last minuters

adolf hamster · 13 Dec 2017 at 08:03

seriously, how do people survive doing nothing until the very last minute before a deadline? do they just like stress and overtime?

Ayahuasca · 13 Dec 2017 at 08:14

There's plenty of studies behind the psychology of procrastination, basically comes down to a lack of discipline or interest in what needs to be done.

malachi · 13 Dec 2017 at 08:16

adolf hamster said:
seriously, how do people survive doing nothing until the very last minute before a deadline? do they just like stress and overtime?

Because they are disorganized. People you want to stay away from in the work place or would never employ.

adolf hamster · 13 Dec 2017 at 08:20

Ayahuasca said:
There's plenty of studies behind the psychology of procrastination, basically comes down to a lack of discipline or interest in what needs to be done.

it's really annoying when having to work as a team to deadlines when folk start chatting about their most recent gym gains, "sure it'll be all right", with them planning to compress about 3 months worth of work into a single afternoon.

Kreeeee · 13 Dec 2017 at 08:23

Ayahuasca · 13 Dec 2017 at 08:28

adolf hamster said:
it's really annoying when having to work as a team to deadlines when folk start chatting about their most recent gym gains, "sure it'll be all right", with them planning to compress about 3 months worth of work into a single afternoon.

There's a lot to be said about leadership as well, not saying it's always the fault of management but sometimes it can be. There are a number of military books I'll link to later that tend to show a trend in the type of leader people will work for, not just in war but that spreads to pretty much all areas of employment. Art of War obviously being the most touted but it can be a difficult read and you need to decipher a lot of the text into your own environment, it took me 3 or 4 readthroughs to "get it".

If a sense of responsibility isn't demonstrated and there's very little accountability (which is now common due to how difficult it can be to get rid of employees) then the chance of employees having their work done in due time drops drastically. I know recently businesses have tried to work on this with productivity reports, but some of them are so vague or can't be used as a true measurement of the standard of work being done for certain roles.

adolf hamster · 13 Dec 2017 at 08:58

Ayahuasca said:
There's a lot to be said about leadership as well, not saying it's always the fault of management but sometimes it can be. There are a number of military books I'll link to later that tend to show a trend in the type of leader people will work for, not just in war but that spreads to pretty much all areas of employment. Art of War obviously being the most touted but it can be a difficult read and you need to decipher a lot of the text into your own environment, it took me 3 or 4 readthroughs to "get it".

If a sense of responsibility isn't demonstrated and there's very little accountability (which is now common due to how difficult it can be to get rid of employees) then the chance of employees having their work done in due time drops drastically. I know recently businesses have tried to work on this with productivity reports, but some of them are so vague or can't be used as a true measurement of the standard of work being done for certain roles.

its tricky, i'm not a manager, not by nature nor by desire, but i always seem to be the only one who's getting worried about things like deadlines at the appropriate time (ie when there's enough time to get the work done) and i'm frankly fed up with it, it shouldn't be my job to do it, and the only reason i'm doing it right now is because all i care about is making sure the result is good enough that it isn't going to bite me in the posterior.

VincentHanna · 13 Dec 2017 at 09:10

I used to be a leave it to the last minute guy, which is why I never bothered with Uni. I didn't have the discipline needed to do the work myself without a teacher or someone pushing me

I'm better now, though I do still leave some things to the last minute. It tends to be personal things as opposed to work things though

I run a business so I can't afford to not be on top of everything now.

McBain · 13 Dec 2017 at 09:29

It's called being lazy, I am one of those people.

'Ill do it tomorrow, i'll do it in 5 minutes, i'll do it next week' - always ends up the last minute.

Shocky-FM · 13 Dec 2017 at 09:35

Maybe they've been given to much time? unrealistic deadline?

If they're capable of completing the task last minute to a high enough standard then what motivation do they have to finish early?

If they're not able to complete to a high enough standard why are they still employed?

This raises a lot of questions.

sovietspybob · 13 Dec 2017 at 09:41

I'm one of those people, all the way through college i did everything right at the last possible moment before the deadline. And by deadline i don't mean the first one they originally set i mean the deadline of 'we're going to throw you off the course if you don't do it by the end of the week'

Luckily i work in a job with no long term deadlines (IT break-fix) so everything i do has very short term SLAs which suits my style fine!

mrk · 13 Dec 2017 at 09:44

adolf hamster said:
seriously, how do people survive doing nothing until the very last minute before a deadline? do they just like stress and overtime?

Gotta risk it for a biscuit.

Rifte · 13 Dec 2017 at 09:50

Its a pet hate of mine, and unfortunately its cultural in India where I work.

Freakbro · 13 Dec 2017 at 09:57

I love deadlines, especially the whooshing sound they make as they fly by

adolf hamster · 13 Dec 2017 at 09:58

Rifte said:
Its a pet hate of mine, and unfortunately its cultural in India where I work.

its fine if it's how you want to live your life, but can people not get the concept that when others are relying on them to do work that they should, y'know, do it?

Ayahuasca · 13 Dec 2017 at 10:00

adolf hamster said:
its fine if it's how you want to live your life, but can people not get the concept that when others are relying on them to do work that they should, y'know, do it?

Nope, as that's their little clutch of power they have on the situation.

dirtychinchilla · 13 Dec 2017 at 10:01

I wing more or less all meetings at work, unless I have to present. I can weigh up options and make decisions quickly, though things aren't always clear cut, but that's why you're in a meeting. I am utterly absorbed in the work that I do, so I don't have any problems doing stuff on the fly.

Rifte · 13 Dec 2017 at 10:05

The worst examples are the ones that tell you they have started on it, when they havent.

So you cant even predict that a timeline will or may be missed!

dowie · 13 Dec 2017 at 10:05

I'm not sure it is confined to people who procrastinate... though perhaps there is some overlap in personality types* - in tech firms etc... (especially smaller ones) you might well find yourself completing things right up until deadlines/juggling multiple tasks - it is probably better to use people who don't get stressed by stuff like that in those sorts of environments.

People who stress over that stuff are probably more suited to plodding through backlog of maintenance items/working on legacy systems etc... where things are not very urgent and the work can mostly all be planned out/scheduled well in advance... since it is just a never ending list of mostly non-urgent items with the occasional "drop everything else and work on this please" request.

*You'll probably find that some people procrastinate when bored/doing things that are dull, don't have tight deadlines etc... but might thrive in an environment where they're often busy/under pressure.

Roar87 · 13 Dec 2017 at 10:34

It's a point of pride that I handed in every single assignment for my ICT course at college on the last day and passed. The teachers face after I had barely attended all year was priceless. I'm much better now as I actually take my job seriously and don't like having things hanging over me.