A survey by Men’s Health magazine, asked 20 corporate bosses (including the likes of Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks) to rank which employee time-wasters upset them the most. Number one was “clicking out of a screen just as I walk by” (71.6%). When an employee did this to me, I chose not to confront him because I wanted to trust him. Stooopid! Turns out he was running his own business on my dime and failed to deposit required tax payments, which was part of his job. I should have addressed his actions immediately and placed monitoring software on his computer. Keeping employees honest is even harder when they’re on their iPhone or other smart-phone, rather than your computer. How can you monitor this? In fact, controlling today’s worker is a struggle you can’t and don’t want to “win.” The only alternative is to invite them into the conversation, set reasonable expectations, and create a culture of excellence in which employees police each other. Also, make sure that a third party is double-checking your books!
