Guest post: The lights are on, but the staff are on Facebook
In this guest post, Paige Breen warns that it’s easier than ever for media staff to look like they’re busy when they’re really killing time on social media
I am seeing a new battleline being drawn where the cost isn’t blood and gore, but apathy and reduced opportunity for all – the culture of presenteeism.
Disengaged staff engaging in presenteeism behaviors deliver mediocre results and often end up leaving their employers well before they have delivered a return on the investment made in them. Disengaged staff are also likely to be unhappy and this affects their entire lives.
In our sector we have a multitude of distractions made available through the wonders of internet connectivity. As a media professional sitting at the keyboard of our PC / Mac the line between serious work related activity and disengaged presenteeism is quite blurry. Facebook, YouTube, and the cornucopia of Google / Wikipedia provide multiple points of access to material that may appear legitimate to a passing observer but which are not assisting in making their employer more competitive. Add to this the distractions provided by email, smartphones and “active participation in office culture” and it is very difficult to define the exact boundary between work and play.
This is an environment rife for presenteeism to thrive, especially as demands increase on the diminished numbers of true leaders in businesses – often replaced by managers who care more about looking good and getting bonuses ahead of actually doing the right thing for their people. In addition most people are working with either a poorly scoped position description with limited accountability, or bound up in a limited position with no real understanding of their influence on the wider business and no sense of ownership of their results.
I believe the culture of presenteeism is likely to increase dramatically in the next 12 – 18 months.
One of the main factors is the impact of the GFC. In the period of 2005 – 2008 there was rapid growth and structural change in the industry providing ample opportunity for ambitious professionals.
The work available was interesting, high profile and brave – providing ample fodder for growing professional portfolios.
In the last year we have seen fewer employment opportunities available, and desperate people taking any job just to pay their rent.
We have also seen a decline in the number of really interesting projects for agencies as their clients sought to reduce marketing costs and appear frugal. These factors have created a perfect storm for a number of media professionals where they are working on dull projects, in a job they took for financial rather than vocational reasons.
When passion evaporates (or never really exists), so does employment enagement. When things are still quite uncertain people will become increasingly skilled at looking busy to cover up their lack of engagement, until the time is ripe for them to move on.
Smart, creative and ambitious people will only be able to tolerate an environment where they are not engaged whilst survival dictates the need.
If you are an employer try to avoid creating a culture where attendance is valued more than contribution and where the self promoting suck-ups get all the attention. If your staff come to you seeking more challenges try to provide them with work that will engage their souls and nurture their desire to be good.
If you are an employee make some active decisions about what you really want to do, then start making choices and enacting behaviors that will help you achieve your goals.
When the dark clouds of apathy descend make the effort to engage in some positively directed activity and take charge of how you respond to your circumstances. Accepting and accommodating a bad situation will only damage your career prospects in the long term.
Presenteeism is a choice. Employers make choices that allow a culture of presenteeism to develop and employees make choices to disengage with their work.
- Paige Breen is a director of Respect search and selection. A longer version of this posting can be found on Respect’s website
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Wonderful article.
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A wonderful article and don’t we all know self promoting suck-ups who never really achieve anything useful.
Vealmince – maybe this is the time to be doing some soul nourishing NFP work and engag ing your people that way. I’ve generally found the best way to nourish souls is to find out what nourishment the souls are after in the first place and then doing your damnedest to provide it. GFC or not.
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While social media sites are great places to waste time, they’re nothing new. Bored employees have been playing solitaire since Microsoft invented the game and archaeological evidence tells us that early employees of the Egyptian pharaohs and Roman emperors were carving their names into colossal monuments rather than getting on with some work.
So no, nothings actually changed because of social media. Bad managers are what they’ve always been and bored, disaffected employees the same.
And no, of course I don’t think MS invented solitaire. It was a gag.
Cheers.
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A great place to work isn’t necessarily one where there is a pool table, wet bar and everyone is working on developing high profile campaigns for the Dali Lama. In my experience the best places to work is where the needs of the people who work there aren’t item 20 on the list of priorities, a place where the individual is recognised and valued for who they are – not just what they can do to help the bottom line.
If you want ideas on how to provide the environment how about a simple Q&A – management and staff, or taking time to understand what would make people re-engage.
One client I work with had the idea of giving their staff the opportunity to have a “give back” day once a quarter where they could do something for a charity or a local community project – as a team or as individuals. Productivity and engagement increased dramatically, and attrition has dropped. One idea in a universe of possibilities. I hope this helps?
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good read and relevant.
