Managerial Obsession with Unnecessary Tasks
The following article is from the BBC website and was written by Joanna York, a news correspondent.
Many managers overload their employees with pointless tasks just to keep them working. Why do senior managers fear downtime so much?
When employees are working, most managers expect them to stay busy during the workday. This might mean completing tasks within their responsibilities or finding ways to ensure they are involved in some work-related project. Even when workflows generate some downtime, management’s message is usually clear: find a way to keep working.
If employees appear to be doing nothing, some managers intervene with superfluous tasks to keep them occupied. “Non-purpose tasks are those that don’t serve a purpose,” says Randy Clarke, a leadership and development trainer based in Indiana, USA. “They don’t contribute to achieving any goals, improve the individual, the operation, or the culture.”
Meaningless Reports
Examples of non-purpose tasks might include writing a pointless report, color-coding a spreadsheet, or reviewing a presentation that’s already been reviewed. A 2016 study of 600 knowledge workers showed that they spent only 39% of their workday on their actual tasks, while the rest was spent on meetings, emails, and non-purpose tasks such as writing status reports for managers.
In the office, managers could assign non-purpose tasks based on a quick observation of what employees are doing. But the shift to remote work during the pandemic has changed that, as many managers can no longer easily supervise their employees. While studies suggest that many remote employees are significantly more productive, they also work much longer hours. Does this mean managers are assigning more superfluous tasks? And would it really be so bad if employees took a break when there’s nothing to do?
Maintaining Control
Part of the problem with superfluous tasks is that some managers equate business with productivity.
The perception is not only that a busy worker is engaged and puts in effort, but even that their industriousness gives them a higher moral value than their less busy colleagues. This creates a dynamic in which two office workers performing identical tasks can be judged by their level of activity, rather than their results. Who seems more engaged: the busy worker who skips lunch to finish work, or the efficient worker who finishes early and uses the saved time to do the grocery shopping online?
Managers say, “I need my employees to keep generating work so I know they’re earning their pay.” – Susan Vroman
From the bosses’ perspective, the busy worker is often a more reassuring sight. “People feel they’re paying you for a reason if they see you working,” says Susan Vroman, a professor of management at Bentley University in Massachusetts.
This is especially true in organizations where the work culture requires managers to operate in a more traditional, authoritarian style, which discourages employee autonomy. In these organizations, managers may also feel pressured by their superiors to demonstrate that their team is busy and productive. “Managers think, ‘I need my employees to keep generating work so I know they’re earning their pay, because someone is watching me to make sure I’m managing them well,’” Vroman explains.
Remote work, in some cases, has exacerbated this pressure. When employees adapted to working remotely, many managers found it unsettling not being able to visually supervise them. “In the early stages of the pandemic, bosses thought that if they didn’t see employees working, then they weren’t working,” Vroman adds. «They didn’t believe the employees were productive, even though they continued to fulfill their tasks and results.»
At the same time, managers reported a widespread loss of trust in their employees. A July 2020 study published in the Harvard Business Review revealed that 41% of managers questioned their employees’ motivation, and nearly a third doubted that they possessed the knowledge or skills essential for successful remote work.
Time Management
When superiors doubt employees’ work ethic, one solution is to meticulously monitor their time with an endless to-do list to keep them tied to their desks, even if some of the tasks are pointless. «Managers may not even know if an employee has finished their primary work, but they assign additional tasks to ensure they don’t finish them [for the day],» says Barbara Larson, executive professor of management at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. «It’s work that’s assigned simply to ensure employees are working, so the manager feels they’re still in control.»
Free time can be very beneficial for employees, even making them more productive, so why are managers often reluctant to give it? (Credit: Getty)
Free time can be very beneficial for employees, even making them more productive, so why are managers often reluctant to give it? (Credit: Getty)
“We certainly try to appear busy.”
However, it’s not just managers who equate busyness with good performance. A study revealed that knowledge workers spend, on average, 41% of their work time on self-imposed routine tasks that could be delegated to others, in order to appear more active and important at work. “We certainly try to appear busy because we know we’re being watched,” says Vroman.
