The Weekly Newspaper of Torrance
Herald Publications - Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 7, No. 44 - November 2, 2017
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................8
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................2
Legals....................................8
Pets......................................12
Real Estate.....................9-11
Sports....................................5
TerriAnn in Torrance..........6
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
AM Clouds/
PM Sun
66˚/58˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
66˚/58˚
Sunday
Mostly
Cloudy
65˚/59˚
SBJA Dodger Blue Dress Day
In honor of the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the National League pennant against the Chicago Cubs and making it to the World Series (the final results of which were not known at press time), students
at South Bay Junior Academy in West Torrance were encouraged to wear Dodger Blue on October 24—and that they did! The day was celebrated with a stadium-style lunch menu of Dodger Dogs (aka
veggie dogs), nachos, vanilla ice cream and churros. Photo Provided by SBJA.
Survey Enables Employees to
Reveal How Much They Loaf
By Rob McCarthy
Rising Productivity,” in which he opined that
Once as a supervisor, I reprimanded a young
companies are getting their money’s worth
customer-service rep in our office who was
even if today’s employees are shopping online
checking her smartphone every time I looked
at their desks.
up from my desk. She was the niece of a
The average working American puts in
good friend, so I persuaded HR to hire her.
roughly a 34-hour workweek. Work output
My request seemed reasonable. However,
is rising even though the actual effort is
it went over as well as a burp in church.
declining, meaning “more is being done with
Another manager in the office later told me
less,” according to Smith. That’s a good thing.
that I was wrong to single out one employee
“If I can complete a task in two hours that
for something everybody in the office was
used to take four, and spend the extra two
doing. That our staff goofed off was hardly
hours surfing Twitter, it means that technology,
a revelation. I just didn’t know how much
management or some other aspect
or exactly why--until now.
of the economy has gotten twice as good,”
White collar employees admitted to a Bay
Smith writes.
Area staffing firm that they goof off 10.5
He adds, “Even if slacking off is a bad
hours a week. Millennial males say they’re the
thing, it could be good news for technological
most bored in offices and cube farms. They
progress.”
estimate playing on their phones, surfing the
And, Smith writes, it would explain why the
Web and--get this--working on their unfinished
adoption of information systems technology
novels almost 14 hours per workweek.
in U.S. companies hasn’t lifted the nation’s
The survey sample wasn’t huge, for what
productivity over the past 30 years. Why
it’s worth. The OfficeTeam, based in Menlo
productivity is flat has stumped economists.
Park, says that the researchers took responses
The OfficeTeam’s examination of employee
from 380 adult workers and 300-plus senior
habits found that management underestimated
managers at companies with 20 or more staff.
how much paid staff time is going towards
This project calls to mind screenwriter
non-work activities. They guessed too low.
Mike Judge’s 1999 film Office Space, about a
Some the managers--39 percent--thought
group of restless tech workers. The leader of
their people had too much work to complete.
the group, named Peter, spends his day in a
Others acknowledged the lack of motivation
cubicle updating banking software ahead of the
to get things done, saying that employees
Y2K changeover and watching out for his boss
didn’t feel challenged enough by assignments.
who’s going to ask him to work the weekend.
While slacking off is a year-round habit, office
Another writer who has explored the topic
workers reported feeling the most bored
of slacking on the job is Bloomberg View
in the winter months.
columnist Noah Smith. He penned an article
What are these people doing instead of
in May about “Goofing Off at Work Masking
work? One answer: Trying to look interested
and engaged at meetings. Employees admit
to putting on appearances at their desks, too,
in case their supervisors pop in unexpectedly.
“Let’s face it, the workday isn’t always filled
with excitement,” said Brandi Britton, district
president for OfficeTeam. When it comes
down to it, the responsibility for staying busy
and not pushing back from work is on the
employees themselves, she said. Managers
and supervisors can check in with staff to
make sure they are engaged and staying on
track too.
The question, “What do you do when bored
in the office?” brought some garden-variety
answers. People said they browse the Internet,
check personal email and social media, pay
bills and talk to co-workers. A few talked
about waging “rubber band battles” and
working on an unfinished manuscript.
Britton with OfficeTeam offered some
career advice for those who find their work
dull and uninspiring. “When boredom strikes
or there’s a lull in activity, individuals should
proactively ask to help with projects that
challenge and interest them,” she said.
Some creative ways people say they dodge
work are:
• Learning a language
• Doing crossword puzzles
• Doodling
• Daydreaming
• Making videos
• Watching TV shows and movies
• Playing online games
Asking for extra work, cleaning their desks,
and looking for another job finished near the
bottom of the list. •