adminFredrick Qaphelani Mabikwa Successful Solutions
Continued from last week……………………..
In my previous article I discussed the following workplace bad habits and attitudes, lack of a greeting culture, unpunctual, moodiness, uncleanliness, truancy, drinking at the workplace, poor public relations and bad eating habits. I continue this week with gossip in the workplace, laziness, noise making, abuse of facilities — vehicles and phones, complaining, creation of unholy factions, deliberate absenteeism and stealing.
(9) Laziness
For some people laziness is a culture. You find someone spends literally the whole day on their computer browsing Facebook and ironically they have an assignment that they have been given by their supervisor that is due. Some people are tired as soon they get to the workplace and you wonder what they will do with the whole day lying ahead of them. The lazy ones will take advantage of juniors and get them to do their work. In most cases they the lazy ones are very loud-more talk and less action. When things are not done they have a good story why things were not done. When I was in high school I saw teachers who when they gave an assignment, the books were returned when we had long forgotten that we once wrote such an assignment .I remember in one instance a teacher kept our books until he lost the whole pile. This is abject laziness. When I went to university (late 80s) there was one lecturer who only marked our first assignments in a certain course and the mark you got in the first assignment was the mark you would get throughout the year even the day you copied an assignment you would get the same mark . . . all acts of laziness.
(10) Noise making
You will not believe that there are some adults who play at work and in the process make a lot of noise and disturb others. Those who are lucky to have nothing to do at some point would gather in one office and chat and laugh like hyenas. Honestly there is a certain kind of laughing that is not encouraged in the workplace, laughing that shows people are doing nothing. I remember one time I was listening to Pastor Chris when he was preaching about deportment and he was saying when we are at work let us not have wild laughs but “business laughs”, wild laughs belong to the bush. Noise making is bad habit especially when you are in offices and you are sharing these offices. There is this culture of allowing and entertaining visitors who have come to do nothing but laugh . . . a very bad culture indeed.
(11) Gossiping
There is also gossip. I know we can’t stop gossip, for me it’s human nature but it can be controlled and its damaging effects minimised. There are certain people who are known for gossiping in the workplace. These people are hardly at their stations/desks; they are moving all over the workplace spreading malicious rumours, saying bad things about other people, saying bad things about management. They hop from one office to another and when they enter your office, they close the door and pull a chair, invite themselves to sit and they begin “Have you heard . . . ” and they give you “the latest-hot news” . . . very long stories and at times you are busy and you really want them out of your office but the more you wish they were out, the more the news. They have been called to “kangaroo courts” once in a while to explain some of their gossip but they are not deterred. Because gossip is all about loss of productive working time it has some negative consequences which may include lost productivity, erosion of trust and morale, increased anxiety among employees as rumours circulate without any clear information as to what is fact and what isn’t. It also leads to growing divisiveness among employees as people “take sides.” In the long run gossip can lead to serious effects like high staff turnover as good employees leave the company due to the unhealthy work atmosphere caused by hurt feelings and reputations coming from gossip.
(12) Abuse of facilities and equipment
Another terrible disease at the workplace is abuse of facilities and equipment .A good friend of my mine, who is very good abuser of workplace vehicles said if vehicles were one day offered the opportunity to speak about their errands, a good number of people who use vehicles in the workplace would lose their jobs. Cars have seen it all. Some have even been to our rural homes without workplace permission. Employees abuse equipment, computers, fax machines and photocopying machines. In my last employment I let a colleague photocopy what he had honestly said were a few personal documents. Sooner when I wanted to do some urgent photocopying the machine had run out of toner. I later realised he had photocopied two boxes full of his family burial society material. Yes we do one or two personal things with workplace equipment but when we photocopy two boxes full of burial society material it becomes abuse. Some of us even abuse basic facilities like the workplace toilet. There is a basic rule of toilet use “Leave it in a state which you want to find it when you return”. You will not believe that some adults still need to be taught toilet deportment, this is very bad. The telephone is another workplace “victim”. Some people literally sleep” on the phone. You try to call; the phone is engaged. Working hours are not hours to use the workplace phone to talk to our boyfriends and girlfriends, it’s business time. It’s not time to talk to our relatives to arrange weddings and such family functions.
(13) Complaining
I have realised that there are people in the workplace who specialise in complaining. Things go bad in the work place and these things must be talked about and corrected but I have seen some people whose specialty is complaining. They operate like a club and form a “Complaining Brigade.” Whenever they open their mouths, a complaint comes out. They will blame management for everything even the bad weather. Their occupation is to put management under the microscope and view all their movements and complain day in day out that managers are getting extra favours, management doesn’t care about them. They are so obsessed with comparing employee benefits and welfare to the extent that some of their attitudes have turned into hatred of other employees. Employee “strikes” and “go slows” are their favourite topics. They forget that we will never be the same in the workplace, that is why our jobs are graded and we receive different salaries.
14) Abseentism
Some people are always absent from work. Someone dies in their family every week and their child is ill every week and they are absent. Honestly at the rate at which people are dying naturally and otherwise, can you bury everyone whom you love, it’s not possible.Abseetism is a very bad habit. If you want to do your personal things, just take leave don’t lie. Recently some young person I know lied that their mother had died, honestly, while we can’t qualify lies, this is a very “heavy” lie. How can you lie that your mother has died just because you went AWOL?
15) Stealing
I won’t say much about stealing at the workplace. My late father said the story of stealing at the workplace has only three chapters.
Chapter One: When you are busy stealing.
Chapter Two: When you are caught.
Chapter Three: Consequences: demotion, losing your job or being sent to prison.
So if you are in chapter one now, you are busy stealing (and “dealing”) just know that only two more chapters to go.
I rest my case on workplace bad habits and attitudes.
Online Reporter