Bottom Line, Inc.
Individual Contributor - Participant’s Workbook
ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE Case Study
It was 7:20am when Myron arrived at the office. He was early because he wanted to clear the backlog of work
that had been piling up on his desk. He turned on the lights and started to go through yesterday’s mail. As he
read the first piece, he realized he couldn’t deal with it until a colleague arrived. He set it aside and went to
the next. This item had potential application to a project he was working on, so he walked down the hall and
made a copy for his personal use.
As he continued reading his mail he came across a journal article of particular interest and became engrossed
in it. He was startled to find as he looked up that others were arriving and it was nearly 9:00 o’clock.
He quickly pushed the remaining mail to a corner of his desk and reached for a project file due tomorrow with
at least two days’ work yet to be completed. As he opened the file, two service techs stopped by and invited
him to join them for coffee. Myron decided he could spare ten minutes. The techs were both anxious to share
the details of a game they attended the night before. Before Myron realized it, thirty minutes had passed and
he hurried back to his office.
As Myron entered his office, the phone rang. It was Mr. Wilson, his Regional Manager. There was a meeting
scheduled at 10:00am. Could Myron sit in for him? There was something to be discussed that the department
should know about. Myron looked at his watch. There wasn’t enough time to get started on the project so he
pushed the file aside and vowed to start it immediately after lunch.
The afternoon wasn’t any better. A few visitors, a few phone calls, a couple of letters and the day was over.
Nothing had been accomplished on the project that was due tomorrow. As he stuffed papers into his
briefcase, he wondered how the techs were able to attend games during the evening.
Examine Myron’s use of time:
1. Did he make good use of his prime time?
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2. Was he working on his highest priority task?
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3. Did he seem able to say “No”?
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4. Did he practice task completion?
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5. Does he seem to understand his problem?
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