How to overcome the top 5 negative workplace behaviors

We gathered the top indicators of bad behavior in the workplace, so you can identify and avoid negative workplace behavior in your company. If you want to know how to enhance workplace performance and limit negative workplace behavior, download our free e-book: 15 ways to improve productivity and meeting room efficiency.

Top 5 Negative Workplace Behaviors Impacting Productivity

1. Room sharking

Room sharking is the action of employees occupying company resources, like meeting rooms or desks, without booking them. It can result in employees not knowing if a meeting room is available or occupied, creating an awkward moment where you have to figure out who can use the room. Room sharking happens in all organizations, and it surely is not malicious. Although room sharking is completely harmless it does create friction for employees and impacts negatively the visitor experience.

So, how to avoid this negative workplace behavior?

First of all, you should ensure that your workplace resources, like meeting rooms and desks, are bookable through a calendaring tool, like Microsoft Outlook. Once employees are able to book resources in their calendars, you can add extra visibility to your workplace with meeting room displays and meeting dashboards. This makes it easy for employees to see the availability and occupancy of rooms – thereby quickly identifying who booked the room.

#2 Avoid ghost meetings

Ghost meetings (also referred to as abandoned or no-show meetings) are booked meetings where attendees do not show up physically. In short, the scheduled meeting makes the room seem occupied in your calendar, but actually there is no one there physically. With the rise of hybrid work, this has become a big issue, because virtual and hybrid meetings are the new normal. You might think it seems harmless to forget to cancel a meeting, but this is costing companies a lot of money. If you have a large 800 square feet 10-person meeting room in San Francisco costing 24.000$ on a yearly lease, and ghost meetings take up a week worth of hours each month. You are wasting nearly 6.000$ a year on a single meeting room.

So, how can we avoid this negative workplace behavior?

There are multiple ways to combat ghost meetings. First, you should set up clear rules and expectations for all employees that scheduled meetings and desk reservations they cannot attend should always be canceled to let other people occupy the space.

With room display, you can set up meeting confirmation, which allows people to check in to their meeting on location 15 minutes before or after the meeting starts. The smart thing about meeting confirmation is that if no one has confirmed the meeting – the room will become available for others to book.

The most automated solution is occupancy sensors. You can set up sensors that detect whether people are physically present in the meeting room, and if there is a scheduled meeting with no one in the meeting room, the room will automatically be freed up for other people to use.

#3 Making workplace changes based on gut feelings

You might have great ideas about workplace improvements, but without workplace data and insights, you are basically guessing. Companies are using tons of resources on workplace improvements and often with limited data on workplace utilization. Improvements should always be based on limiting friction for employees.

So, how do we avoid this negative workplace behavior?

You need to gather data on workplace utilization and business intelligence. Luckily, if you are using the Microsoft Suite, you have access to a ton of data in Microsoft Power-Bi. Power-Bi is a powerful tool to give insights into workplace behavior, but it is difficult to utilize effectively. Therefore, AskCody created Workplace Insights to easily create reports and analyze utilization of your office resources.

#4 Cumbersome and time-consuming meeting management processes

A 1-hour-meeting is never just 1 hour. In most companies arranging meetings is associated with a long list of administrative tasks, which are usually cumbersome and time-consuming. For a meeting with external guests, you might have to:

• Call the canteen to order catering and beverages for the meeting
• Contact the reception to notify them about incoming guests
• Provide information for the arriving guests like parking info, meeting room location, wifi password, covid rules etc.
• Reach out to a PA or Facility Manager to find a room with the right amenities
• Check up with IT if the meeting room equipment is set up
• Deliver the meeting expenses to Finance

And if the meeting is canceled or re-scheduled you might have to go through the same steps once again. This is ineffective. So, how can we avoid this negative workplace behavior?

If this is a serious problem in your organization, you might want to invest in a meeting management solution or build it yourself. What you need to consider is to find a solution that fits your current IT infrastructure, and how you normally book and schedule meetings. If your IT infrastructure is based on Microsoft 365, then AskCody might be relevant for you. You can learn more by reading The Better Way To Meeting Management With Outlook and Microsoft 365.

#5 Filling calendars with recurring meetings

Creating recurring meetings is a time-effective way of planning multiple events, but it can lead to calendars being filled up with less productive meetings. Because, if you only plan 1 meeting, you are more inclined to create a plan and have a clean structure of the meeting. If you are creating multiple meetings (like one each week), the plan and agendas are rarely updated which leads to less effective meetings filling up the calendar.

So, how can we avoid this negative workplace behavior?

You should always consider if it is necessary to create a recurring event or just create individual events when required. Some companies are really good at handling recurring meetings, while other companies try to limit them as much as possible.

Conclusion - How to avoid the top 5 negative workplace behaviors

Identifying and addressing negative workplace behaviors is crucial for enhancing productivity and creating a positive work environment.

From room sharking to ghost meetings, making workplace changes based on gut feelings to cumbersome meeting management processes, and filling calendars with recurring meetings, these behaviors can hinder efficiency and employee satisfaction.

By implementing solutions like calendaring tools, meeting confirmation systems, workplace data analysis, and meeting management solutions, organizations can overcome these challenges and optimize their workplace utilization.

To learn more about improving productivity and meeting room efficiency, download our free E-Book: "15 ways to improve productivity and meeting room efficiency".

Let's create a workplace where productivity thrives and negative behaviors are minimized.