The Art of Employee Procrastination

Procrastination zaps employee motivation when it interrupts workflow. One characteristic of motivated employees is their ability to move from one task to another with ease and without long delays or "stall-time" between tasks. Employees who easily move from task to task are known as having "flow."

Procrastination stops employees from moving from task to task and therefore it stops their flow. Procrastination undermines flow because it causes the employee to stall between tasks in order to focus on their negative emotions.

Managers and supervisors can help employees overcome their procrastination stalls. In order to help employees, it is important that supervisors understand that procrastination is a behavior that is caused by negative feelings and negative thoughts. The negative emotions that lead to procrastination include fear, anger, and hopelessness. The negative thoughts that lead to procrastination include perfectionist thinking, last-minute-crisis thinking, and denial thinking.

A supervisor, who notices that an employee is constantly late with his or her tasks, should check to see if the employee is procrastinating. Simply ask the employee if he or she sometimes postpones starting their projects or tasks, until it is too late to complete the type of high quality work that is expected within the organization. Some employees will have logical excuses for being late, e.g., they depend on other employees to get their work done or they were out ill. However, unless the employee can provide a logical explanation, it is fairly safe to suspect that procrastination is the cause.

Once the employee admits that procrastination is the cause or part of the cause of their poor work performance, a supervisor's next step is to discover the negative feeling and/or thought causing procrastination to develop and hinder the employee's workflow.

Procrastination can be caused by negative feelings:

1.) Fear: An employee fears that a negative outcome will occur if they engage in a task; therefore, the employee avoids engaging in the task. Since most fear is unfounded and irrational, a manager can help reassure the employee that they will not be blamed for the negative outcome that he or she is worrying about.

2.) Anger: An employee is resentful that he or she was given the task or project to complete; therefore, he or she rebels by delaying the task. In this situation, the supervisor should provide the employee with a choice in how they complete the task or project; thereby, reducing the amount of rebellion.

3.) Hopelessness: An employee is hopeless when they feel they are in a lose-lose situation. Here the employee may feel that they will lose if they complete the task, and they will lose if they do not complete the task or project. This employee is truly stuck between no two good options. Supervisors can help employees by coaching them on the best alternatives, and what future wins may occur down the road for the employee.

Procrastination can be caused by negative thoughts:

1.) Perfectionist Thinking: This employee's thinking tells him or her that the project or task he or she is completing must be absolutely perfect or the conditions must be perfect before the task or project can be completed perfectly. A supervisor can help an employee with this type of procrastination by coaching an employee about the balance between efficiency and quality. Also, that high quality work does not mean the work must be completely free of minuet errors.

2.) Last-minute-crisis Thinking: These employees believe that they work best under crisis; therefore, they delay projects or task in order to perform under pressure. This thinking may work well for some, but if the employee works in a team-it will drive their teammates crazy. A supervisor can help this employee by coaching him or her that last-minute-crisis thinking creates crisis for their coworkers even if it makes them productive at the last minute.

3.) Denial Thinking: These employees believe that they do not really need to complete the task or project given to them in the allotted time. Perhaps this employee is so bogged down in other work that they cannot think about another task until they are more caught up. A supervisor can help employees procrastinating due to denial by offering time management training.

Read more about procrastination and see a list of excellent books on the topic at: Procrastination in the Workplace.

Happy Working,

Gary Vikesland, MA LP CEAP
Employer-Employee.com