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When Floyd Mayweather defeated Manny
Pacquiao everyone became a boxing expert. Everyone had something to say about
who should win and why. In the morning, before going to their respective jobs,
employees gathered in a circle to discuss conspiracy theories.
In the afternoon, the same circle of
"boxing experts" would be discussing another what-if during the
fight. And it went on and on for weeks.
One time, just for fun, I took a stopwatch
to check their time. In one session, they wasted at least an hour. That's a lot
of time spent on non-work related matters!
Whenever there is a hot issue, people
transform from boxing experts to political analysts, to showbiz critiques. It
happens even during working time. Is that even allowed? Technically, it's not!
Most employees do it anyway.
If you use the company time on non-work
related matters, then you have already broken an important yet harmless
company rule. However, if all you do for the whole eight hours is non-work
related, that's a different story. Obviously, it's no longer harmless.
For the 8AM - 5PM shifters, usually a
20-minute break in the morning and another in the afternoon are allowed. CR
breaks in between are not counted. Let's say, aside from an hour lunch break,
employees are allowed to have at least two hours of personal breaks.
What about the time spent chatting with
colleagues, taking personal calls, and browsing non-work related posts on the
Internet? Perhaps, that's another two hours you shed from your supposed eight
paid work hours.
I know there are those who would say that
they're too busy and they have too many things to do with too little time.
I doubt if that's true. But it's not my place to tell you if you're busy or
not. It is yours to decide. You can lie to everyone but not to yourself.
I asked a few friends to take an honest
inventory of non-work related activities that they do at work. Here's the result:
- Credit Card Transactions - 20 minutes
- Shop online - 1 hour
- Book personal flights online - 30 minutes
- Post personal messages using email/text/Facebook messages and make calls during work hours - 30 minutes
- Take short breaks in between, even if it is beyond the designated break time - 30 minutes
- Chat with friends for a few minutes asking about their personal lives - 30 minutes
- Buy food during work hours - 30 minutes
- Plan for personal leave - 30 minutes
- Update CVs and resumes - 1 hour
Don't get mad at me if the above list is
not applicable to you, okay? It may not be the same exact list you have, but my
point is that it is important to be aware of how you spend your time at work.
That way you will know if you have been
productive or not. You have to do an honest inventory of your use of time.
After that, if you notice that you have a tendency to spend a lot of time on
not-so useful discussions and not-so useful activities, then you have a
decision to make. You can ignore it and continue doing it.
Your boss will not remind you about it
anyway. But it's not about being noticed by your boss or not. It is about you
making a decision to make little changes in your use of time. It is the
small changes that you make on a daily basis that will have the biggest impact
on your working life.
What you spend most of your time on is
what you will become in the future. If you need to break the harmless
rules, spend more time on beneficial activities than on not-so useful
discussions, you will have a fulfilling day every day.
And oh! You can check out my book in Amazon.
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