“Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part” ~ Proverb
Have you ever worked with someone who is always in panic-mode because there was something that they didn’t get to and now it was urgent that it be done? Not only did it need to urgently get done, but also they wanted someone else to take care of it for them right away.
I am not talking about the occasional OMG! situation. These are people who seem to make a habit of having emergency work loads all of the time.
When this becomes a chronic or even semi-chronic issue with a co-worker/employee it is time for a diagnostic workup to find out why this keeps happening. More often than not, the bottom line is always poor planning of their workload.
Along with the diagnostic evaluation of the situation management needs to take the time to address how they can help the employee with a plan to keep them from pushing the emergency button all of the time.
A written work plan can help with this problem as the employee can actually see where their time needs to be spent, on what and when. Written plans allow for a clearer picture of job tasks and projects and can help employees to be able to prioritize what they need to accomplish and in what time frame.
Some people can do this by having a plan down in their head, but for those who are more visual writing it down is the way to get out of their head what needs to be done and causes them to think their job duties through easier to prevent failures or emergencies.
Remember the old saying “out of sight, out of mind’? Keeping a written plan in front of you is a constant reminder of what is coming up next to prepare for. If you are a business owner or manager make sure you go over your employees work plan to make sure that they understand in what order they need to accomplish their tasks.
Many employees if not given guidance to the priority of what needs to be done on their plan may fall back into the “emergency situation” because they did other tasks first. The saying “fail to plan, plan to fail” is right on target and is very true.
When you take the time to help an employee or co-worker master their workload so they overcome these “emergency” situations you are improving your communication and relationship with them along with identifying problems and possible issues that could affect the future of their employment.
You also are improving your work environment by stopping those emergencies before they happen and that is good for everyone. This problem left unattended to could cause co-workers (who are organized) to become frustrated, angry and possibly consider looking for new employment elsewhere. With that thought in mind, it is essential for your business that this problem be addressed and resolved.
I will leave you with this old, but very good quote; “Proper planning prevents poor performance”
TP 11/18
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