We all have the habit of delaying things more or less, many times we ponder over things before we make a final decision.
But this is not procrastination. Tim Pychyl, Ph.D., director of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University (Ottawa) says, “All procrastination is delay, but not all delay is procrastination.”
When should you know you have pressed the procrastination button and it is affecting your productivity, like a silent killer?
When you are delaying your office work due to not any time management issues but purely on emotional management issues, surely you have pressed the procrastination button.
Procrastination “is not a time management problem, it’s an emotion management problem” quotes Kelsey Butler, in 6 Myths You’ve Been Told About Procrastination and Productivity.
And you are already in the grip of procrastination if you are putting something off at the office despite knowing a negative consequence is likely. If you are doing so, think how severely procrastination effects employees’ productivity?
3 reasons how Procrastination effects employees’ productivity:
“Procrastination usually results in sorrowful regret. Today’s duties put off until tomorrow give us a double burden to bear; the best way is to do them in their proper time.” – Ida Scott Taylor
Procrastination creates unbearable stress:
When works get piled up it creates a lot of stress. And regular piling of work surely kills or effects employees’ productivity in a severe manner.
One of the byproducts of procrastination is unbearable stress which affects employees’ productivity.
Think of an employee who his constantly failing to meet deadlines. Both in manufacturing or service industries, the result is the same. The end result would be unhappy customers.
In addition to a business loss, there can be significant damages in the personal life of employees due to procrastination. Regular stress not only destroys work-life balance but takes a toll on the mental and physical health of employees.
The non-performers will either crash out or miss the career ladder. They can never become a good leader or make to the top.
Procrastination creates friction between employees:
Procrastination not only affects individual employees’ productivity but destroys team’s collective output also.
Procrastination has been cited as a source of conflict at work and a cause of frustration and friction among employees.
Not all types of employees are of the same nature. Few are very workaholic and disciplined in nature. And few are piling up their works. Think of a situation when a couple of these two types of employees is there in a single team.
Disciplined employees at work find it hard to get along with procrastinating co-workers, causing heightened tensions and creating friction among them.
As a result of these, every team member gets affected emotionally, and may not be on talking terms with the non-performers.
Procrastination kills productivity at work:
Procrastinating not only kills personal productivity but kills team productivity, too.
Organizations with too many procrastinators may feel the heat at the bottom line. Think of a team of a couple of members who cannot complete the assignments at the time. And they fail to deliver on time every time.
These types of employees not only become a liability for a team but also for a company. Employees who are not productive not only waste company’s money in forms of recruitment cost, employee salary, training cost and other expenses, but too costly to the company in terms of loss of customers.
Also think, even if the nonperforming employees get axed, it’s shall be very hard to sync the old team with the new team members, as it may take years to get the old rhythm back.
Though there are a couple of experts and philosophers who think procrastination may be good but believe us, procrastination at times may be harmless, but it never will help you in working out your schedules in an effective way. So at the end procrastination effects employees’ productivity.
Finally, in the words of Karen Lamb, procrastination will always make you feel, “A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Procrastination is a silent killer of employees’ productivity. But how procrastination effects employees’ productivity is also worth probing – so that you can be productive in all circumstances.
Sayak takes care of both recruitments and assessment projects of The HR Monks team. He loves helping people finding their dream job.
He started his journey in career leaving the shores of Waiting for Godot and found The HR Monks a better place, where he can change the lives of people by helping them achieve their dreams.
He has been to quite a fewer place across India and loves to travel. He loves two books, in particular, one Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and the other The Shift by Dr. Wayne Dyer.
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