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Liked the article paige
the problem is that many of our clients seem to work in fear based environments where doing anything other than sucking up to some of their loopy and bullying managers will result in a swift intro to the wonderful world of unemployment and the GFC.
As for myself, I work in a average agency so we’re pretty happy but still disgruntled some of the time
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I think Paige you have identified the cause (being disengagement) and the effect (presenteeism).
The best solution in the long-term for any company is to address the underlying cause of this, not the symptoms.
I feel very strongly that you don’t need the high profile, flashy and ego-building projects to enjoy your work, have fun and be challenged.
The key to a great manager or leader is empowering their team to go beyond the “oh this is a boring corporate bland brand” and see where they can use their creativity, problem-solving and generally…their brains, in a way that is both personally satisfying and value-adding to the agency/employer.
It’s not the fault of the employee that they have been given ‘responsibility without authority’ or don’t have access to constructive feedback and personal development.
Let’s look to the leadership for an example to follow and solution to better engagement.
An inspiring approach to engaging employees was recently posted on TED.com.
It is a must watch for managers, leaders and recruiters in understanding what motivates employees.
Video is here.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_p.....ation.html
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Yep – agree that it’s happening all the time.
But the change needs to start at the top. If there are employees like that, look at the manager, their manager and their manager.
If you work for someone that is truly a leader, you will get inspiration, engagement and you will constantly learn from them.
In a previous life, Facebook was banned from all employees at the agency I worked for. Fair enough – I can totally see that issue. However, when working on a new business pitch (every night until midnight and then all weekends), I can tell you I was pretty livid when my agency manager kept saying to me every two seconds… “Hang on; I just need to check something”. And was then responding to her Facebook bullshit.
Livid because there were double standards for management and staff and livid because I was there supposed to be working on a pitch with her, while she was playing around on Facebook.
Needless to say I moved on. But she’s still there, doing fark-all every day and getting paid a mint for it, (as is her manager and as is his manager).
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Fascinating article, Paige. Thanks very much.
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I have always used the internet to provide relief from work since it came about.
It used to be just yahoo and travel sites, then seek and gmail and blogs and online trading (always keeping my eyes on the job, money, ecomms markets) and now it’s all those as well as FB, twitter – and now Im a social networking consultant! Blogging and using wikis at work assist work skills and create a happy few minutes in an otherwise boring landscape….
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And don’t mention the woman in the corner always on the phone (phones are evil!), or that graphic designer who pretends it takes 3 hours to rework a photo (apathy is a work behaviour), or the drama queen and her breakup (Gen Y is too much work!)…or the return to work mum leaving at 4 and taking sick leave every month (parents are a burden!)
Please don’t villify social networking sites as some kind of evil drain on workplaces…
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Excellent article, well written and very true.
Sad to see unconstructive and insulting comments. If you can’t contribute something useful to the discussion how about staying out of it.
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I guess where we differ is you call it “social media bludging” — but I think of “web research” as an amazing tool that continually refreshes my creativity and complements my work. Media and marketing colleagues who do not engage in social media are dinosaurs, and expose themselves as such with their lack of savvy on Web 2.0 which is just another channel – like reading mags, watching TV, designing a poster or website…
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Penny, this article isn’t expressing disapproval of “web research” or social networking per se. It’s actively advocating practices which refresh creativity and complement the work at hand. Paige is concerned about people who use social networking as an escape or distraction from work. I’m sure you understand the difference between appearing to be doing work and actually doing work. This is what Paige is talking about. It’s a legitimate issue.
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you have all read
‘Who Moved My Blackberry?’ haven’t you ?
if not, your search for it will be rewarded.
Lucy Kellaway’s Financial Times column became a book saga of the office scum’s rise to the top, without actually doing Any Work At All.
put “Martin Lukes” into your searchbox.
it’s business-related, so you won’t be slacking-off
mwah mwah
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Sorry Sheila but I just don’t draw a distinction between your “appearing to be doing work and actually doing work” – when you work in comms, any kind of browsing and chatting with friends is *work and mind expansion*, whether yr discussing last night’s doco, tomorrow’s blog or who did what or who last wkend.
Socialising online is no different to socialising at work, or chatting on the phone to yr mate, and it’s all good. Keeps you waking up and coming to work! Keeps you engaged!
HR pple need to open their minds.
Creative pple need space and freedom.
God forbid you actually encourage creativity (and reap over 80% of your new ideas from the 1 in 5 creative free day for staff like Google)
This might be one facet of a wider issue about the HR profession and their miscatergorisation/ inaccurate behavioural analyses.
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