Credit: Joe Giddens /PA
SIR – There may be benefits to both employers and employees of spending fewer days in the office (report, May 11), but what about customers?
I have had odd phone calls with people working from home. One had to put me on hold to deal with her dog, which was barking so loudly we couldn’t hear each other. A second apologised for the crunching noises, explaining he was eating toast while finding my details on the computer. A third failed to make promised return calls and couldn’t understand simple details – the slurred speech was what really concerned me.
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Technology has produced a variety of productivity tools, from task boards to to-do lists, from relational databases to outlines. Yet, rather than give users a sense of accomplishment, they can often instill a sense of being overwhelmed, reminding us what we have left to do. They all seem to be missing a key feature that would help us feel gratified and motivated to do even more: the “got-done” list.
Even before the pandemic, as both a work-family researcher and life coach, I witnessed how talented professionals can feel that they are falling behind despite working hard. In the beginning, I thought they needed to set better priorities. It soon became clear that they experienced numerous interferences both at the office and at home. In fact, the more reliable and caring they were, the more they were asked to help someone out, especially in “emergencies.” These urgent disruptions wreaked havoc on my clients’
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Employees Are More Likely To Pretend Theyâre Working When Employers Track Their Productivity: Hereâs Why
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A recent study shows workers are nearly two times more likely to pretend to be working when their employers invest in tracking systems to monitor their workdays.
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Big Brother-like attempts by employers to track the productivity of remote workers seems to be backfiring.
A new study released by research firm Gartner shows that employees are nearly two times more likely to pretend to be working when their employers use tracking systems to monitor their output. Gartner surveyed more than 2,400 professionals in January 2021.
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