Do-nothing employees consume good deal of boss’ time
By Los Angeles Times
Slacker employees don’t pull their weight. But they do a great job attaching it to their bosses.
Managers spend nearly 17 percent of their working hours dealing with poor performers, according to a report from staffing firm Robert Half International. That’s basically a full day a week that could have been spent being productive.
And sucking up supervisors’ time isn’t the only downside to subpar workers, according to the report. Of the more than 1,400 chief financial officers interviewed by Robert Half, 95 percent said laggards can bring down office spirits.
“Bad hires are costly, not just for the drain they place on the budget but also in terms of lost morale, productivity and time,” Max Messmer, chief executive of Robert Half, said in a statement.
They’re like the human embodiment of a holiday or March Madness, except not nearly as enjoyable. During such periods, productivity slumps as workers become more distracted and take more time off, according to consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.
So how best to avoid bringing aboard Peter Gibbons, the disgruntled programmer made famous from the movie “Office Space”?
First, managers shouldn’t try to lone-wolf the hiring process, according to Robert Half. Instead of relying solely on their own instincts, they should ask employees what they’re looking for in a teammate.
And supervisors should extend an offer immediately after making a hiring decision to avoid losing promising workers to competitors, according to the report.
Finally, lowball salaries won’t get a good worker, according to the study, which reasons that if a company pays employees what they deserve, they’re more likely to want to work harder.
This why the Asia are kicking our butts in the work force on the planet stage of production lines.
You ever really check out how much a hurry people are in to serve you at the Lake Tahoe business?
Lets send Christmas cards while we stand in line and by the time they get over help you ,your mail arrives in the box when you get home.
“NO KIDDING!”
I’ve seen it time and again. Employees that even show up are hard to come by up here. So the bar is low to begin with. Managers don’t fire the slackers, they give the solid worker on the force extra work to do to cover that not done by the goof-off. No extra pay, mind you, but the occasional pat on the head for being good. That keeps the good employee around for awhile. But eventually, that person gets tired of being the only one who cares about their job and quits because of low morale.
Seen it lots of times here. Not a good way to run a business.
The flip side of this that I’ve witnessed at the casinos related to service/dealing staff is those corporations during the very brief busy periods hiring extensive additional staff to ensure that they won’t need to pay overtime to the existing, always faithful employees that are there for them through thick and thin. These establishments flood the floor with staff so during those brief periods when one could actually make some money they’re denied that opportunity. It would seem to me that factoring all costs associated with training, paying the hourly wages, and having inexperienced temporary staff who don’t care about customer service and have no vested interest in return customers creates a much greater cost to those corporations than if they just paid the overtime to their core staff for those very few days when they are extremely busy. Also, this practice of over-staffing with numerous short-timers is demoralizing to the core staff.
The issues of worker ethics and mutual respect run both ways.
4mer, good point! Also another factor that is involved here in our town, and most other resort towns, is the fact that our employers have a much higher employee turnover ratio due to the seasonal/transient nature of our situation.