Sunday, 31 March 2013

Happier at Work Goof Off

Happier at Work Goof Off, They may go to great lengths to avoid work, but your slacker co-workers actually love their jobs. A new study comparing job performance and satisfaction found that the least-productive workers are also the most engaged in nearly half of workplaces.

At 42 percent of more than 200 companies studied, leadership training and research firm Leadership IQ found that the people who spend the day perusing Pinterest or updating their fantasy football rosters are more engaged than middle-of-the-road and even star workers.

“We’re putting numbers to things we all kind of intuitively know,” said Leadership IQ CEO Mark Murphy.

Leadership IQ, which drew on its research database to survey 207 companies, also carried out a more detailed study of one representative example, a 1,000-person tech service provider on which the consulting firm had detailed data about employee engagement and performance. As the Wall Street Journal noted, these findings fly in the face of conventional wisdom that those who contribute more to their employer's success are the most engaged with their jobs.


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In this study, low performers were more likely to say they give 100 percent at work, that their company is a great place to work and that everyone there does an equally good job. So, in addition to not being very good at the work itself, these workers also think they’re much better at their jobs than they actually are.

"You can think you’re giving 100 percent effort, but if you don’t know exactly what 100 percent looks like and how that translates into performance... that’s where this asymmetry comes from," Murphy said.

A major reason your slacker co-workers like their jobs so much is because you’re doing their work for them. The study found that high performers were least likely to say their company held people accountable for their work, while the lowest performers were the most likely to say they received praise for the work they do.