Friday, June 1, 2018

Nothing to Do

They say idle hands are the devil’s workshop, but they’re also bad for business.

Harvard Business School recently conducted a study of American workers in a variety of occupations—from lawyers and managers to agricultural workers and soldiers—to assess the impact that idle time has on both workers and the work itself. Rather than leisure time or procrastination, which are voluntary, idle time occurs when employees are supposed to be working, and available to work, but are unable to.

What they discovered was that 78 percent of employees report experiencing some form of idle time in their work, and in each occupation studied, at least 50 percent of respondents experienced idle time. Those hours converted into wages cost US businesses $100 billion per year.

These moments of forced idleness can be just as hard on employees as stress.

“There is an optimal level of psychological arousal,” says Andrew Brodsky, coauthor of the study. “We don’t want to be overstimulated, but we don’t want to be understimulated.”

3 Causes of Idle Time

1. Companies that intentionally schedule more workers than they need as insurance against busy times
2. Managers who allocate work poorly, leaving workers with nothing to do
3. Equipment malfunctions and breakdowns that leave workers unable to complete their task

3 Things to Do When There’s Nothing to Do

1. Organize an area of your workspace.
2. Take time to learn something new.
3. Make a plan for when work picks up again.

Cynthia Kyriazis, president of Productivity Partners, has some advice for workers: “Spend time planning what your next day or week will look like, and plan what to do with the next slow day or time that rolls around. The worst thing to do is get the time and not have some ideas on how to spend it.”

Sources: work.qz.com, forbes.com

Nothing to Do

3 Causes of Idle Time

3 Things to Do When There’s Nothing to Do

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