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advice/perspective on jobs, work and management
## I caught one of my employees cyberloafing
> *I’m a manager and the other day I caught one of my employees surfing the web on the clock. It was an awkward moment – but I think I handled it appropriately. I explained that my expectation was that he devote his time and effort to work-related responsibilities during normal business hours. Then I pointed out that if he genuinely lacked for something to do, I’d be happy to give him another project. I mean, it’s not like there’s nothing to do around here! And finally, I mentioned that his behavior set a bad example for others (he works in a shared office space, and is in full view of his colleagues). To be fair, I doubt he’s the only one who does this on occasion, which admittedly includes me (albeit more discreetly!). And he’s a good employee otherwise; he’s just unlucky enough to have been caught. But I’m his manager – I had to say something, right? What if it had been my boss (a vice president) who’d seen him instead? How would that make me look? – Name withheld*
On the one hand, you’re probably right. It seems like you had to do *something*.
As you say, had it been your own manager who’d caught this employee online it certainly wouldn’t have reflected well on you, as their manager. Nor can you be absolutely sure he doesn’t do this more often – although I give you credit for giving him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he disappears into the web all the time, and therefore was in need of some sort of reprimand? So your question is well worth considering:
What *is* the best way to handle this situation?
Well, I commend you for at least being aware of your hypocrisy – that is, reprimanding someone for engaging in a behavior of which you yourself are also guilty (something this employee no doubt suspects, I might add). But contrary to what you might think, “cyberloafing,” as it has been termed, may not be the big waste of time you imagine it to be.
In *Laziness Does Not Exist* (2021), social psychologist Devon Price points to a growing body of research suggesting it’s all but impossible to expect human beings to be consistently productive for the entirety of a normal, eight hour workday:
“The typical workday is structured around the expectation that a person should be able to sit down and churn out results for eight hours or more, despite overwhelming evidence that this is unrealistic.”
Nevertheless, most managers still cling to this misguided notion – even though they, (like you, it seems) have trouble living up to this standard themselves. The consequences are, of course, predictably unfortunate. Through their misguided attempts to enforce a wholly unrealistic expectation, managers end up harming, as opposed to enhancing employee performance:
“Managers often believe they must micromanage their employees and attempt to squeeze every last moment of productivity out of them, though the research suggests this makes people irritable and unmotivated.”
A more effective way to boost worker productivity, Dr. Price argues, is to allow, or even *encourage* so-called “cyberbreaks” – something that several studies appear to confirm:
“Rather than sapping their productivity, taking a moment to cyberloaf helped these employees hit the mental refresh button so the could return to their work with renewed energy.”
You would also do well to consider the following: One of the more admired qualities in the very best managers is that they often act as a sort of “shield,” protecting those they manage from the frequently uninformed opinions, questionable dictates, or, as in your case, misguided assessments of executive managers. And they do this so workers can go about the very real and important business of doing their job, and getting things done.
So my advice to you is this: The next time this happens, pretend you didn’t notice. Or, if you can’t avoid some sort of interaction—lest the moment turn truly awkward—simply give your employee a friendly nod, and a wink.
And then, look the other way.
**NOTES:**
 Price, Devon. *Laziness Does Not Exist*. 2021 (Atria), p. 75.
 Ibid., p. 75.
 Ibid., p. 53, and references therein.
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## [ 1 Comment ]
1. !
   Bill
   on September 6, 2024 at 12:56 pm
   Any manager of people working desk jobs who assumes their employees aren’t spending some time *every day* doing personal stuff is deluded.
   So I agree with this guidance. The only other thing I was thinking could be helpful is if, next time there’s a group meeting, the manager has a brief discussion on this, acknowledging the reality, spelling out limits, and asking employees for suggestions on how she / he should handle it.
   Then either pick the most appropriate option or let employees vote on it.
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## Don’t wanna go back (to the office)!
> *I’m employed by* [NAME OF CITY REDACTED] *and our mayor recently mandated that all municipal employees return in-person to the office, full-time, just like before the pandemic. A hybrid option is no longer available. I only work from home 1-2 days a week, but still – I’m really upset about it. I appreciated the time I saved not having to commute, and the flexibility in my schedule to run errands, go to doctor’s appointments, etc. My colleagues with young children are really scrambling, though, either to find childcare or another job. The mayor defended her policy, saying she couldn’t “make good on my promise to* [the community] *without the hard work of the men and women* *that keep the city* *moving.”* *But I know for a fact that I and my coworkers are still getting our work done. I don’t get it – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Right..? – Name withheld*
Sure, sure – I’ve heard plenty of reasons why in-office work policies are better than working from home.
