

How to Show Employees That You Care - aarongray
http://www.aaron-gray.com/how-to-show-employees-that-you-care/

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ScottWhigham
_A company culture that allows people to watch YouTube, listen to music on
their headphones, or joke around without a supervisor telling them to get back
to work is not just cool and hip. At its core, treating employees like this
shows that you trust them._

I find it hard to fully agree with this statement. Listening to music? No
problem. Joking around with a supervisor? No problem. Watching Youtube while
at work? Problem.

Listening is an activity that people can _often_ do while multitasking,
watching videos is not. It's just not a multitasking-friendly activity.
Besides, with Youtube, there is a constant pull to watch the next thing
("People who watched this video also watched...").

If your manager and his/her manager happened to walk by your desk at the same
time and see you (a) not working, and instead (b) watching a Youtube video,
how's that going to play out? It's likely that your manager will get an earful
from his/her manager and, as the saying goes, *#&$% flows downhill.

~~~
aarongray
Are you at work right now? Then I think you proved my point. :D

Seriously though, you make a good point making a distinction between things
you can do while working, and things that completely stop the flow of work. I
guess that my argument is that, in appropriate quantities, stopping working
can actually keep your mind engaged for the entirety of the day, which can
actually enable more work to get done overall.

Thanks for chiming in.

