Work Place Distractions Affect Labor Efficiency and Productivity: Study

Frequent interruptions and disturbances impact work productivity of employees, finds a study.

Regular meetings, phone calls, messages, conversations in the hallway, running errands and replying for important e-mails are part of everyday work life. Managing daily professional duties along with work-related disturbances can be a cumbersome and stressful task. Past clinical trials suggest an average employee is disturbed a minimum of six times each hour at his work. Researchers at the George Mason University found that repeated interruptions negatively affect work quality and efficiency of the workforce.

Their study tested two group participants who were assigned a writing task within a certain amount of time. One set of subjects were constantly interrupted and told to perform other tasks that was not relevant to their writing exercise while, the rest peacefully wrote their essay.

It was observed that the uninterrupted group fared better than individuals who were disturbed multiple times as they wrote the essay. Their quality of writing and number of words used were poor compared to that of individuals from the control group.

Sound, noise and other form of disturbances can rob attention, time and energy of the workers. These people face difficulty in finishing work early, meeting deadlines and avoiding mistakes or oversights that can translate to huge professional losses.

"People don't realize how disruptive interruptions can be. Interruption can cause a noticeable decrement in the quality of work, so it's important to take steps to reduce the number of external interruptions we encounter daily," said Cyrus Foroughi, co-author and researcher at the George Mason University, reports the Red Orbit News.

The authors advise employees to limit work place distractions by switching off cell phones and disabling notifications for mails and updates. Many hospitals, laboratories and air-line businesses have 'no interruption zones' to avoid having minor glitches in work process that can be costly for both the organization and the employee. The Mind.Tools.com, a career-skills website recommends every employee to maintain an interrupters' Log Work Sheet to eliminate interferences and save extra time.
More information is available online in the journal Human Factors.