In the digital environment, the pressure to appear busy persists, even if it means adding extra tasks to the workday, such as sending messages to prove we’re online. And while many workers can complete their work in less time in remote work environments, many still feel pressure to assign themselves routine tasks. “We feel bad about [not working] because we know we’re paid to work all day,” explains Vroman. In fact, a 2021 study showed that the guilt associated with taking breaks is so high that 60% of American remote workers don’t take any time for themselves during the workday.
The temptation to self-impose routine tasks may be even greater among employees who fear their bosses will assign them these kinds of tasks. Vroman says people will start doing things to appear busy, “so their bosses will give them a break.”
Some managers report that periods of downtime during remote work have caused unease among employees.
«When some of our employees were working from home, I noticed they felt a bit guilty during downtime,» says Niall John Lynchehaun, managing director of the Ireland-based building materials company Midland Stone. He started assigning tasks to keep his employees engaged during these quiet periods. «It’s simply the easiest way to deal with it.»
But assigning too many tasks to alleviate guilt could simply replace one set of negative feelings with another. A 2018 study found that 42% of workers spent half their time on unimportant tasks, and 71% said that being overworked made them feel like they were wasting their lives.
The Domino Effect of Meaningless Tasks
In the long run, frequently assigning tasks designed primarily to keep workers busy can damage the relationship between managers and employees.
“It can be very demotivating for the remote worker,” says Larson. “It’s a sign of a lack of trust and interest. The real tragedy of unproductive tasks lies in the missed opportunity. There’s so much that could be done in that time that would benefit both the employee and the company.”
Forty-two percent of workers spent half their time on unproductive tasks, and 71 percent said that spending too much time on them “made them feel like they were wasting their lives.”
These opportunities could include assigning the worker meaningful tasks or growth opportunities that are often postponed, such as training. It could also mean allowing employees to take a break. Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of taking regular breaks during the workday. These benefits include reduced stress and improved concentration, creativity, and productivity—all positive for employees and their organizations.
But, especially as remote workers put in increasingly longer hours, overloading them with repetitive tasks will have the opposite effect. “The main risk is that employees will burn out and their mental well-being will suffer,” says Vroman. “This high rate of resignation is partly the result of exhausted people not receiving effective management in their remote work because it wasn’t flexible enough.”
Breaking the Cycle
Of course, not all managers are fans of repetitive tasks. Larson believes in “results-based” tasks rather than time-based ones. If her employees finish early or have time to take a break, she says, “then, frankly, that flexibility is part of the reward for their performance.”
This approach is based on giving teams autonomy, something Larson describes as “highly motivating.” “Typically, this creates a virtuous cycle, where people want to do good work.”
Randy Clarke suggests that managers need to think more deeply about the types of tasks they assign. When training managers and leaders, he advises them to keep employees busy during working hours, but to avoid redundant tasks. Instead, they should plan for periods of low activity and seek out tasks that add value.
Ultimately, managers who feel trapped in a cycle of assigning redundant tasks should reflect on and consider more broadly what their superiors expect of them, rather than striving to keep people busy. “They probably expect you to produce good results and, hopefully, retain satisfied employees,” suggests Vroman.
Remote work may not have eradicated the idea that employees must always be busy, but the shift in attitude toward management offers some hope. If flexible schedules, now in such high demand, prioritize results over working hours, they could eliminate superfluous tasks and, as a result, have healthier and happier workers.
Who fakes working more: employees or leaders?
The following contribution comes from the Korn Ferry website, which describes itself as follows: Today, Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm that combines strategy and talent to drive superior performance for our clients. From our humble beginnings in a small office in Century City, Los Angeles, we have established ourselves as the leading executive search firm. However, our vision extends far beyond that.
We not only aim to place the best executives, but also to collaborate with like-minded organizations to help them lead change, transform for growth, and find and retain top talent. This path of continuous evolution reflects our commitment to empowering companies worldwide through strategic leadership and talent solutions.
The article was written by Mark Royal, Ph.D., Senior Client Partner, North America, and Shanda Mints, Vice President of AI Strategy and Transformation.
58% of managers fear that employees will fake work. But surprise! Leaders might be faking it even more.
