Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
I’m not going to name names here, but two of the men in my family are obsessed with March Madness (I’m looking at you Kent State & UC). I am pretty sure I’m not going to be able to speak with them until April 9th, and maybe even later, so they can process, appreciate, and get over the drama of March Madness. This is like a 2nd Superbowl for sports folks, or for my wife and sister, the equivalent of the season finale of the Bachelor (and yes, Colton, I know you jumped the fence.)
Now what happens when we put these people (like my family members) in their desks at work, when seemingly the most exciting thing of the year is taking place. Chances are your basketball enthusiasts are a) live streaming the games at their desks, b) have ESPN open for the play-by-plays, c) viewing their brackets after every single game, and d) speaking to other co-workers about it.
Why am I writing about this on a Labor and Employment blog? Is it a problem that your employees are paying a lot of attention to something else besides work during the work day? Would it surprise you to know that even outside of March Madness, your employees are oftentimes thinking about something else (e.g. Is my Amazon package yet delivered?) or the usual culprit, updating or perusing their social media accounts?
In short- No. It shouldn’t be a problem that your employees are humans and think about, talk about, and care about something besides work as long as it isn’t a sign of a bigger problem like a lack of workplace engagement and isn’t preventing an employee from doing their work in a significant way. Unfortunately for employers, big events like this result in lost productivity because people are paying attention to these events at work.With March Madness in particular, over the course of the tournament businesses lose a total of around $4.6 billion.
When Workplace Distractions Aren’t Momentary- It Can be a Sign of Disengagement
Workplace distractions can be a big problem. They can result in severe workplace accidents or damage to company property (like this distracted bus driver). While workplace distractions usually don’t result in accidents, they frequently result in lost productivity, and oftentimes the lost productivity can be due to employees that are not engaged at work.
According to Gallup, 34% of US workers are engaged in the workplace (enthusiastic and committed to their work and their employer). This is the highest engagement has ever been since Gallup began measuring it. On the flip side, 13% are actively disengaged (miserable at work) and 53% are not engaged (they show up and do the minimum to keep their jobs but would change jobs for a “slightly better offer”). Disengaged employees do poor and less work. In fact, one survey of office workers in the United Kingdom found that office workers only accomplished about 3 hours of work in a day with the rest of the time spent checking social media, surfing the web, and doing other personal activities.
Everyday Distractions: Social Media Usage at Its Finest
One of the biggest sources of workplace distractions is social media use by employees. Around 77% of employees have used social media during the day. Should you stop this? It depends.
Social media use, provided that it is not affecting the employee’s work, may be permitted. Many employees that use social media at work are doing it to take a mental break from their work. Employers that block social media on the work computers, which may be necessary in some workplaces, simply shift social media use to the employee’s own phone.
The current generation has a different idea of work-life balance than the generations that existed before smartphones, texting, and social media. People want to be connected with their friends, spouse, children, and other individuals throughout the day. The days when an employee could only communicate with their spouse if the spouse called the company’s phone line are gone, and that is a good thing. Social media and texting allow people to stay connected.
Banning social media is probably a wasted effort because employees will work around the rule. The same goes for texting and phone calls with their loved ones throughout the day. There are some work environments where employees cannot have phones and where phone use has to be banned (construction sites, food processing areas, etc.). Employers should ban the use and having a phone in these areas when necessary.
However, most employers should allow their employees to take minor breaks to use their phone and only intervene when an employee is not performing up to your standards. Employees that fail to meet their production targets or finish their work because of their social media use will probably not become great workers simply because you banned social media use in the office. Moreover, banning social media use because of one problem employee is a great way to upset other workers that perform their jobs well.
March Madness: An Opportunity to Engage Employees
Now let’s circle back around to a workplace distraction that we know is coming- March Madness. Your employees are already thinking about March Madness, so why not capitalize on it as a way to engage them (even those who are not into sports)? One of the best ways to do this is to allow everyone in the office to create a bracket and to award a trophy with bragging rights to the winner. In an office setting, employees can post the brackets on their door. You will have more frequent distractions because employees will be talking with each other about their brackets, but many employees that do not frequently interact will have a chance and a reason to which allows them to build relationships.
