Hard as it is for productivity-minded employers to accept, some workdays are just a wash.
The reasons are endless: a sleepless night, stress, burnout, illness, or even distracting co-workers. Whatever the cause, it keeps them from giving their jobs their full attention and their best performance.
Because wasted time is wasted money, your company’s bottom line may suffer from an overabundance of days like these. And short of monitoring your employees’ every move, there’s really not a foolproof way to make sure their working time counts for something.
What you can do is teach your workers how to manage their time more effectively. Let them know that the occasional “off”-day is natural and acceptable, but that the overall expectation is that they get their jobs done to the best of their ability.
Encourage them to discuss with you or their managers any issues that might affect their daily focus, such as a serious or chronic illness, a major life change such as a death in the family or the birth of a baby, or stress (work-related or not).
While you can’t fix the problem for them, you can offer support and assistance in helping them manage better at work.
In the meantime, take a deep breath and remind yourself that unless lack of productivity becomes the norm, your business is not likely to take a noticeable hit.
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