{"id":24771,"date":"2014-04-21T10:30:51","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T15:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=24771"},"modified":"2022-08-22T04:02:53","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T09:02:53","slug":"the-less-trap-8-tips-on-combatting-doing-the-same-with-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=24771","title":{"rendered":"The Less Trap: 8 Tips on Combating Doing the Same with Less"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Naomi House, MLIS<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The Less Trap:\u00a0 8 Tips on Combating Doing the Same with Less<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"naomihouse\"<\/a>Last May I was invited to\u00a0speak <\/a> at the National Press Club<\/a> by LexisNexis<\/a>.\u00a0 My passion for volunteer work and reality of staffing cuts at my workplace at the time were colliding.\u00a0 I spoke to the group about building versatility and leadership in your staff and yourself at work and in the volunteer sphere in general;\u00a0 specifically I wanted to tackle the concept of “doing more with less”<\/em> that many government agencies, corporations and libraries are making their staff do this.<\/p>\n

Simply put while doing MORE with less is frustrating and sometimes impossible (for example the quality of the work suffers and things are forgotten) those doing MORE are often learning new skills and having additional job titles added on that will help them in the future.\u00a0 I had found that many places were stagnating staff by making them do the SAME with less.\u00a0 I call this The Less Trap<\/strong>, where staff cuts lead to fewer people doing the exact same tasks and having no new skills developed.\u00a0 The staff are stagnated in their work and no growth opportunities exist.\u00a0 Frustration on the job leads to staff retention issues as well.\u00a0 Managers need to appreciate the staff they have instead of assuming the staff are lucky to have that job because the employed are more employable and there is no loyalty when staff are not appreciated.<\/p>\n

\"Less<\/a><\/p>\n

Doing the Same With Less trap employees into a no-growth cycle.\u00a0 What can be done?<\/em><\/p>\n

4 things Employees can do<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Volunteer:\u00a0<\/strong> Having a satisfying work experience is often beyond our control.\u00a0 Many of us who remain at jobs where layoffs have happened are stuck doing more work without the same opportunities for professional advancement.\u00a0 Volunteering can help fill the satisfaction gap in our life for several reasons.\u00a0 Volunteering helps fill our desire to learn new skills and it gives us the opportunity to network with others in our field, or in fields we may be interested in working in.<\/li>\n
  2. Look for another job:<\/strong>\u00a0 Seriously often the only real way to find happiness is leaving an unhappy work situation.\u00a0 But most of us can’t just quit- we Need a job to pay bills so actively looking for a job in your spare time is often the best use of your time.<\/li>\n
  3. Change your workflow:\u00a0<\/strong> If you have been saddled with additional duties after other positions were eliminated you might be approaching the new tasks as things to do on top of what you are already doing and not evaluating How to best organize your day.\u00a0 The old workflow that you were used to may not be as efficient or effective so take some time to get re-organized and re-evaluate your daily tasks.\u00a0 In the long run this will save you tons of time and cut down on stress.<\/li>\n
  4. Just hit your marks<\/strong>:\u00a0 Make sure your goals every day are realistic.\u00a0 Knowing what your targets are for completion may not seem like a lofty goal but at work it is the most important one.\u00a0 Focus first on hitting your marks before considering how to best exceed them.\u00a0 Small steps can be more effective and lead to greater job satisfaction.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    —<\/span><\/p>\n

    4 things Managers can do<\/strong><\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. Don’t just delegate:<\/strong> You are the manager and when staff under you are let go your workload increases as well, so it can be very easy to just delegate for expediency and to keep the ship afloat.\u00a0 Don’t.\u00a0 Call a meeting.\u00a0 Get staff involved.\u00a0 As the people doing the tasks they may have valuable insights into how to organize the new workloads and even on de-duplicating efforts.<\/li>\n
    2. Remember to show appreciation:<\/strong> Never, ever, under ANY circumstances tell your employees that they are\u00a0 lucky to have a job still and be aware of showing this attitude, too.\u00a0 The employed are more employable and if you do not take care to show appreciation there is no reasons for any employee to show you loyalty.\u00a0 Also an employee is more than someone trained in a task-set, the knowledge they build on the job is so much more valuable than you might realize.\u00a0 Take time to really show that your employees are valued.\u00a0 Staff retention is vital!<\/li>\n
    3. Evaluate what you offer patrons:<\/strong>\u00a0 Whether you run a department or entire company it is critical to evaluate right away what it is that you offer patrons.\u00a0 This is where metrics and benchmarking are critical because they will show you where necessary cuts can be made as well as how others are doing the same tasks with more efficiency.\u00a0 With fewer staff it may be a good idea to cut out the less necessary offerings and focus on doing a better job with the more popular ones.<\/li>\n
    4. Get creative:\u00a0<\/strong> The number one issue I have with doing the SAME with less is that it stagnates your employees.\u00a0 You do not want to over-burden them with MORE, at the same time you want them to be happy and feel loyal and engaged in their work.\u00a0 So get creative with small things.\u00a0 Let them be creative in ways that will not affect services like holding a staff contest for designing new inter-office labels. Small things.\u00a0 Or build up moral by giving them some new perks (my idea of a panda-cam<\/a> dedicated computer screen in the workplace has never caught on).\u00a0 Getting creative can make all the difference.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Both employees and managers need to be in the discussions whenever staff cuts are made, if the transition is to be successful.\u00a0 Getting everyone on board, showing appreciation, planning better, and volunteer work are a few solutions that can make all the difference in the work-life of both employees and managers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      by Naomi House, MLIS The Less Trap:\u00a0 8 Tips on Combating Doing the Same with Less Last May I was invited to\u00a0speak at the National Press Club by LexisNexis.\u00a0 My passion for volunteer work and reality of staffing cuts at my workplace at the time were colliding.\u00a0 I spoke to the group about building versatility…<\/p>\n

      Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[6128,6129,6130,6133,6134,4378,4379,10,176,6136,6135,5821,6152,6132,4476,4252,410],"class_list":["post-24771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-doing-less","tag-doing-more","tag-doing-the-same","tag-employee","tag-employees","tag-employer","tag-employers","tag-inalj","tag-lexis","tag-lexisnexis","tag-manager","tag-managers","tag-naomi-house-mlis","tag-national-press-club","tag-presentations","tag-volunteer","tag-volunteering"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/naomi-house-cropped1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-6rx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}