Some say it encourages more collaboration – the kind that results from colleagues bumping into each other in the hallway, or congregating around the proverbial water cooler. Apparently these are the sorts of interactions which will lead to an even better smartphone, or an easily implemented solution to global warming.
I’ve also heard being in the office work is critical to developing younger, less experienced employees. Not only does this encourage more mentoring, it’s also thought to facilitate the passing on of valuable organizational knowledge. Working in an office also establishes healthier work routines and better work-life balance, according to some, and in that way contributes positively to overall employee well-being.
Perhaps.
What I don’t hear as often is any mention of what you appear to have observed: That employees are just as productive when they work from home as when they work out of a shared office space. But that, I suppose, is because it’s not really true.
In fact, the evidence suggests that workers are actually *more* productive when they work home. According to one study by Stanford Economics Professor Nicholas Bloom, employee productivity increased 13% when a work-from-home policy was put into place. Some of this they attributed to more time each day spent working (fewer breaks and sick days), but the time saved commuting (which you mentioned) as well as the benefits of a quieter work environment were also thought to contribute.
Your mayor, it seems, is blissfully unaware of such data – or has decided to go ahead with her policy anyway.
In her defense, I suppose, she does have her “constituents” (aka, donors) to consider. She may be under intense pressure from local restaurants, shops, and other businesses to get people out and about in the city again. Encouraging more people to live and work in town will likely improve the real estate market too, meaning more property taxes in city coffers. Increased mass transit ridership and any number of other follow-on effects will likely be to the benefit of the city as well.
However, based on her stated reasoning, I suspect your mayor also subscribes to a now outdated understanding of human beings, and our propensity for work.
Unfortunately, many people still think the human animal is inherently lazy – a mentality perhaps most famously articulated by organizational theorist Douglas McGregor. He characterized such thinking as “Theory X”. People naturally resist work, according to this misguided assumption. Therefore, they must be coerced into engaging in effort. So in your mayor’s eyes at least, city workers need to be in the office to be at their most productive, and where someone—presumably, a manager—can *watch* them work.
But back in the 1960s, McGregor had begun pushing back on this. He argued instead that the expenditure of physical and mental effort is as natural as play or rest – something he referred to as “Theory Y” assumptions. Under the proper conditions, he contended, people will exercise considerable self-direction in the service of organizational objectives, and not only accept, but seek out responsibility. According this mentality, working from home would of course be entirely acceptable – and even offer some advantages, a hypothesis Bloom’s research supports.
Me personally? I really don’t have a horse in this race. But that’s because my opinion here doesn’t matter anyway.
The most important opinion is *yours*.
You see, that Stanford study also found that the positive impact of work-from-home polices nearly *doubles* when employees are given the choice of working from home. If someone wants to do work from home some or all of the time, they should be given that option – provided, of course, they demonstrate they’re just a productive and turning in work of appropriate quality.
So by all means try. Your best bet is probably to approach your manager armed with this information and see if you can work something out on the sly. Just don’t get your hopes up. Not only are you asking them to disobey your city’s “highest” elected official, the precedent you set is one others will almost surely want to follow.
As for your mayor, her decision to require everyone come back to the office squanders valuable organizational resource—namely, the full productive potential of municipal employees. To deny workers the opportunity to work from home when it’s clearly feasible is to actively *de-*motivate them. They will be less likely to engage in their work, and therefore be less productive. Her mandate comes at an organizational *cost*, in other words; it is a lost *opportunity*.This makes her far less able to follow through on her promise to “keep the city moving.” And her mistake is as unfortunate as it is avoidable.
As if government doesn’t have a bad enough reputation already.
 Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J. and Ying, Z.J., 2015. “Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment.” *The Quarterly journal of economics*, *130*(1), pp.165-218.
 McGregor, Douglas. *The Human Side of Enterprise – Annotated Edition*. 2006 (McGraw-Hill). Originally published in 1960.
 Interestingly, the Stanford study also found that the *least* productive employees were the ones most likely to *return* to work, once that option was made available to them again. In other words, the motivation to work from home was not born out of a desire to shirk their responsibilities.
 Sirota, David; Mischkind, Louis A.; Meltzer, Michael Irwin. *The Enthusiastic Employee*. 2005 (Wharton School Publishing).
   Tim Eiler
   on July 26, 2024 at 6:00 pm
   Amen, Brother!
   I shouldn’t have to suffer a wasteful (of time, pollution, etc.) commute just so there \*might\* be some form of mentorship or collaboration that couldn’t happen whilst I and people like me work remotely.
   I shouldn’t have to go into the office just so a business or government can justify the expensive real estate investment choices they’ve made. Times change. Business and government should support those changes, and not try to be reactionary!