Research examines effects of wasting employees’ time at work

Many employees know all too well the feeling of frustration that comes with a chatty customer or coworker who just won’t leave you alone at work. But new research from Temple University takes a closer look at the real-world effects of wasting an employee’s time while they’re on the clock.

“Don’t Waste My Time! The Development and Validation of the Wasted Time Perceptions Scale” is the latest scholarly research article authored by Brian Holtz, associate professor of management from Temple’s Fox School of Business; Crystal Harold, professor of management and associate dean for master’s programs at Fox; and Harshad Puranik from the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Recently published online in the Journal of Management, the research explores what it means to have your time wasted at work, and it finds that employees feel a sense of frustration and engage in counterproductive work behaviors when they perceive that their time is being wasted.

“Intuitively, I think we understand that time is important to people, and we really don’t like it when our time’s wasted,” said Holtz, whose research often focuses on fairness in the workplace, and more recently, the ways people experience time in the workplace. “But in the academic literature, it’s not really been well-defined what that means, and, from a scientific perspective, how we might study people’s perceptions of wasted time.”

The researchers defined wasted time as anything that interferes with an employee’s ability to obtain their goals.

“We viewed goals really broadly in terms of any desired outcome or any desired state,” Holtz said. “Your goal may be to have fun and be happy, or to get your work done. If someone is intruding on your time in a way that prevents you from accomplishing whatever your goal may be in that moment, that is going to be deemed as a waste of time.”

They then administered surveys to several hundred participants, posing questions about how they perceived wasted time at work, and the emotions and behaviors that resulted from their time being wasted.

“We found, probably not surprisingly, that when a person perceives that their time is wasted by others in the workplace—whether those are one’s boss, one’s coworkers, even one’s customers—that is a frustrating experience,” Harold noted. “They feel a greater frustration, and in turn, they act out accordingly.”

The study found that if an employee feels frustrated with their boss, they act in ways that are counterproductive towards that boss. Or if it’s a coworker wasting their time, they try to get back at their coworker. The same is true with customers, the study found.

These behaviors are often entity-specific, meaning that if one is frustrated with their coworker, they generally don’t lash out rudely at customers, or vice versa.

They identified a multitude of counterproductive work behaviors that employees engage in when their time is wasted by a coworker or customer, including

• Criticizing that individual’s opinion or suggestion.
• Trying to avoid interacting with that individual.
• Excluding that individual from conversations.
• Speaking poorly about that individual.
• Being blunt with a customer.
• Intentionally slowing service to a customer.
• Making gestures (e.g., sighing, eye rolling) to express impatience with a customer.

The study also found that employees will engage in counterproductive work behaviors targeted at their organization when they perceive their time is being wasted. These behaviors include

• Not working to the best of their ability.
• Spending time on tasks unrelated to work.
• Taking unnecessary breaks.
• Speaking poorly about their organization to others.

While some of these outcomes may seem obvious, Holtz doesn’t think the effects of wasted time are appropriately understood by bosses and managers.

“I think a lot of bosses in the workplace don’t appreciate that paying attention to whether or not employees feel their time is wasted is quite important,” Holtz said.

The researchers discuss that lack of appreciation in relation to the commodified view of time concept, which suggests that time is a commodity, and organizations essentially pay for their employees’ time. Holtz believes that many managers subscribe to that viewpoint and lose sight of how it affects employees.

“Our paper surfaces this idea that even though people are compensated for their time, they still care about whether or not their time is used in valuable ways,” he said. “It’s a frustrating experience to have one’s time wasted, even if you’re getting paid.”

The paper also offers some real-world suggestions based on the findings. First and foremost, it is important for managers to be aware that employees are concerned about having their time used in what they perceive to be useful, goal-oriented manners.

And beyond just being aware of that, bosses should work to ensure that everyone’s time is used in valuable ways, and they’re not assigning busywork or nonsensical tasks. They should also work to remove barriers to people’s goal accomplishments.

So, the next time a chatty coworker steals 15 minutes of your valuable time on the clock, consider telling your boss about it.

“If you have someone who’s constantly buzzing around the office, taking up peoples’ time in unproductive ways, maybe the boss needs to step in and intervene,” Holtz said.