I say this as someone who has worked as a labourer in some of the worst grunt labour and semi-skilled labour positions available. I have also been responsible for supervision and productivity of employees on a production line and and as a business owner in the landscaping field. I know what works when dealing with employees and while I do not think my opinions are the only way to do things, I have had enough experience to know that they are valid.
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Originally Posted by Ramsayfarian
I work for a publicly traded company, who answers to their shareholders not the taxpayer and equating PD days to Christmas parties is a bit of a stretch as the two have nothing in common.
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Both build company moral, and help build a sense of connection between members of an organization who might only ever deal with each other on opposite end of an email/phone line/work force crew.
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Seasonal employees are temporary employees usually doing a semi-skilled job for a season. So other than doing their seasonal task, they have no value to the company. I have no problem with them receiving training on how to operate a weedwacker. I do have a problem with them spending a day listing to some guy in a Cosby sweater going on about who moved whom's cheese.
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By training an employee in more than just their immediate task you can help them understand the larger picture about what needs to be done, resolve disputes on their own, and just in general being happier more well adjusted part of a work force. This can have a very large impact on productivity and directly impact the workload of a supervisor, a person you have probably put a very large amount of time and money into training and developing. This will allow a single supervisor to be able to handle more employees and more likely to return to their position the following season, assuming they are seasonal as well. If you treat your employees as people who are only valuable in doing the non-skilled work they have been assigned, then they will realize they are worthless to you and not put any effort into their task.
That said, there is definitely a point where you have diminishing returns and this might be one of them. It also depends on when they are scheduled. Often times there are time periods when nothing can get done, due to weather, scheduling or other logistical concerns. If this is the time that is being used for some of these things then there is no possibility of it being a waste of time . However, given the article it does not appear that this is the case.
Room for improvement, absolutely.
A total failure, not a chance.