Wet weather blues and productivity

As this never-ending damp, soggy weather reminds us that winter is most certainly upon us how does it affect our productivity I wonder?

I hate winter – what’s there to like about it, other than providing us with a contrast to the lovely long balmy days of summer? I hate being cold, I hate wind, especially when it blows all manner of rubbish into my eyes and gets under my contact lenses, I hate the long nights and lack of light, the boring, bulky and drab clothes we are forced to wear in order to keep warm, and the inevitable weight gain because it’s too unpleasant to walk anywhere. And I really hate being exposed to all the nasty coughs and colds that surround me from every direction. But most of all I hate the fact that productivity seems to plummet over winter. And here’s why I feel like this…

Back in October I embarked on a building project at home – a three car garage and gym space was built in front of my house to provide much-needed car parking and recreational space. I live in the city so every extra inch of space is highly sought after. We lost three weeks to bad weather before Christmas and the three month project became a four month project as a result, so the revised completion date should have been mid February. However there seemed to be delay after delay for all sorts of reasons that I won’t go into here, but finally it was all but finished at Easter (end of March) with just the waterproofing to be completed.

The waterproofers seemed to be double-booked and we watched and waited as three more weeks of lovely autumn weather passed us by. The day they were finally going to get onto our job it started raining and it hasn’t let up since, with more than two weeks of nearly solid rain and there’s an inch of water permanently covering the floor of the garage. Every time the clouds part and a ray of sunshine appears my heart goes pitter patter and I think, yes, the job will be finished in my lifetime, but alas no, the waterproofers are nowhere to be seen.

Now while this is my problem and you’re probably wondering what the hell has this got to do with anything, situations like mine must be pretty common across New Zealand at this time of the year and it must have an impact on the economy and overall wealth of our country. When the weather is bad and people who work outside can’t do their jobs for whatever reason – whether it’s because of safety or dry conditions are needed – they still need to earn a living. Are they on contracts where they’re only paid for the work they do or are they paid regardless of whether they can do their job and their employer then builds in the down-time into a higher charge out rate? Whatever the situation someone still has to pay, don’t they? And it’s probably the end user.

This scenario is pretty back and white really – if you can’t work outside in the weather and there isn’t enough inside work to do you go home, either on pay or not, as the case may be. But there’s a more insidious problem concerning productivity during winter. The majority of people work inside all year round so in theory the weather shouldn’t adversely affect their performance, but I’m sure it does. Leaving for work in the dark, arriving home at the end of the day also in the dark and rarely seeing much daylight, far less any sunshine in between has a very negative effect on most people. Research has shown that many people actually develop a type of depression from the lack of sunshine which must surely inhibit their well-being and attitude to life, not to mention how they feel about their job.

On top of that, health deteriorates through all the cold and flu germs that flourish in centrally heated offices, schools, buses and trains so absenteeism rockets and someone has to pay for that. Our weekends are spent trying to get our laundry dry without resorting to the daylight robbery inflicted by power companies when we use our clothes driers, and due to the very short hours of daylight we tend to feel robbed of much fun during the winter weekends. We also spend longer time in our beds trying to keep warm, but maybe that’s not all bad? When we go out in winter it tends to be to warm shopping malls or cafes or the movies where we end up parting with money we often hadn’t planned to spend. Even our healthy eating choices take a beating as we switch from salads to casseroles (or worse).

I wonder if governments or economists undertake research into the affect winter has on the economy. We know they do when there’s a natural disaster such as a flood or landslide (or a volcano with a really tricky name erupting in Iceland) and insurance companies also share the pain, but when it’s a time of ‘business as usual’ how much do we compensate for the negative effects of winter on our work forces? The attitudes of staff dealing with sales, customer service or providing support in an organisation can make a huge difference to the success of the venture; the rework rates or other mistakes, or even poor decision making can equally be attributed to less than happy employees, and then there’s the issue of the lack of energy or a diminished sense of urgency to get things done that seems to be stronger when the beach or barbeque beckons during summer months.

So how does winter affect your workplace productivity, if at all? Maybe I’m just suffering from a lack of vitamin D (found in sunlight) and that’s why I feel as I do. Bah humbug. Roll on summer!