Negative behaviour patterns exhibited at workplaces
Individuals and group of people employed by the government, institutions, private companies and other corporate organisations put up certain negative behavioural patterns which do not augur well for the progress and development of such organisations.
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Some of the negative behaviours are absenteeism, pilfering, laziness and malingering, leaving the workplace before closing time, use of working hours to work lotto and other unofficial duties, alcoholism, lateness to work, doctoring of documents, watching television and listening to radio, and abuse/misuse of office equipment and materials.
Absenteeism
Some of the workers employed by private companies, government, institutions and corporate organisations blatantly absent themselves from work. Majority of these workers do not have any tangible reasons or excuses for absenting themselves from work. This seriously affects productivity.
Pilfering
Some of the workers steal equipment, items, materials and tools meant for production and others in bits and pieces or small quantities. As a result of stealing these things in small quantities, they are not easily noticed and caught. The activities of such people cause organisations to incur unnecessary costs and this has negative repercussions on overall production cost of such organisations.
Laziness and malingering
This is the situation whereby people get to the workplace but instead of performing their roles and responsibilities as expected of them, they idle around. Such people move from one office to the other to chat and gossip about others while others pretend to be sick or ill in order to avoid working.
Some workers choose to leave the workplace before the scheduled time for closing. Such workers find all kinds of excuses to leave the workplace earlier than the closing time. In most cases, such workers leave unnoticed.
Use of working hours for unauthorised activities
Some individual workers or group of workers usually use working hours secretly to either work lotto or engage in other unauthorised activities. This is a major negative attitude at the workplace. Such people complain of inadequate remunerations, low motivations and poor incentives at the workplace as their reasons for engaging in unauthorised activities during working hours to earn money to supplement their salaries.
The use of alcohol is very common among the shop floor workers. Some of them get drunk during working hours and therefore cannot do any productive work during their shift. They cause blunders, accidents and those working with machines easily get injured. Most of such workers are often found sleeping at the workplace during working hours.
Lateness to work
Some workers habitually report very late for work every day. They are fully aware of the reporting time for work but have no regard for the reporting time. Therefore, they report for work at any time.
Some workers are in the habit of doctoring or altering entries in documents. They doctor official documents to their advantage in the form of financial rewards or their personal documents. Some of such documents include recruitment application forms, level of entry of workers at point of appointment, salary increments and personal information (e.g. dates of birth).
Watching television and listening to radio
Most workers spend several hours watching television or listening to the radio at their offices or at the receptions of the organisations. They watch and listen to all kinds of programmes on various television and radio stations at their workplace instead of working.
Certain workers at organisations and enterprises misuse official vehicles, office equipment, materials and items in their care or at their disposal for private gains. They use A4 sheets, photocopiers, printers and others to do private work which put money into their pockets. Some of the workers take contracts for typing, printing and photocopying of examinations questions of schools and institutions using office facilities and materials. Others use official vehicles for private trips and errands especially at the weekends or holidays.