This Was Killing My Productivity at Work
How storytelling can delay your business and career goals
Today we’ll be acknowledging something that may be killing your productivity at work- whether you’re an employee or an owner. It’s something that we all know is very counterproductive but seldom have the power to resist doing it ourselves or to stop our co-workers in their tracks.
It’s almost critical for one to have a comfortable working environment. One in which persons feel at home and relaxed while vigorously attacking their daily tasks.
We need to want to go to work on a daily basis so, among our coworkers we strive for praises, admiration, the feeling of importance and to be the center of attention.
These primitive needs are the reason for the issue we are discussing.
Our evolution of mindfulness enables us to be able to recognize what we are doing. We seldom, however, have the mental strength and discipline to do anything about it.
Because of the previously mentioned needs, the easiest way we find fulfillment for that craved source of dopamine is storytelling.
I started to seriously take note of the detrimental impact of this issue when I started working in a managerial role.
I saw it and participated in it at a lower level, but I took it for granted that because we were not being properly compensated for the exceptional work we were doing, it was, therefore, OK to socialize during work hours as a way of getting even. In Jamaica we say “mi naah kill out myself”.
These bouts of sharing a random or even relevant happening usually turn into persons trying to prove who has the best story or experience or even who knows an uncle whose friend’s cousin had a nephew with a cooler experience.
Of course, we know that person who always has to take it to another level. The one who, no matter how awesome your story is, has to reply with
“Ehh, that’s nothing. I once climbed Mt Everest barefooted in fifteen minutes while juggling four radioactive cockroaches. My memory card got corrupted so I no longer have the pictures.”
Yes, that one who has to win.
We need to come to or be brought to the realization that idle chatting during work hours affects not only our employer, but ultimately us.
The temporary feeling of importance feeds a bad habit and becomes an addiction.
This time could be better spent perfecting your craft, learning something new, or, dare I say it, actually getting some work done.
This would give you better negotiating grounds for that next promotion or the next raise.
I have also been to fifteen-minute meetings with management that concluded after three hours.
This additional time was involuntarily spent learning who likes which type of coffee, what restaurants each person prefers, and other unnecessary topics.
Agenda items were excessively long as we had to rivet what each person thought were the issues by hearing each side continually instead of moving on to the solution.
The meetings went along the lines of:
Bosslady: “Ok ladies and gentlemen, our next issue is that a shipment was received without document x being signed by the security on duty. This is a breach of procedure so please ensure that the document is always properly completed.”
New guy: “But I didn’t know this was to be done. Remember that I’m new to the team and my predecessor didn’t teach me that.”
Supervisor: “Yes, that is how it always should be done.”
Secretary: “I don’t doubt that John didn’t train you properly because when he was teaching me to do inventory he didn’t show me PQRSTUV. I had to figure it out on my own.”
Bosslady: “I remember a similar thing happened at my previous workplace to my good friend. They didn’t teach her properly and she got into trouble.”
Supervisor: “Oh, back at the coffee factory. I do not like the new flavor of coffee that they’re making.”
And on and on it went with me as a low-ranking manager sitting there in the meeting with this dumb look and not having the cojones to tell them to shut up already!
Storytelling and idle chatting need to be brought to the forefront when productivity issues are being highlighted.
There needs to be training on how to realize when this is occurring and solutions implemented to curb this instinctive behavior.
It would come as a shock if one were to record the amount of time spent being productive each day.
Training persons to be cognizant of when they or their coworkers have begun to engage in storytelling is the beginning step in the journey to solutions.
I’ll do a follow-up to this article to discuss how to avoid being lured into storytelling.
I’ll give you the first step from now and that is to share this article with your co-workers and anyone else you want to see increase their productivity.
