Employment opportunities these days are becoming harder with the economic issues we are facing. In Puerto Rico our current unemployment rate is 11.8 and if you are stateside it is 6.1%. In the newspaper Sacramento Business Journal, they reported "there are more than six million more job seekers than job openings nationwide - an average of 2.9 unemployed workers per available job...". Employers are monitoring productivity levels or lack thereof, in order to cut costs and cut employees who are not producing.

Companies begin to monitor your productivity as soon as you step in their offices. They want to make sure you understand their process, procedures, products, and services. They have offered you a good salary based on the skills you are going to bring to the team. Your new employer is not only paying for the value added you bring to the table, they are also paying for your productivity.

Productivity is important for all companies no matter what level of responsibility is giving to you. There are some experts who think that we should get evaluated and rewarded based on a results oriented work environment or what we produce. If we did this, supervisors would be able to base salary and bonuses on productivity and quality, not just showing up to work from nine-to-five. We have all had co-workers who walk around and don't do anything all day. This type of work environment would monitor the productivity level of all workers in the office and would make the "walkers" uncomfortable. You would eliminate the "tattlers" to supervisors or hiring managers.

I worked for a company that was constantly monitoring my productivity levels. My sales of their products affected my co-workers in my team, my group leader, my supervisor, and department manager. If I did not produce the sales numbers they wanted, I would not receive a bonus check come quarter end. This was a high pressure environment where, every minute that I was not taking a sales call, I was not producing dollars for myself or the team. My phone, internet usage, attire, and bathroom breaks were monitored. My conversations with customers were monitored to make sure I was selling our products on every call. I was giving statistical reports on my productivity and was warned about my below average sales when I had them. This type of productivity monitoring creates stress in employees and I ultimately quit.

Accountability and productivity is an important aspect of ones day. Work for a company that explains how they monitor productivity levels and the types of compensation you will be receiving. If you have problems with productivity, try these small tips to monitor yourself.

1. Organize your daily responsibilities by completion time. This will ensure that the small things will get done first. If a task will take more than ten minutes leave that for later in the day.
2. Get a buddy to help monitor your productivity. If a report is due and you are surfing the net for music, have a co-worker remind you that the report has to get done.
3. Organize your internet inbox or files by color of importance. Darker colors for urgent or more important projects; lighter colors for least important.
4. Check things off of a to-do list if you need to see how productive you have been throughout the day.
5. Get a white board, write things down, and erase as tasks dwindle down.

As I write this article on productivity, I was asked by my co-worker if it would be ready by tomorrow. I assured him that it would be in order to send it out to our group on Facebook and job seekers registered on our site. We are trying to send out CIMA information before the least productive day of the week; Friday.