THE ROBIN ROBINS REVEAL
Are Employees Actually More Productive Working From Home ?
I Say NO ; And Here ' s 4 Ways They ' re Robbing You Blind
Since everyone was forced to work from home earlier this year , I ’ ve heard countless executives proclaim how much more productive everyone was and how they are now going to allow remote work even after restrictions are lifted , predicting the demise of the corporate office . We ’ ll see .
According to a recent survey of people working from home conducted by SellCell , a comparison site for cell phones , 53 % of the people surveyed admitted to scrolling through social media sites when they were supposed to be working , and 44 % admitted to watching Netflix or TV while they were supposed to be working . Not surprisingly , 43 % also admitted to visiting adult websites ( now that they were on their own unfiltered home Internet ). And that ’ s only those who ’ d admit it . Other top distractions given were :
• Playing with kids
• Exercising
• Gaming
• Housekeeping
• Eating
• Talking with the family
• Shopping online
Is it any wonder ? Yes , some people have the ability to work from home and be productive . Personally , I ’ m most productive when working from home , but I ’ m a unique individual with honest ambition and the rare ability to stay focused . I can ( and do ) control my environment . Most people can ’ t control their environment ( kids popping in and out , spouse asking for help on a project , no closed-off dedicated workspace , etc .), and they lack the discipline to put in a solid 40 hours of productive work when surrounded by home projects , hobbies , laundry , kids , and fun distractions like gaming or Netflix . Most people aren ’ t putting in anywhere near 40 hours of focused , productive work . They ’ re at work , but they aren ’ t working .
After digging into why profitability was down on one of their largest accounts , one MSP client of mine discovered that a highly paid tech assigned to the account was routinely going home during the day to mow the lawn , work around the house , or take a nap when he was supposed to be on-site working at this client ’ s office , and the office manager of the client was a friend and would cover for him .
A friend of mine who ran a home insulation company was horrified to discover his teams were over-ordering insulation materials and skimping on jobs for paying clients so they could sell the excess for a profit to competitors . He only found it out after enforcing accountability for raw materials and job profitability — something he hadn ’ t done in the past .
Back when I was a sales rep for CGI Systems , I had a sales assistant whose job it was to process inbound leads that had called , faxed , or mailed in a request for more information by entering them into our CRM and setting up the appointment for me . One day , she suddenly quit to sell Herbal Life full time — a side hustle she had been working on for some time . While cleaning out her desk , I discovered a drawer so stuffed full of leads ( on paper ) that I had to force it open . None had been entered , processed , or followed up with — a GIANT , unproductive waste .
12 | MSPSUCCESSMAGAZINE . COM • VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1