The Concierge and Jury Duty

This tip is inspired by my jury selection process.

As I sat in the juror lounge with about 75 other people I started to notice things. I noticed that as the day progressed more and more people started to get anxious about the time they were loosing.

Is this really a loss of time?

Sure you are not at the office or in your vehicle, but time away from the pressures of everyday work loads can be a good thing.

Taken from a recent Toronto Life article - "Not Safe for Work: Your boss is reading your e-mail, spying on the sites you visit and recoding your keystrokes. The biggest time wasters used to be punished, but the newest management philosophy says they should be rewarded. Why cyber-slacking makes you the company's most valuable employee."

Employees are really not "wasting" time with non-work-related activities such as FaceBook, Twitter, FourSquares, etc. Some companies say it is a waste of time and other companies have proven that it makes their employees more productive.

"A 2009 Australian study of 300 workers found that those who waste time on the Internet for pleasure get more done than those who don't. As long as the Web-surfing breaks took up less than 20% of a worker's time, they resulted, on average, in a 9% spike in productivity. Brent Cocker, a professor of management and marketing at the University of Melbourne, concluded that short visits to fun Web sites or quick check-ins with friends could help reset a worker's focus and steel him or her from onerous tasks." - Toronto Life "March 2011 edition - Pg. 53"

So why can't a day or two off of work, sitting in a jury lounge, make you more productive?

I bet it will make you appreciate getting back to the office and your normal routine!

Now, for the tasks that couldn't be managed while you were sitting there ... Do you ever think that the juridical system would provide a concierge for every selected juror? ... SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!