Friday, October 10, 2008

'Lookin Busy' and Other Bad Traits!


My fiance was recently telling me a story about a group that is investigating her work performance. She said that each time they come in she has to look busy or lose her job.

Why do people think that looking busy equals productivity and thus profit.

Let's take her example. She operates a machine that produces thousands of products per hour. She makes sure things are humming and the company makes more money when the machine is running smooth than if something is wrong. Her functions are as such:

1) Make sure the machine is running correctly
2) Loads new programs to vary the product
3) Supervises the loading and loads support material (boxes, bag rolls, etc.)

In other words the machine is automating many functions and she is making sure the machine is doing it's job (the machine's boss!)

So in my eyes, if she is 'lookin busy' the company is actually losing money from product not being pumped out. In other words, if she is busy, somethings wrong with the machine. She should be standing there watching a well oiled machine do ITS JOB!

My old boss used to tell me, look busy when the big-wigs are around but any other time, if you need to sit and think, do it! There was times I would interview people, times I would write documents, but about 25% of the time I had to just sit with headphones on and THINK. It made the company more money doing this action then ten or even a hundred people looking busy.

Don't relate 'busy' to action. Action is the key here. If things are getting done what does it matter how it gets done?

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