The employee completed all their tasks: submitted a report, prepared a presentation, and evaluated candidates for a new position. Phew! They were done for the week. And it was only Wednesday!
To some extent, this scenario is many leaders’ worst nightmare, and it’s not entirely far-fetched: new figures from Workhuman show that 58% of managers fear that employees, lacking sufficient work, will fake it, and that 32% of employees do so regularly. They resort to various tricks, from filling up Outlook calendars to holding onto tasks for a few days after completing them. And it turns out that employees aren’t the only ones experiencing a lack of time: around 37% of managers and leaders also admit to occasionally faking work. «This strikes a chord when it comes to remote work,» says Mark Royal, employee engagement expert and senior partner at Korn Ferry.
Delegating tasks has always been tricky for managers. If you assign too much work to team members, burnout and dissatisfaction spread; if you assign too little, you end up with a team of avid Netflix viewers during the day. This was especially problematic during the pandemic, when weekday golf increased by 83% between 2019 and 2022, and Wednesday 4 p.m. golf skyrocketed by 278%. Gone are the days when employees would say, “Boss, I’m done. What else do you have for me?” Post-pandemic hybrid work models have raised concerns among leaders about demotivation and a lack of interest among employees. Today’s leaders are more worried about this and, crucially, have more tools to monitor it.
Hybrid work has intensified the situation, keeping employees at home, out of sight of their bosses. Even the most diligent workers find themselves with natural breaks throughout the day that they previously spent chatting with colleagues. “It’s a consequence of the remote work environment,” says Sharon Egilinsky, an organizational strategy expert and partner at Korn Ferry. “Those who are proactive and take ownership simply have more time.”
Apparently, this also includes managers and leaders, according to data from Workhuman, an employee recognition company. Experts note that managers are more likely to supervise workers from the so-called sandwich generation, who are caring for children or parents (or both) and tend to fake productivity in order to manage their multiple responsibilities. “There can be a lot of pressure on leaders in their forties and fifties,” says Alma Derricks, senior client partner at Korn Ferry.
To address this simulation, experts suggest that companies can try to ease the perceived pressure on both workers and managers. The question, according to Royal, is why people feel the need to appear constantly available. Ideally, the goal should be to help employees work smarter, not harder. Leaders can rest assured that low motivation or disengagement isn’t the cause. Data from Korn Ferry indicates that engagement levels increased during the pandemic and remained stable afterward. “We’re not seeing an epidemic of disengagement,” Royal says.
Reducing the Perception of Absence
For workers who must use messaging apps, experts advise managers to focus on reducing the stigma associated with perceived absence, explains Shanda Mints, vice president of RPO analytics and implementation at Korn Ferry. “As managers, we need to manage outcomes and be less critical of the stigma.”
Learn more about Korn Ferry’s workforce management capabilities.
Engaged workers may be busy, even if they pretend to be, according to research.
The following article comes from The Guardian website and is authored by Nicola Davis, science correspondent for The Guardian and host of the Science Weekly podcast. She holds an MSc in Chemistry and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Oxford University.
A study warns that teams may appear productive at work, but in reality, they act in a Machiavellian manner.
Nicola Davis: There are teams of tireless workers and complainers, but according to researchers, there is another type of team at work, and their intentions are not good.
Researchers claim that these «Machiavellian» individuals appear to be fully committed to teamwork, but in reality, they act in an individualistic way.
Amy Armstrong, from Ashridge Executive Education, who led the study, explained that the research is part of an effort to explore how to increase engagement at work.
“Engagement levels in this country remain very low. They have stagnated for many years, and we have some of the highest levels of active disengagement in Western Europe,” he said, adding that disengaged employees were more vocal, had more absences than engaged employees, and took up most of managers’ time.
Since many employees work in groups, the researchers focused their attention on teams. They studied 28 employee teams across seven sectors, from the National Health Service (NHS) to transportation, with up to 15 people per team. Four teams were compared within each organization.
Based on indicators such as responses to employee surveys, half of these teams were rated by their employers as “highly engaged”—meaning they gave their all—while the other half were labeled as “disengaged.”
However, Armstrong and his colleagues discovered that all was not as it see
