Did you know?
People began using bird-dog as a verb meaning “to closely watch someone or something” or “to doggedly seek out someone or something” in the early 20th century. Of course, this phrase is used in this plant as a way describe a boss or management sneaking around while watching someone do their job. Does bird-dogging really make things better?
Yahoo Finance has the answer in Monitoring your employees may actually make them slack-off…
“Our studies showed that monitoring employees causes them to subconsciously feel that they are less responsible for their own conduct, thus making them more likely to act immorally,” the authors of the study said.
Harvard Business Review similarly found in another 100-employee study that monitored workers “were substantially more likely to take unapproved breaks, disregard instructions, damage workplace property, steal office equipment, and purposefully work at a slow pace.”
Maybe, just maybe, it would be better for management to talk and work with employees to improve the work environment. Take the bird dog hunting but don’t let him in the factory!
(free graphic via clipart.com)
