Are you fretting because of productivity paranoia? If you’re new to the term, productivity paranoia is when employers and employees have differing beliefs about how much work is getting done. In the hybrid work era, this condition has become more prevalent and toxic. Not only can it eat away at the fabric of your workplace culture, but it can actually cause people’s performances to plummet. The best way to avoid this problem is to face it head-on and stop it at the source.
According to a Microsoft survey, 85% of bosses aren’t convinced their workers are producing as expected. With numbers like that, it’s easy to see how paranoia could ensue. However, the paranoia isn’t relegated to one side of the coin. Employees are just as paranoid that their supervisors think they’re not performing. With the growth of productivity scoring and keystroke monitoring, maybe they’re right to be a bit jittery. But when employees feel anxious, they’re not apt to do their best. On the contrary, they’re more likely to make mistakes or “check out” mentally.
The last thing you want is a team of people walking on eggshells and a group of supervisors on the verge of taking micromanagement to new heights. Whether or not you’ve diagnosed a full-blown case of productivity paranoia in your ranks, consider trying a few strategies. The following tips are from successful leaders who have implemented measures to overcome this very real and very troublesome workplace concern.
1. Be an anti-productivity paranoia role model.
You’re the leader of your organization. What you do will likely influence your teams. Therefore, if you don’t exhibit productivity paranoia, you’re less likely to have other directors and managers fall prey to its lure.
How can you make sure you’re exhibiting a healthy mindset for everyone in your company? Chris Moschner, CMO at American Advisors Group, has several recommendations. First, he advises staying focused on outcomes and results rather than hours worked. For instance, if your teams hit all their KPIs and goals, then there’s no point worrying about whether they’ve worked a full 40-hour workweek.
Moschner also recommends curbing your desire to work 24-7 and defining flexibility standards. “If you don’t expect your teams to send emails after hours, don’t do it yourself. If your team sees you take a full-week, disconnected vacation, they are more likely to do it as well,” he says. “Also, overcommunicate standards and expectations with respect to work-life flexibility. It shouldn’t be a secret as to what your expectations are. For example, if it is perfectly fine for an employee to leave work for a doctor’s appointment without asking their manager, the leader should say so.”
The point is that you’re on display. When you don’t give your workers the freedom or authority to manage their work as they see fit, you’ve implicitly started something that could lead to productivity paranoia. This doesn’t mean that your managers have no supervisory power. On the contrary, if a leader notices a worker’s goals are off track, they should check in. However, the give-and-take of the resolution should be professional and courteous, not intrusive, embarrassing, or stressful for the employee.
2. Make it effortless for leaders to connect with remote workers.
It’s no surprise that productivity paranoia arose when people started working from home during the pandemic. Some companies have since put an end to the virtual work arrangement, but the majority have embraced hybrid work. Now, they need to embrace the idea that supervising hybrid work teams necessitates different ways of connecting.
The workers at Lexipol had a leg up on the competition during the earliest days of the pandemic. A chunk of its workforce had always been remote. Nevertheless, Kathryn Vines, vice president of human resources at Lexipol, understands the difficulties with remote work. She suggests tapping into new ways of staying in touch when there’s no chance of a water cooler encounter.
“We’ve found that video calls, using Teams to engage with employees in group settings, regular team ‘coffee talks,’ town halls, and other virtual get-togethers can ease the sense that remote employees are disconnected and unproductive,” Vines says. “Everyone wants to succeed and feel like an integral part of the team.”
You may run into some managers who struggle to implement different measures of staying connected with their virtual team members. It’s important to remind them to stay flexible. Working from home or any virtual location can be tougher than it sounds. It may be helpful to some employees to be able to clock out from time to time rather than be available in large chunks. Leaders who understand the value of asynchronous working styles often feel less worried about employee productivity because they realize emails, texts, and phone calls will be answered in a timely fashion.
3. Be clear in working schedule expectations.
Productivity paranoia can start to blossom in organizations where work schedules aren’t mapped out. The answer to this issue is to lay out what you want from each worker. That way, there are no misunderstandings.
As Cristina Brooker, CEO of Advantage Benefits Team, explains, “Job descriptions and expectations need to be much more precise. If an employee has hours of 9-5, then unless they are being asked to complete overtime, they should not be contacted outside of those hours unless via email that is only on a work computer. They should not be called or texted outside of those hours.”
Even after making these changes, be alert for signs that paranoia may be creeping into your culture. Brooker’s always on the lookout for symptoms like incomplete work, unmet deadlines, decreased creativity, reduced volunteering to tackle projects, and “going through the motions.”
Many times, there are early signs of micromanagement, such as employees being worried about being watched by leaders. If you notice any potential red flags, you should address things immediately rather than let them snowball into a catastrophe.
It’s understandable to want your employees to be productive. Just don’t prioritize productivity above all else. Otherwise, you could end up with quite the opposite.
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