Goofing Off

Fair Employer

I have just read "Six hours of work, two hours of goofing off" from April 9, 2004.

I have a similar situation at my office. The work hours are 8:00 to 5:00. Several of my co-workers come in between 8:15 and 8:30 complaining about how bad the traffic was. Then they proceed to go get their coffee, warm up their breakfast, and eat it at their desk while they check the latest updates online on MSN, CNN, or Fox News Netowrk. Then they comment to their co-workers about the latest topics online.

Throughout the day they receive multiple calls on their personal cell phones. The ring are loud and obnoxious enough to disrupt the entire department. One person calls her elderly mother and her three grown children every day and each call lasts about fifteen minutes. These calls are made during work hours and not during breaks or lunch.

All of the above employees are exempt from overtime. They are rarely, if ever, required to work late or come in early.

How much personal time should an employer grant the employee during the work day? How much of this time is acceptable and how much is excessive? And what about the rest of us who do not join in this behavior, yet we end up picking up the slack for all of this goofing off?

Parabeaglex2

Welcome to the Forum. Check your sanity at the door.

Your post is not an unusual complaint - I would go so far as to say that this type of conduct exists in most companies, to some degree. But first you need to answer a couple of questions before you can address these issues:

1. What does your policy say? Do you even HAVE a policy that addresses computer and Internet usage?

2. Is this behavior being modeled from above? In one company I worked at the owner was the worst offender and others took their cues from him. A no-win situation from the start.

3. If you have solid policies regarding computer use, etc. the last question is - are you a policy enforcement authority? If so, set the expectation and communicate it to the slackers telling them in no uncertain terms what is acceptable and what is not - but make sure you have the backing of your upper management.

Whatever

Of course, any rules must exempt coming to this web site. After all, everything we discuss here is essential to the job. :~~

Don D

I see you're in Georgia. Otherwise I might have thought you worked here in this building.x:-)

marc

We fight this all the time too. Both exempt and non-exempt staff. The idea of feet under the desk and working at the start of your workday is completely lost on many.

We enforce attendance with a light hand (almost an oxymoron), but do have high expectations with respect to job performance. If someone else is picking up another staff's slack, in other than extreme or isolated circumstances, then the slackers poor performance is documented and disciplined. So we approach it from a performance perspective. This does not solve all the problems, but we do it consistently and staff know what to expect.

Don D

I do notice that you referred to them as 'co-workers', so I assume they are peers of yours and am wondering if you are in an HR role with an expectation by others that you should be 'dealing with' this issue. If it's strictly from a peer standpoint that you're fed up with this, I suggest you speak either with your own supervisor or the supervisor of the slackers if your own work or daily concentration are being affected.

If it's YOU that's picking up the slackers' slack, then I certainly would report that to one supervisor or the other.

As far as correcting, dealing with and disciplining this bad behavior, I'm afraid the responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the slackers' supervisor. Either he/she knows about it or has chosen to ignore it. I'd start there. But I don't have a magic formula for how many minutes out of a day is appropriate goof-off time. It varies.

pork1

FAIR EMPLOYER: Welcome to the forum, as you can already read there is always some goofing off time allowed every where, evenhere and with us; it is a matter of employer/employee CULTURE. Don for instance, has a deep working background in government and we all know that it takes 4 government employees to change 1 light bulb. Two men to hold one small female up and a fourth to twist the hold team around and around until it comes loose! Now that is not goofing off, but the government does not know any better way to change a light bulb!!!

Seriously, it is the culture that I advise you to identify before you do anything. Your words make me believe that it really is not your assigned duty to watch the clock and record task being accomplished. Unless you are on a time study, then you could very be the one recording, but simply turn the data over to whoever appointed you to do this work/study....Everyone on here knows my position on HR becoming the time keeper police, it ain't my job! My military mind and up-bringing tells me, turn this mess over to the sargeants to get this mess squared away. The SGT is the supervisor in charge of each individual.

Tell us more and we might be able to help you alittle more!

PORK