• Marketplace
  • Resources
  • Business Directory
  • Events
  • Advertise
  • Brand Pulse
  • Publish a Press Release
  • Get the Newsletter
  • Contact
  • About Us
The FUTURE OF WORK® since 2003
Allwork.Space
No Result
View All Result
Subscribe
  • More
    • Columnists
      • Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
      • Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
      • Angela Howard – Culture Expert
      • Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
      • Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
    • Get the Newsletter
    • Events
    • Advertise With Us
    • Publish a Press Release
    • Brand PulseNew
    • Partner Portal
  • Latest News
  • Business
  • Leadership
  • Work-life
  • Career Growth
  • Tech
  • Design
  • Workforce
  • Coworking
  • CRE
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Columnists
      • Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
      • Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
      • Angela Howard – Culture Expert
      • Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
      • Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
    • Get the Newsletter
    • Events
    • Advertise With Us
    • Publish a Press Release
    • Brand PulseNew
    • Partner Portal
  • Latest News
  • Business
  • Leadership
  • Work-life
  • Career Growth
  • Tech
  • Design
  • Workforce
  • Coworking
  • CRE
  • Podcast
No Result
View All Result
Subscribe
Allwork.Space
No Result
View All Result
Advertisements
Kube Suite - TL
Home Leadership

Productivity Paranoia Is Killing Your Nerves And Your Team’s Morale. Here’s How To Avoid It

Productivity paranoia has become pervasive in the workplace according to a recently released Microsoft survey of 20,000 people that details a massive disconnect between workers and their leaders.

Emma AscottbyEmma Ascott
October 3, 2022
in Leadership
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
Productivity Paranoia

Monitoring employees to excess can contribute to burnout, which then leads to true decreased productivity. Employers must find a system that works to ensure that their employees are staying on track while also giving them autonomy and privacy.

  • Managers think that lost productivity is due to employees not working — even though the hours worked, number of meetings, and other activity metrics have actually increased, according to Microsoft.  
  • This disconnect results in uncomfortable virtual tracking of employees, which Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella refers to as “productivity paranoia.” 
  • Allwork.Space spoke with a few workplace leaders to get their insight on how managers can mitigate this paranoia.  

A staggering number of employers are currently plagued by “Productivity Paranoia.” They are worried that productivity in teams is falling because employees who are working out of sight aren’t actually working.  

The good news? Studies show it’s completely unfounded.  

Advertisements
Disaster Avoidance Experts

In a survey recently released by Microsoft, only 12% of business leaders said they’re fully confident that their hybrid employees are productive while working, compared to 87% of employees who say they think they are productive.  

Leaders fear that lost productivity is due to employees not working — even though the hours worked, number of meetings, and other activity metrics have actually increased, according to Microsoft.  

Advertisements
Maximize Flexible Space Revenue

Unfortunately, this disconnect results in uncomfortable virtual tracking of employees, which Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella refers to as “productivity paranoia.” 

“Half of all business leaders believe that when employees are working ‘out of sight,’ they don’t work as hard — and 48% of the business leaders installed monitoring software on the computers of their employees to check on their work. No wonder only 49% of employees say that they trust their employer,” according to Dr. Gleb Tsipursky.  

Employee monitoring software, also known as bossware, tracks how much employees are working, which websites they visit, etc. With this type of monitoring software, data from keystrokes, communication with colleagues, logins and more are able to be accessed by managers.  

Why is there a disconnect around the idea of productivity, and what can be done about it?

“The reason engineers think they are more productive at home is that, given a task that takes 8 hours in the office, they can usually complete it in 6 hours at home,” Alex Fink, CEO of Otherweb told Allwork.Space.

Advertisements
Nexudus - Tech Stack Lovers

“The reason managers think employees are less productive at home is that they tend to look at what the team does over time, and notice that a large percentage of all the tasks performed were unnecessary, dead ends, or the result of some miscommunication. So, if you measure productivity as efficiency (doing things faster), the engineer is right. If you measure it as effectiveness (doing the right things), the manager is right. When each of them understands what this looks like to the other — the gap will disappear.”

Seth Patton, a Microsoft 365 general manager, said that Microsoft believes that clear communication, goal-setting, and ongoing feedback loops are the best ways to address the apparent disconnect between employers and employees.  

Patrik Wilkens, VP of Operations at TheSoul Publishing, says that trust is the basis of a healthy and productive business environment, no matter the industry.  

“To establish this trust, clear goals need to be agreed upon and the proper tools and processes need to be in place to facilitate and measure productivity,” Wilkens explained.

“We use a variety of project management tools to both allow our team members the best opportunity for success, and to ensure and monitor productivity. It’s actually the opposite of ‘productivity paranoia,’ in that it allows us to find inefficiencies, and correct them. The process is transparent for everyone to facilitate support where needed and to understand how close we are to achieving our goals.” 

