Idle Time And Calculation

The perfect definition of idle time is when the people around you are capable of performing tasks, but they aren’t performing them. You can also say that idle time is that period when your employees are getting paid but are not involved in any kind of productive work. This indirectly means the company is at a loss because employees still receive payments, but they are doing no work. This time they spend loitering around, doing nothing is known as idle time. So, idle time is the period you spend doing absolutely nothing. You can think of idleness as the opposite of being productive. 

You can understand idle time with an example. Suppose you own a machine, but it is kept there and is not being used by you. When the device is not used in any productive work is known as idle time.

Causes of idle time

There can be many different reasons behind the existence of idle time, due to which the work seems to be temporarily halted. However, the causes of idle time are out of the control of an employee and may or may not be controlled by the management. Some of the reasons include

Waiting for a task to be assigned

The foremost reason for idle time is that the employee has not been assigned any task by the company and is waiting for the same. Everyone needs to realise that time now is very important. 

Or there may be a critical report that the employee may need from the other department for progression of their task, but they haven’t received any inputs. 

Temporary stoppage of work

This can occur when the company’s inventory is complete, and there cannot be any future additions. In such a case, work needs to be temporarily halted to arrange a new inventory.

Scheduled day breaks

Idle time can also occur during the period when a machine has been put to rest during a particular part of the day, and hence, you cannot proceed further with your work.

Although Idle time means the time when the employees are not performing any task, that does not necessarily mean that they are being detrimental to the company’s growth.

Calculation of idle time

The calculation of idle time is an easy task once you have collected all the required data. You just have to subtract the actual production time from the total production time. What remains is idle time. Understand this with an example. If the scheduled working time for an employee was 9 hours, but he worked productively for 8 hours, then the remaining 1 hour is counted in the idle time. Est time now is calculated to check the productivity of an employee. 

Production and application time vary according to your job profile and your company, but it is imperative to note that idle time cannot be avoided. Starting machinery, sitting back to work, analysing, and assigning tasks does take some time, and hence we can aim to reduce idle time, but it cannot be omitted entirely. 

This can be understood by taking the example of a car. Suppose you have to reach your destination within the stipulated time of 2 hours. It will not always take you precisely two hours to reach the final goal. Some days it will take 2 and a half hours while on others, it may take you less than 2 hours to reach the final destination. Hence, you can never work according to an exact time specification. You can take an idea, but it will always vary depending on the existing circumstances.

Conclusion

Idle time is the duration of time when the employee is not performing any productive task. There may be non-availability of work from the company’s end, or the employee may intentionally avoid work. Efforts should be made to avoid idle time and ensure that every employee performs to the best of their ability. Employees may receive payout during their idle time as per the rules, and hence, it may at times be detrimental to the company’s growt