Managing a Procrastinator

In the Managing the Procrastinating Employee article in the May/June 2000 issue of Manage it helps Managers who are the primary audience to cope with employees who procrastinate. A Manager is otherwise know as a technician since this is something that he or she has to deal with on a daily basis. When going into the article further you find that there is a secondary audience, this is the general reader. The general reader could read this article and determine if in fact he or she really is a procrastinator just by reading the symptoms such as always handing work in late and always making excuses.

There are several possible purpose statements for this article:

1. How to deal with an employee that procrastinates.

2. How to tell if you are a procrastinator.

3. Reasons why people are procrastinators.

I feel the best one is Reasons why people are procrastinators and how to deal with them. The symptoms of a procrastinator are: overwhelming tasks, underwhelming tasks, over or under managed, profectionism, fear of failure or success, "crisis' junkies, overcommitters, impulsive, multiple deadlines, Separate self from task, and a focus on future rewards. This article has three main constraints format, tone, and time. Managing the Procrastinating Employee addresses particular readers, uses design to increase readability, and involves words and graphics.

Denise Osburn has produced an effective argument by backing everything up with examples such as failure to succeed because people are afraid to take a chance on possible failure. The language in this article is written with a technician in mind however the author combined that with every day language. Denise Osburn uses list as a way to effectively get the point across to the reader.

This article uses an effective page design by keeping it organized. It has bolded heading throughout and has a graphic of a bell symbolizing time limits that people have to deal with on a day to day basis.