If you ever feel like you don’t have enough time at work to get the important stuff done, then you’ve probably fallen into the Endless Pit of Needs. This is a real place where customers or coworkers take up too much of your time and you get little in return for your investment.
Often these scenarios emerge out of kindness, which usually is a wonderful quality. But there are people out there who are like vampires in that they love to suck away at your productive time until you run dry. It’s not easy to say, “no” but I ask you to consider whether unlimited kindness was mentioned on your job description.
Here are two scenarios that demonstrate this problem and you’ll also receive suggestions on how you can Clear the Path of these challenges.
A Tasty Pit: You run an ice cream parlor that gives out free samples. Occasionally people will come and and ask for 10 or more free samples. In this case the loss of product may not be that significant but the loss of time should be a consideration.
Did the freeloader slow up the line? Did that person’s presence prevent the clerk from doing other things? Or did a paying customer not get into a line that was slowed by an onslaught of free samples?
Solution: You need to respect the definition of “free.” Free should not only refer to the price of the good or service but should also apply to the employee’s time. If business is slow at the ice cream parlor, then give out as many free samples as you like. But when things are busy, there’s nothing wrong with cutting off a sample-holic after two or three samples.
Are you worried about losing a potential customer? Usually people, who don’t seem to want to spend money with you, aren’t going to move your sales figures. Cut your losses and focus on the people who have cash and are willing to spend.
A Training Pit: You have a colleague who prefers not to learn a process or a procedure. Let’s say it’s filling out his weekly expense form. So every week, he dumps a crumbled collection of receipts on your desk and asks you to make sense of them.
Why are you doing this if it’s not your job? Because you’re nice, like to help out, and your coworker says he doesn’t know how to enter the info into the computer. This person is not a supervisor. In fact, you both do much the same job.
Helping out is good but helping out with the same problem is not. Don’t let someone treat you like an all you can eat buffet of free help. There are those who will prey on your niceness, which results in a boost in their productivity while your output falls.
Solution: Agree to do the work one more time if the other party will sit with you and learn how to do it. This has to be a legitimate effort on his part.
If the problem continues, consider bringing it to the attention of your supervisor, ask the other party to do some of your work, or run toward the bathroom whenever he starts to approach your desk while holding a bunch of receipts.
Bottom Line: Don’t expect other people to value your productive time. They likely have no idea about your workload.
Time is a resource that must be protected.
