The 10 oddest non-work activities that employees have got up to at work

We’ve been reviewing our 2017 files to find the 10 oddest non-work activities that employees have got up to at work when they should have been working!

Our top ten list of the oddest non-work activities that employees have got up to at work is certainly memorable! The things that employees have been caught doing in 2017 when they should have been working include:

1. An employee who was working on a scrapbook of her holidays that year.
2. An employee who decorated their cubicle with chains of paper clips.
3. The employee who used the privacy of his work cubicle to indulge his interest in origami.
4. The female employee who brought her embroidery kit from home. She wanted to continue making embroidery items at work for a craft show that she was exhibiting at.
5. The young worker who brought in a kitten she found outside the offices and tried to keep it quiet inside her large handbag.
6. The employee working on her son’s school project that included using uncooked pasta shapes as decoration.
7. The Care Assistant who was found lying on a patient’s bed talking to the patient while the patient sat in her wheelchair.
8. The employee found watching YouTube videos of people shoving marshmallows in their mouth.
9. The female employee found waxing her eyebrows in the staff room.
10. The male employee working diligently on his Tinder profile to generate more dates.

All this might seem funny, but if its happening in your business, maybe it’s not quite as funny as you first think?

Why does it happen?

It happens because something else doesn’t. It’s not very trendy, or uber modern. In fact it’s probably thought of as quite old fashioned. But if the oddest non-work activities that employees have got up to at work are happening in your workplace then MBWA is probably missing. If MBWA doesn’t happen in your workplace then you’re more likely to find the opportunities for the oddest non-work activities that employees have got up to at work growing.

MBWA?

Management By Walking About (MBWA) is something that effective managers do naturally. But it’s something with the advent of technology in the workplace that managers can easily forget to do. Effective managers will consistently reserve time to walk through their departments, to make themselves available for impromptu discussions. This kind of manager builds up a network of acquaintances in the business and gets to know what’s going on. They identify problems whilst they’re still small.
We believe that MBWA allows managers to listen to what people are saying. It lets them reinforce company values face to face as opportunities present themselves and it lets them give people on-the-spot help. The added advantage is of course that if you have managers engaging in MBWA it becomes very difficult to get away with decorating your cubicle with paper clips or any of the other 10 oddest non-work activities that employees have got up to at work on our 2017 list!
Have you got a problem with your employees that you’d like to discuss in confidence? Call us now on 01706 565332  or email us to discuss how we may help you.
 
Metis HR specialises in providing outsourced HR services to small and medium-sized businesses.