Posted on: Monday, April 7, 2003
AT WORK
Office food thieves are eating away at everyone's productivity
By Andrea Kay
It's amazing that anything gets done at work with all the distractions. If it's not talk of war, it's office pools. If it's not office pools, it's the weather, gossip or employee shenanigans.
For instance, employers lose $1.4 billion over several weeks if the average worker spends 10 minutes a day discussing the NCAA basketball tournament, says John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, who looked at the effects of office pools.
A month ago, the weather was being blamed for low productivity. Experts call it Seasonal Affective Disorder or winter blues, which according to ComPsych Corporation, can lead to diminished performance on the job, strained relationships and absenteeism.
In some companies, people are distracted by the steady stream of gossip about whether the company is laying off and who has heard what about who's losing their job next and if it's true that the company is shutting down the office on the West or East Coast.
But these pale in comparison to this particular distraction that is leading people astray from the task they're being paid to do. Workers at one company have told me that their management and staff are spending time sniffing out co-workers who steal other's lunches. And not just from the office refrigerator.
Apparently, the culprits scrounge around in people's desk and file drawers looking for snacks and bag lunches. No one is safe. Having left their desks for a restroom break, meetings or for the day, secretaries and management alike have come back to find their peanut butter crackers and cheese sandwiches snatched up. In some cases, the bandit has left a trail of crumbs.
As a result, Monday morning meetings have been held to decide how to curtail the crime spree. Discussions about how to trap the moochers ensue. Instead of addressing the pile of work on their desks, employees are shooting e-mails to fellow employees asking them to respect their personal belongings, including a bite they have brought from home that is sometimes the only thing they consume that day.
Since respect for thy neighbor and common sense don't seem to be prevailing, management is crafting and circulating new policies for what to do when you place your personal belongings in the public domain such as the company refrigerator. Make sure your name is on your bags and plastic containers. Lock your desk to fend off the bums.
While these meetings are taking place behind closed doors with managers who really have better things to tend to, employees are suspiciously eyeing one another.
They're congregating at each other's desks and huddling in the bathroom and halls, whispering about who they think the rumored poacher is who stalks the halls for chow. As all this goes on, who's minding the store?
While huddled in policy-setting meetings, perhaps this company's management could add to its list of training classes a refresher course on how to treat your fellow worker. And make it mandatory. Then everyone could get back to what they came to work for in the first place — getting stuff done for their clients and customers.
Andrea Kay is a career consultant and author.
