Introduction
Meeting deadlines is an integral part of work life. However, failure to meet deadlines for projects by employees may result in mistrust between them and their employers, demotion, or loss of jobs.
Such aftermaths of deadlines cause stress on employees. This study presents the strategies that can be executed to alleviate deadline-associated stress and conflict in the workplace.
Strategies of meeting deadlines
To avoid the occurrence of intrapersonal and task-related conflict, employees can embark on the following strategies. First, Waller, Conte, Gibson, and Carpenter (2001) assert that employees can negotiate early with their bosses concerning unrealistic deadlines. This negotiation can be done when setting deadlines.
Employees should communicate openly with their supervisors on time allocation and availability of the required resources for a timely accomplishment of projects. According to Alper, Tjosvold, and Law (2000), employees should avoid negotiating for deadlines when they are due.
Secondly, employees should take all deadlines seriously to ensure personal accountability. Waller et al. (2001) further affirm that deadlines that are set for all tasks should be strictly planned for and adhered to. In most cases, employees are unable to meet deadlines for tasks that seem small or have a lot of time since they put them aside in the hope of accomplishing them in the future.
Procrastination of tasks should be avoided since it disrupts time management towards meeting deadlines. Alper et al. (2000) recommend that employees also need to be accountable for the tasks they set to accomplish and/or commit to deliver on time. Accountability ensures that workers plan for all the time they have according to the tasks that are ahead of them.
Personally responsible
They should be personally responsible for any perceived failure to achieve deadlines that are set for various tasks. Responsibility drives commitment towards accomplishing tasks on time. Thirdly, plans such as keeping a calendar on the desk and highlighting important deadlines help in avoiding deadline-related stress.
A calendar that indicates deadlines for various tasks should be displayed on a clearly visible point to remind the employee of the urgency of the task. This strategy enables the employee to prioritize tasks that are more urgent. Waller et al. (2001) assert that prioritizing ensures that tasks that are more urgent than others are accomplished first to avoid deadline stress.
The employee can also set alarm as a reminder of time lapse. In case they realize that they are embarking on a task at the expense of another urgent one, they can stop and work on it (the urgent task) to curb any deadline-linked stress. Fourth, Alper et al. (2000) confirm that employees should break the tasks into segments and set deadlines for each segment.
It is important for huge projects that take a long time to be subdivided into subtasks that are accorded different sub-deadlines. Setting sub-deadlines for subtasks enables the employee to accomplish the major project systematically in several smaller steps. Accomplishment of smaller tasks on time motivates the employees to focus on the next subtask, rather than complaining about the huge task (Alper et al., 2000).
Conclusion
Subtasks also ensure thoroughness of work since the employee is able to focus his or her attention on specific and detailed parts of the tasks. Conclusively, failure to meet tasks deadlines may result in conflicts between employees and employers.
Therefore, employees can adopt various strategies of meeting deadlines. Employees who negotiate for realistic deadlines take personal accountability for tasks, mark calendars for deadlines, and break huge tasks into sub-segments to avoid deadline-related stress.
Reference List
Alper, S., Tjosvold, D., & Law, S. (2000). Conflict management, efficacy, and performance in organizational teams. Personnel Psychology, 53(1), 625-642.
Waller, J., Conte, M., Gibson, B., Carpenter, A. (2001). The effects of individual perceptions of deadlines on team performance. Academy of management review, 26(4), 586-600.