If an employee clocks in every morning and doesn't leave work until late at night, does that prove that they are focused on their work and are not lazy at all?
No.
I don't know if you've seen any employees like this (you've definitely seen one):
Take the mobile phone to brush Weibo, brush the circle of friends, brush vibrato. Every day I observe the good life of other people.
Brush various web pages: Tianya, Zhihu, Cat Flutter. Wow, the story inside is really funny!
There was still half an hour before work, but employees were already discussing where to go for a late night snack.
Studies have shown that employees waste an average of 2 hours of work per day, not including lunch and lunch breaks. If calculated according to the 8-hour working hours, the average daily working hours of each employee are not working, but Latest Mailing Database chatting, looking at the web, in a daze, and so on.
Many companies have noticed this problem, and they have taken many ways to manage their employees, hoping to improve their productivity through a number of means:
Some companies take "blocking": disconnecting the internet, taking away mobile phones, making rules, prohibiting chats during work, and so on. Some companies adopt "slack": let employees arrange their own working hours, avoid disturbing employees during work, arrange special entertainment time for employees, and so on.
However, neither of these behaviors has the means to effectively manage employees.
Here I'll start by showing why both approaches are inefficient.
First, why can't we rely on "blocking"
American psychologist McGregor proposed X Theory: employees are averse to work, they will do everything they can to avoid work, as far as possible to choose the laziest way to complete the task. They are indifferent to the future of the company and are unwilling to take any responsibility (i.e., the ancient Chinese theory of sexual evil).
Therefore, some companies have taken X Theory as a model and proposed a "carrot and stick" approach.
Rules like this were developed:
Playing with mobile phones at work, fined 50 yuan.
Chat at work and write reviews.
If you don't go to work on time, deduct the monthly attendance bonus.
However, there are more employees who sneak around with their phones, chat quietly, and accidentally oversleep.
Why?
Psychologists once did an experiment in which parents put their children in daycare centers when they went to work. For various reasons, some parents are late to pick up their children. The daycare center's approach is to fine these parents, and as a result, more parents are late.
The reason for this is easy to understand: the parent is late, and they still have guilt in their hearts, and this guilt will reduce the likelihood that he will be late for the next time. But once the fine was imposed, the parents' inner activities changed: "Anyway, the money has been paid, and if you are late, you will be late." ”
When a person makes a mistake, he must find a means to correct it. Here, daycare centers, like companies that pursue the X Theory, believe that punishment will make parents play by the rules. In this way, parents who originally had feelings of guilt (internal correction) can only be turned into fines (external corrections) to correct mistakes. And it is this external correction that makes parents give up the opportunity for self-examination.
"Then, we stop using punishment and rely on employees' self-awareness to promote employees to go to work on time."
That daycare center just now, the same idea as you did. A few weeks after the penalty measures were imposed, the daycare center eliminated the late arrival fine. So, will parents feel guilty again?
No! In fact, after the abolition of the fine, the number of late parents has increased again.
This is because, before the daycare center, defined parents as people who conform to Theory X. Then, parents also subtly define themselves as such people. Then, even if you want to change your attitude later, it becomes very difficult.
Therefore, for the company, if the employee is defined in the way of "laziness" and "shirking responsibility" at the beginning, then the employee will gradually become the real thing in the definition.
So, how about giving our employees full freedom when we first start making rules?