StrategyDriven

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

Parkinson’s Law
Wikipedia

There exists a tendency among workers to use all of the time allotted to perform a task even if the work can be done in a shorter period of time. Some organizations, through high accountability and managerial engagement, minimize the amount of lost time caused by unnecessary work expansion. In other organizations, however, a lack of managerial oversight and reinforcement of high performance standards allows the Thieves of Time to rob the organization of precious productivity.

Parkinson’s Law suggests that workers will fill the time allotted to perform work whether that time is needed or not. The three Thieves of Time comprising Parkinson’s Law include: the student syndrome, multitasking, and unassimilated advances. These Thieves of Time can be described as:

The Student Syndrome: Tendency to delay the start of an activity until the perceived point at which any further delay would result in the activity being overdue. Problems arising during the performance of the activity typically result in a late completion. (Don’t forget Murphy’s Law – “Anything that can go wrong, will!”)
Multitasking: Performance of several activities simultaneously. Time to start and restart an activity accumulates; lengthening the time to perform each activity as compared to that needed to perform the task in a start-to-finish manner.
Unassimilated Advances: Accumulation of delays but not advances as work passes through a series of individual contributors. Here, a lack of communication regarding early work completion and/or a lack of preparation to begin work before its scheduled start time results in a failure to capture advances.

If left unchecked, the Thieves of Time will undermine an organization’s productivity and diminish its overall value. While not all inclusive, the four lists below, Process-Based Warning Flags, Process Execution Warning Flags – Behaviors, Potential, Observable Results, and Potential Causes, are designed to help leaders to recognize whether the Thieves of Time are at work within their organizations. Only after a problem is recognized and its causes identified can the needed action be taken to move the organization toward improved performance.

Process-Based Warning Flags

no time reporting process
no process to collect time to perform data associated with specific project tasks or work orders
lack of a rigorous project scope control and/or project change management process

Process Execution Warning Flags – Behaviors

individuals do not report time to perform specific work activities even if required to do so by procedure
individuals consistently report time worked as 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week even if they worked more or less than this amount
individuals record time worked from memory once every several days or more
lack of executive and managerial challenge to time reports
lack of executive and managerial challenge to time requirement estimates
lack of supervisory oversight and observation of work

Potential, Observable Results

excessive water cooler time, frequent long lunches, late arrivals, and/or early departures all with on schedule, on budget work completion at the desired quality level
excessive time spent on personal emails and/or personal phone calls with on schedule, on budget work completion at the desired quality level
excessive, perfectionist standards applied to all work with on schedule, on budget work completion
products having additional out-of-scope features while being completed on time and on budget
benchmarking consistently reveals higher competitor capacity and/or lower costs

Potential Causes

executives and managers are uncomfortable with conflict and avoid challenging employees regarding their work practices
executives and managers are not engaged with the workforce and their work practices
executives and managers routinely assess a person’s value contribution based on how busy they appear, thereby, encouraging “busy work”
individual contributor complacency

Final Thought…

Establishing and reinforcing high performance standards is critical to creating a culture of accountability. The existence of Parkinson’s Law within an organization suggests that the organization may suffer from diminished accountability. Thus, there may be several other opportunities to realize performance improvement by increasing the organization’s level of accountability. Insights to becoming a more accountable organization can be found in the members’ only category: Organizational Accountability.

Additional Information

The following StrategyDriven recommended best practices are designed to promote high, performance-based activity time estimates:

Additional Resources

StrategyDriven contributors recommend the following resource as a guide to the common methods used to estimate resource needs for an activity or project:

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition
by the Project Management Institute

Nathan A. Ives manages the strategic planning, budgeting, and personnel resource and project management programs at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, and is a StrategyDriven contributor. For over fifteen years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at numerous Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

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