Employees need to maintain high productivity levels to produce good results at work. This is because an increased productivity allows them to achieve their set goals and also aids their career growth and development.

However, there are certain personal habits that are capable of inhibiting employees’ productivity level. These habits are destructive by nature, and organizations have to help their employees to overcome them once they start seeing traces of such habits.

In case you’re wondering, the following personal habits are known to have negative effects on workplace productivity of employees.

Gambling

Gambling might bring about momentary fun, but the consequences are always dire. Once gambling becomes a habit it becomes very difficult to withdraw and gain control. That’s when their personal finances start going on a downward spiral. And they’re constantly struggling to stay focused on their jobs.

Compulsive gamblers deny having gambling addictions, and this makes it difficult for them to seek or get help. In addition, they could go as far as stealing to have money to continue gambling, and even tell lies to cover up their gambling habit.

Substance addiction

Like gambling, substance addiction also has a negative impact on productivity. Apart from the health implications substance addiction has, it makes it difficult for victims to have a career focus or maintain a decent livelihood.

Addicts cannot keep a decent job for long.  They either do something stupid things to warrant their sack or keep posting poor performances as a result of seriously low level of productivity. They spend the most useful part of their time on self-gratification, till they eventually miss out on their career goals.

Keeping late nights

There’s no doubt that our lifestyle choices affect our level of productivity. A typical example is the habit of sleeping late at night. According to Thomas Balkin, PhD, director of behavioural biology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, if you regularly get less than 7 hours of sleep, you're not at your best. In other words, the less sleep you get, the worse you do.

Because your brain is not functioning optimally, you find it difficult to concentrate on pressing tasks, you respond slowly to urgent assignments, your decision making ability is slowed down, and your memory and level of retention get weakened.

The role of employers

As stated earlier, employers have great roles to play towards ensuring that employees are productive at work. This doesn’t stop at providing the requisite tools which simplifies the work and ensures quick job delivery. They need to also ensure that employees are always in a good state of physical and mental health.

Employers should watch out for the symptoms of these harmful habits. For example, employees that come late to work, and doze off frequently during peak periods of the day are most likely not getting enough sleep. Here, a little sensitization and monitoring might be helpful to put them back on track.

Again, employees that are always complaining about money and who are always applying for loans or borrowing from colleagues might be having gambling or substance addiction problems. Pay attention to this and other symptoms such as lying, unusual smells on breath, body, or clothing, as well as slurred speech, or impaired coordination.

Doing these will really help employees check their retrogressive habits, and consequently boost their workplace productivity.