Management Buzz 12/03 Determining who's an employee and who's not; hiring vets might be your best bet

First ThingsFirst
Ken Gaebler, president of PR firm Walker Sands Communications inChicago, says he's a reformed multitasker. Trying to do two ormore things at once seems like good time-management, but it canactually torpedo productivity. "When you try to juggle twoballs, you're going to drop one of them," saysGaebler.

Business management experts agree. Ilyce Glink, author of theself-published book The Really Useful Guide to Working Smarter,Not Harder (www.thinkglink.com), cites research indicating thatpeople who try to do several tasks at once actually take longer todo them than if they just did one at a time. "When you'reinterrupted, it takes time to get back into the groove. If you addup the five or 10 minutes lost to transitional time throughout theday, it really adds up," says Glink.

The worst combination is several complex tasks. You'rebetter off keeping one document open on your computer andconcentrating on it until you've polished off a major chunk,advises Glink.

Juggling several seemingly low-brain-engagement taskssimultaneously can also result in gaffes. Responding to aclient's e-mail while chatting on the phone, says Glink, is aperfect setup for typos and other embarrassments.

Timed Out?
While regulations vary by state, most states require companies tocarry unused employee vacation time on their books as a liability,says Jon Van Cleve of management consulting firm Hewitt AssociatesLLC, in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In the past, most states allowedcompanies to enforce "use it or lose it" vacationpolicies so they could avoid letting unused time pile up. But somestates have recently changed these rules, says Van Cleve. InCalifornia, employers must now let employees carry over a certainpercentage of their vacation time into the new year.

To avoid letting that kind of liability pile up, consult withyour attorney to find out your state regulations regarding unusedemployee vacation time. If appropriate, consider setting a policythat limits rollover from one year to the next, perhaps to just aweek.

Worried about job security, more Americans are actually choosingto give up time off to stay at their desks. A survey released lastMay by online travel service Expedia.com found that on average,Americans expected to take 10 percent less vacation time this year.It's up to managers to make sure everyone knows it's a goodthing to take a vacation. Says Van Cleve, "It takes a veryexplicit expectation on the part of managers for employees toactually take the vacation that is part of their official benefitspackage."

Joanne Cleaver has written for a variety of publications,including the Chicago Tribune and ExecutiveFemale.