If you have an office pool, then you need to remember the regulations regarding gambling. Eight states (Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) have legalized sports gambling and 2 have passed bills that would allow sports gambling. In the rest of the states, gambling on sports is illegal and companies should avoid a sponsored office pool with any kind of buy-in.
When rolling out an engagement activity, employers can mention that (of course) you still expect employees to work (this can be said in a way that comes naturally when outlining out the event/activity will happen). Employers will still make sure that employees are meeting their weekly production goals and will discipline or counsel employees (when necessary). However, be careful not to punish employees for something you’ve engaged them in unless absolutely necessary:
- Don’t be mad that employees talk about the games, when you’ve done this to build camaraderie.
- Do tell the person who has taken it too far and created a viewing room in their office where they have done no work in weeks that they have taken it too far.
Nothing lowers employee satisfaction quicker than telling employees they are in trouble for having fun the way you wanted them to.
A Note for Employers- Bathroom Talk: Is your Employee Using the Restroom Too Much? (TL;DR They may be Pregnant, so Don’t Ask)
While we’re on the topic of distractions let’s review a very common one- going to the bathroom? One of the most frequent complaints that employers have is that an employee is using the restroom too much. The immediate question that needs to be answered before the employer seeks to do anything about it is how is the employee performing? Is their performance still adequate with more frequent restroom usage? Is it less adequate? Issues about bathroom frequency can quickly turn into issues that could relate to a disability or knowledge that an employee is pregnant. It is better to never ask about an employee’s bathroom usage or counsel an employee because of it. The key is to focus on the employee’s performance.
For example, an employee may have the habit of using the bathroom right before a store opens. However, it may be a part of his job duties to be at the register when the store opens to ensure that he can assist any customers as they come in. By focusing on the performance issue (the employee is not at their station when they need to be) you can address the problem.
What Really Matters? Productivity.
In short, employers should always focus on productivity and quality of work, regardless of the presence or absence of workplace distractions. Ultimately, employers need to ask whether the employees getting the work done or are they not getting the work done, and is it good?
Here are some things employers can do regarding productivity:
- Employers need to measure productivity. In some jobs this is not easy to measure (they may not have a quota or set amount of sales to make, etc.). However, you need to know whether an employee is successfully completing their job or not, and will need to find ways to determine that. Maybe it means talking to clients about their satisfaction with employee work and the quality of their engagements with your employee. You need to have ways to measure productivity for every job and you need to do this on a regular basis
- Address problem employees. When you find out employees aren’t performing well, you need to tell them. Counsel and discipline them (as necessary) if they are not performing well (you can review my earlier post on employee discipline here) because they are distracted. Give them next steps that they can take to meet your productivity goals.
- Follow-up with employees that you have counseled to see whether they are making progress on being productive or are still not meeting your standards. If the employee is now meeting the required standard, then there is nothing more that needs to be done.
- If an employee is still not being successful and productive, then it may be time to engage in further discipline, develop new solutions to make the employee productive, or terminate them.
Every business needs productive employees. It is the job of every employer to work with employees to make them, and ultimately the company, successful.
Conclusion
No workplace will be distraction free and employers should not aim for this. It is important that employees communicate with their fellow employees and enjoy what they do because ultimately, they will be more productive. If this how it looks when your employees come and leave work, then you have a problem that is bigger than some employees watching a few basketball games or taking some time off of work to talk about it. However, if employees are not completing their work, then you need to address the problem by speaking with the employees and addressing the reasons that they are not productive.
The information provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, then you should speak with a lawyer about your specific issues. Every legal issue is unique. A lawyer can help you with your situation. Reading the blog, contacting me through the site, emailing me or commenting on a post does not create an attorney-client relationship between any reader and me.
The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.