How Does Procrastination Impact Your Colleagues?

Are you someone who has a hard time getting things done on time? Do you find yourself constantly putting off work until the last minute, only to drown in a sea of stress as you race to complete it? If you are, you’re not alone. 

One in four Americans admits to being a procrastinator. 

This undesirable yet all too common habit can have a huge negative impact on one’s quality of life. It leads to wasted time, missed deadlines, and lost opportunities. Workplace procrastination, in particular, is estimated to cost US businesses a whopping $85 billion a year. It’s a huge loss any way you look at it!

In addition to its personal cost to you, it also impacts your colleagues and company culture.

How can procrastination affect work? Let’s take a closer look at how workplace procrastination affects your peers in the workplace.

1. Workplace Procrastination Creates Additional Stress for Others

When it comes to procrastination, it comes down to more than just, “How does procrastination affect your productivity?” because it affects others as well.

Most people work in teams or departments. If someone doesn’t do their job on time, it creates stress in the office. Your colleagues and managers who depend on your work may have to sacrifice carefully planned timelines and deadlines which they are now unable to meet. 

People who work with a procrastinator have to constantly wonder if they’ll get things done on time as a result. This adds unnecessary workplace stress since procrastination impacts others’ deliverables, performance, and reliability.

2. It Creates Additional Pressure and Work for Others

When an employee doesn’t do his or her job, others have to pick up the slack. In addition, by the time they need to do additional work they often have much more limited time to do it. It may also mean doing work that they weren’t hired for and can affect how quickly they deliver on the actual work they were assigned to do.

This creates an unhealthy work environment where there is greater pressure and work for the procrastinator’s colleagues. 

3. Affects Team Productivity

Procrastination affecting employees’ productivity is one of the greatest challenges in the modern workplace. When a team member spends time on tasks that were supposed to be done by another person, it limits everyone else’s ability to work efficiently and effectively together toward a bigger goal. 

This leads to slower-than-expected progress on projects and missed deadlines. In turn, dealing with procrastinating colleagues can cause frustration and resentment among coworkers who feel like they’re being held back by someone’s inability to get things done on time. 

4. Makes Your Team or Department Seem Unreliable

If procrastinators don’t deliver on their work, the entire project or a bigger task may be compromised. The work may be late or have quality issues. This can make your team or department seem unreliable so it affects not only procrastinating individuals but the performance of their colleagues and how they’re perceived. 

If this isn’t properly addressed by management, it can affect other employees’ chances for professional advancement, performance reviews, compensation, and benefits.

Conclusion

Procrastination may seem like a small and harmless habit but if it’s consistently done over time, it can seriously affect your colleagues as well. If you think that you’re a workplace procrastinator and need help, Virtue Map can help you get on the right track so you can start addressing it today.

Visit our website, take our brief quiz, and we’ll help you come up with an anti-procrastination plan that’s designed to fill you with energy, focus, and willpower.

You can also visit our blog section for more help and resources like these.