He says that if business leaders fail to set up effective processes, track progress, and are unclear in communicating goals, it’s the leadership that needs fixing, not the individual team member. 

More stories for you

How To Manage The Data Security Risks Of Shadow AI Without Slowing Your Team Down

How To Manage The Data Security Risks Of Shadow AI Without Slowing Your Team Down

8 hours ago
Labor Crunch Pushes Japan To Reform Policy That Discourages Women From Working More Hours

Labor Crunch Pushes Japan To Reform Policy That Discourages Women From Working More Hours

2 days ago
New York’s New Rule Forces Companies To Disclose AI-Driven Layoffs

New York’s New Rule Forces Companies To Disclose AI-Driven Layoffs

2 days ago
Legal Complaints Claim Amazon’s AI-Based Accommodation Denials And RTO Rules Violate Disability Rights

Legal Complaints Claim Amazon’s AI-Based Accommodation Denials And RTO Rules Violate Disability Rights

2 days ago

Monitoring employees to excess can contribute to burnout, which leads to lessened productivity. It’s in a company’s best interest to find a system that works to ensure that their employees stay on track, while also giving them autonomy and privacy.  

It’s okay to want to track how successful an employee is during their workday, but there are ways in which to do this that are less invasive, such as simple metrics trackers. 

Allwork.Space asked Dasle Hong, Senior Manager, Employer Brand and Recruitment Marketing at DailyPay what workplace leaders should do to mitigate productivity paranoia.  

According to Hong, leaders should do these four things:  

Advertisements
Disaster Avoidance Experts
  1. Hire the right people and trust them. While virtual tracking can be tempting, it can also be counterproductive and instill a culture of mistrust. Rather than relying on numbers from a tracking tool, focus on finding top talent that can excel in the role without supervision.
  2. Build in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for your employees. What is your workforce motivated by? Whether it’s the job itself or other incentives, make sure there are a variety of ways to boost morale and keep your employees engaged in their work.
  3. Recognize your employees often. One-on-one recognition, team recognition, or even company-wide recognition can go a long way. 
  4. Have a robust performance management system. Track your employees via targets and metrics that matter to the business rather than how many hours they are logging in. A robust goal setting and measuring process can help you identify top performers from the rest.
Advertisements
Subscribe to the Future of Work Newsletter
Tags: Hybrid WorkLeadershipManagementProductivityRemote WorkWorkforce
Share59Tweet37Share10
Emma Ascott

Emma Ascott

Emma Ascott is a contributing writer for Allwork.Space based in Phoenix, Arizona. She graduated from Walter Cronkite at Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication in 2021. Emma has written about a multitude of topics, such as the future of work, politics, social justice, money, tech, government meetings, breaking news and healthcare.

Other Stories Recommended For You

How To Manage The Data Security Risks Of Shadow AI Without Slowing Your Team Down
Tech

How To Manage The Data Security Risks Of Shadow AI Without Slowing Your Team Down

byFeatured Insights
8 hours ago

Well-meaning employees are leaking data to AI; ditch bans and focus on boundaries to protect it.

Read more
Labor Crunch Pushes Japan To Reform Policy That Discourages Women From Working More Hours

Labor Crunch Pushes Japan To Reform Policy That Discourages Women From Working More Hours

2 days ago
New York’s New Rule Forces Companies To Disclose AI-Driven Layoffs

New York’s New Rule Forces Companies To Disclose AI-Driven Layoffs

2 days ago
Legal Complaints Claim Amazon’s AI-Based Accommodation Denials And RTO Rules Violate Disability Rights

Legal Complaints Claim Amazon’s AI-Based Accommodation Denials And RTO Rules Violate Disability Rights

2 days ago
Advertisements
Yardi Kube automates flex and coworking operations
Advertisements
Nexudus - Tech Stack Lovers

Unlock your competitive edge in tomorrow's workplace.

Join a community of forward-thinking professionals who get exclusive access to the latest news, trends, and innovations that are shaping the future of work.

©2024 Allwork.Space News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Exploring the Future Of Work® since 2003.

Advertise   Newsletters   Privacy Policy   Terms Of Use   About Us   Contact   Submit a Press Release   Brand Pulse   Podcast   Events   

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Topics
    • Business
    • Leadership
    • Work-life
    • Workforce
    • Career Growth
    • Design
    • Tech
    • Coworking
    • Marketing
    • CRE
  • Podcast
  • Events
  • About Us
  • Solutions
    • Advertise | Media Kit
    • Publish a Press Release
    • Brand Pulse
Subscribe

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
-
00:00
00:00

Queue

Update Required Flash plugin
-
00:00
00:00