Online Reflection 2

Why work doesn't happen at work

I found Jason Fried’s TED talk very interesting and can also relate to the subject. The idea that the working human doesn’t get the chance to work at their work because of their bosses and colleagues are interrupting all the time is totally true! I’ve heard the phrases “We have to make a meeting about this.” or “We should bring that up in the meeting.” too many times. There’s no way the employees can do their work with several meetings every week, especially when 10-15 minutes of the meetings consists of serving coffee and talking about irrelevant stuff. But I don’t believe in not having meetings at all, we have them for a reason. The great Percy Barnevik once said on a lecture “I hate meetings since they’re taking time and money. If it’s necessary to have a meeting, the solution is to have a standing meeting. Nobody likes to stand for a long time, therefore the meeting will be more productive.”. By having standing meetings with just the relevant staff the productivity would have been so much better in all companies.
  

The fact of bosses interrupting the employees with their work, well, I believe it’s a bad habit from leaders. They are just afraid of not accomplish the goals of the company, and with former lazy employees the trust could have been damaged. I do think that the higher you get in the company, the less need of bosses monitoring the employees. Sadly many employees on the “floor” needs the controlling of bosses since their ambitions often aren’t too high to get them to care of the company’s future, which is the leader’s big mission to change.

   I am a little cloven in the idea of forbidding social media at work or not. I think it’s a distraction, but my own experiences says that you should be grown up enough to resist Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. at work. I would feel ashamed if I surfed on the Internet at work, in my beliefs it’s like stealing money from the company. But of course breaks should be allowed and that you have the right to do what you want on them. Jason referred the surfing on the internet with taking a break for a smoke, but I don’t think the smoking is the same distraction as the Internet, since smoking isn’t as entertaining and you don’t get stuck in it for a longer time (on a break). What I mean isn’t that I prefer smokers to Internet nerds; smokers might be the biggest thieves since they combine smoking and social media! It’s easier to get lost in it since smokers leave the working spot, but non-smokers stays and get stressed etc. when they are surrounded by active employees.

  

I like how more leaders establishes a freer working day; starts between 7 and 9 am and ends between 15 and 17 pm or a totally free choice of place to work at. I saw a very fascinating documentary about a company in South America whose leader let his employees decide when and where to work, as long as they accomplished their weekly goals. It actually went very well and the employees were happy of the trustiness and their own responsibilities. In my opinion, the responsibilities and trustiness are the keys to a good working employee.