Office Work Situation According to Hutchings, one of the major causes of backlog in assignments, submission of unprofessional work and workplace stress is the lack of proper time management (15). The predicament facing DMD medical supplies with regard to Ruth and Jack is related to time management. Both Ruth and Jack have been assigned two executives each but the general realization is that Ruth is having hard time completing her assignments within office hours. Furthermore, one of the executives who Ruth is responsible for has complained that the work submitted by Ruth is of poor quality. On the other hand Jack seems to be managing his work pretty well. Jack even affords some free time and the executives he is responsible for have never complained concerning the quality of this work. Ruth’s submission of poor quality works and her requests for overtime seems to be connected to poor time management strategies.
Time Allocation. One of the key requirements of time management is to allocate duties time with regard to priorities and deadlines. One of the problems Ruth could be having is that she spends a lot of time on less priority assignments only to realize that she has very little time for high priority assignments. That could also be the reason why the quality of work submitted by Ruth is of poor quality. Due to limited time, she will be forced to rush over the high priority assignments and end up submitting assignments of poor quality.
Time Wasting. The second most probable problem with Ruth is that she wastes a lot of time on unrelated issues in the office only to realize that she has very little time to finish her assignments. According to Jha, there are activities in the workplace that are known as “ time eaters” (164). These activities silently take most of our time and before we realize we have wasted a lot of time. Most recently social networking during office hours has been characterized as one of the main “ time eaters.” Other examples of “ time eaters” include making and receiving informal calls from friends during office hours and gossiping.
Lack of a Calendar. The third most probable problem facing Ruth is that she does not have a calendar to arrange her schedule in an organized manner. Lack of a calendar implies that Ruth keeps of forgetting the assignments she has been given and their respective deadlines. Therefore, she is unable to organize her time effectively. According to Limoncelli, a calendar helps one to balance their time effectively and should always have a calendar that they check before their day begins (234). Being a woman maybe Ruth might also be having difficult time balancing between her domestic duties and her professional duties.
The disparity in performance between Ruth and Jack is related to time management. The solution would be to call a meeting with Ruth and find out the root cause of her problem with time. If the problem is not related to her domestic responsibilities, Ruth should undergo a short training on time management. Currently, the company spends $200 a month in Ruth’s overtime hours. If the money can be channelled towards training Ruth on proper time management skills, then the problems will have been solved long term. Time management is a problem facing even top CEOs and with assistance there is confidence that the performance of Ruth will improve significantly.
Works Cited
Hutchings, Patricia J. Managing Workplace Chaos: Solutions for Handling Information, Paper, Time, and Stress. Carlifornia: AMACOM, 2002. Print.
Jha, P. K. Time Management: The Art of Stress-free Productivity. New Delhi, India: Global India Publications, 2008. Print.
Limoncelli, Tom. Time Management for System Administrators. Sebaspotol, CA: O Reilly Media, 2006. Print.
