cubicle17

I hate downtime when I’m at work. In fact, there’s nothing worse than having to be at work with no work to do. My personal feelings aside, however, experiencing downtime at work is unavoidable, and as far as I’m concerned, what you do with your downtime is your business. What I find far more interesting than how employees spend their downtime is how employers react to employee downtime. Do they consider downtime a natural part of a job, or is it a sign of laziness? Are they accepting and understanding or is downtime vilified?

You’d be hard pressed to find an industry that never stops, and as a result, work loads ebb and flow. This is especially true of my job, where I seem to alternate between ludicrously busy and no work at all roughly every two weeks. What I find curious, though, is that many employers seem to have no grasp of this ebb and flow. There’s no work to do, and yet, you’re still expected show up and pretend to work on something because your managers don’t recognize the inevitability of downtime. Don’t misunderstand, I think it’s important for people to be available in case they’re needed, but “being available” shouldn’t necessitate you sitting at my desk 8 hours a day. You can be just as available with your cell phone, car and access to the highway.

I think the manner in which employers handle employee downtime speaks volumes about the work environment. If employers could recognize the inevitability of downtime, let the employees determine the most effective use of their downtime, and not treat downtime as something scorn-worthy, you’d see happier and more productive employees. And since when were happy and productive employees bad for their employer? Never.