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Common Pitfalls In Employment

 Watch Your Step

Employers expect that their employees are productive and deliver at a minimum what are expected from them.  Productivity is expected but the reality is that productivity is quite difficult to maintain.  Employees during the early part of a project tend to be productive but in the latter part productivity wavers.

Here are some productivity pitfalls that affect employment:

  • Procrastination – is putting off doing something that needs to be done. A project that is due in two weeks will not be done until the due date.  Some people procrastinate due to lack of time or anxiety in dealing with a certain task, but some people are habitual procrastinators.  These people really wait until the last minute before they start doing what needs to be done.  They think that there’s a certain adrenaline rush and pressure that makes them more productive during the last minute and beating the deadline is treated like a game.
  • Perfectionism – is a disposition where anything short of perfection is unacceptable. It’s a personality trait that leads to setting very high-performance standards, critical self-evaluations and concerns regarding others’ opinions.  Perfectionism is counter-productive as it leads to a person not wanting to delegate a task, rather for that person to do all the tasks on his own.  After all, if you want a task done right, then do it yourself.  This is a perfectionist’s motto which defies teamwork.
  • Distraction – is a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else. Distraction can also be a person, place or event that redirects a person’s attention from a task at hand to another thing.  Distraction keeps you from being productive by wasting your time in entertaining distractions.
  • Boredom – is experienced when someone is left without anything to do or when someone is not interested in his surroundings or when someone feels that a day is dull. Boredom in the workplace leads to job dissatisfaction and disengaged employees which affect productivity.

These pitfalls can be avoided and should be avoided at all costs as these affect employment and may lead to losing your job.  Here are some ways to avoid these pitfalls:

  • Procrastination
    1. Create a to-do list
    2. Complete unpleasant tasks first
    3. Set deadlines for tasks both short-term and long-term
  • Perfectionism
    1. Delegate tasks to others
    2. Stop comparing your work with other’s work
    3. Acknowledge that there are different ways to solve a problem
    4. Set deadlines for projects
  • Distraction
    1. Politely tell people that you are working on a deadline
    2. Avoid surfing for pleasure
    3. Create a to-do list
    4. Avoid people, place or thing that steals your attention
  • Boredom
    1. Ask for work
    2. Be proactive
    3. Collaborate with coworkers

These are just a few things that can help an employee to avoid the common pitfalls in employment.  In the end, it is still the employee’s decision whether to be productive at all costs or to be unproductive sometimes.  What’s important is that the employee is aware that there is a pit that he might fall into is he keeps on doing what he’s done in the past without proper self-evaluation.

Reshali Balasubramaniam

Head of HR, HR Counselor and adviser at https://jobpal.lk/and EFutureTech Systems. Submit your resume online and be contacted by prospective employers.

 

 

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