Today, I want to share my thoughts and observations on an important topic in the world of modern business: 'Work for the Sake of Work.' In this article, I describe how improper task setting and the lack of a clear strategy impact a company's productivity and employee motivation. Drawing from personal experience and an understanding of internal company processes, I aim to uncover why this is a significant problem for many organizations.
This topic can be divided into two categories: managerial task and situational reason.
Managerial Task
Description:
Managers often assign vague tasks, cannot explain the details, final outcomes, or lack an understanding of the next steps after task completion. This frequently occurs when managers focus on quantitative metrics rather than quality. As a result, employees spend time on tasks that contribute little to the company's development or even hinder it.
Cause: One of the reasons for such an approach is the absence of a clearly defined strategy or insufficient understanding among managers of the company's real needs. This may happen due to a lack of communication between different management levels or because managers are not fully informed about current processes at the workplace.
Personal Example: I witnessed such a task from the CEO.
Task: Gather feedback from 100 users who rated the service level low (Net Promoter Score - NPS).
Hypothesis: Users who were dissatisfied with the offering conditions gave the low rating.
The problems here include:
The absence of a defined sample deadline.
Poor communication (the head of the customer service department had the answer to this question, but the CEO insisted on task completion), leading to a waste of time and company resources.
Lack of understanding of what to do with the confirmation or refutation of the hypothesis. This results in one quality department employee spending an entire day making 100 calls to users with negative ratings.
Issues: Company growth stagnation or decline, reduced employee motivation, worsened work quality, increased stress levels, and fatigue.
Solution:
Managers should learn to listen to their subordinates and adjust their decisions according to the company's real needs and goals.
Conduct weekly meetings to discuss current tasks and their alignment with the company's overall strategic objectives.
Study the mechanics of task assignment (I will provide more details on this in the next article).
Situational Reason
Description: An employee wants to impress the management, demonstrate their efficiency, but lacks the necessary tools. Everything seems to be going well, but you don't see opportunities for growth. Part of the workday is clearly unproductive, and you fear for your job. This leads to creating an appearance of work, resulting in wasted time and increased stress.
Cause: This situation is not common, but work interruptions occur in every company. Factors can be external or internal, such as power outages, delayed deliveries, or even a closed plan for metrics and tasks. Sometimes this period lasts for hours, and sometimes for months, especially when work is automated and done in the shortest possible time, but tools for subsequent growth are not provided.
Personal Example: I faced such a situation at one of my workplaces. I spent 3-4 hours on marketing and analysis daily, but since I was in the office, sharing a room with the director, I had to at least maintain the appearance of work. This continued for months, leading to the problems mentioned below.
Issues: Reduced motivation, decreased work quality, burnout, and a decline in the manager's authority.
Solution: Identify the problem to the manager, who makes the decision to rectify the situation. They should propose new tasks, projects, and provide resources for developing new sales channels or personal skills. A manager leads their team based on strategy, and it's crucial to set tasks and provide tools for their execution.
If this is not a systematic problem, I suggest the employee leave early or engage in other productive activities. However, moderation is key.
In Conclusion:
I hope these ideas will assist you in your professional endeavors and help you avoid common mistakes. I look forward to your feedback and opinions because sharing experiences is the key to improving our professional skills.
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