!