Working hard or hardly working? Why it’s OK that your employees take breaks from being productive

Marjorie Adams has definitely taken a nap during work — and she wants you to know that it’s not a big deal.

Adams is the founder and CEO of Fourlane, a financial solutions provider that has been fully remote since 2009, so the worldwide shift to remote work in 2020 was no big deal for Adams and her team.

“We learned early on to give people goals and we have weekly metrics for each employee,” she says. “If they hit their goals for the week, then I don’t care if they nap on the clock. The transparency and simplicity has worked well for our team.”

In the wake of the shift to all-remote work, many workers are taking liberties with their time on the clock: 42% have been on a date at least once during the workday, 76% of women shop online during work at least once a week, and 56% of millennials have taken a personal day without telling a manager, according to a survey by online retailer E-conolight.

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The amount of time employees are spending on “non-work” is not necessarily a determinant of how productive they’re being, according to Derek Richards, research psychologist, psychotherapist and chief science officer at SilverCloud Health, an online therapy platform. While work from home comes with several perks, for some it can also mean longer hours and fewer opportunities to “sign off” in the evenings.

“Taking the time — regardless of whether that falls within traditional work hours — to do things that make employees feel happy and alleviate stress is crucial to their overall wellbeing,” Richards says. “Employees should feel comfortable taking a mid-day break to walk the dog, throw on a load of laundry, call a friend or run an errand.”

And while roughly half of the folks surveyed admit to having missed a deadline or arriving late to virtual meetings, they’re still confident in their work: 41% say they are getting their work done in fewer hours per week than when they worked in the office, Nintex found.

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What employees do “on the clock” isn’t to blame for company productivity pain points, according to Steve Cadigan, talent strategist and the first chief HR officer at Linkedin. In fact, employees who feel they are being measured all the time tend to feel less psychologically safe and in turn tend to succeed and produce less.

Employee burnout remains the leading cause of underproductivity in the wake of a shift to an all-remote work environment — more than 60% of employees say they are burned out, but less than 15% said their company had a plan in place to alleviate stress, a Blind survey found.

“Workers need to be measured by their results, not by the hours they work,” Cadigan says. “If you think they can do more, then change their goals — it’s important to have a discussion about it rather than micromanaging the situation.”