Truth 39. Watch Out for Digital Distractions
Today’s workplace is full of digital distractions. As one executive recently put it, “No one has time to do any work. They’re all too busy texting, instant messaging, e-mailing, or on their iPad’s updating their Facebook page, watching YouTube videos, shopping online, playing Angry Birds, or engaged in some other crazy time-waster.”
To quote an old comic strip, “we have met the enemy and he is us.” We’ve become addicted to technology but not necessarily in ways that enhance work performance. What was originally created to either improve work communication or meant to be used outside the workplace has now turned into a management nightmare. As one manager put it, “How do you get people to get any work done when they have to check their iPhones every 10 minutes?”
We’ve become addicted to technology but not necessarily in ways that enhance work performance.
Work interruptions have been defined as “incidents or occurrences that impede or delay organizational members as they attempt to make progress on their work tasks.” This definition is broad and includes phone calls, text messages, unexpected meetings, and coworker conversations. But our concern is with digital work interruptions. Employees and managers, alike, have always had to contend with interruptions at work. Now, however, as computers, smart phones, iPads, and the Internet have become part of many jobs, and an essential element of most people’s lives, digital interruptions have become an increasing threat to worker productivity.
Is there a positive benefit to digital interruptions at work? Surprisingly, several experts think so. Especially as related to knowledge workers, positive benefits might include providing mental breaks that allow employees to return to tasks more alert, restoring mental capacity, and fostering feelings of autonomy. However, most of the evidence suggests that the negatives trump the benefits. For instance, one study found 53 percent of employees waste at least one hour a day due to all types of distractions, and 45 percent work only 15 minutes or less without getting interrupted. Another put the cost of collaboration and social tools at $10,375 per year annually in wasted productivity, based on an average wage of $30 an hour. Still another study calculates that $650 billion is lost in the United States each year due to unnecessary interruptions. And that number is increasing by about 5 percent a year. While much of these costs are due to meetings, phone calls, and other nondigital interruptions, a good portion is directly due to technology. One recent study, in fact, attributed nearly 60 percent of work interruptions to digital distractions such as e-mail, personal online activities, IM, text messaging, and Web searching.
It can help to better understand digital interruptions by looking at research on addiction. Human beings seem to have a propensity to become addicted. One group of researchers asserts that as many as 47 percent of the U.S. adult population suffers from maladaptive signs of an addictive disorder over any 12-month period. That, of course, includes everything from tobacco to pornography. But what about Internet addiction? The evidence indicates that Internet addiction generally attacks about the same proportion of the population as gambling or alcohol addiction. About 10 percent of Internet users have some form of dependency on the technology.
About 10 percent of Internet users have some form of dependency on the technology.
The preceding suggests that while only a minority of employees might suffer from Internet addiction, it’s not irrelevant. And just as an open bottle of wine can be a powerful distraction to an alcoholic, easy Internet access or a Blackberry sitting on a desk can be an enticing distraction for many employees.
Is there anything management can do to discourage digital interruptions in the workplace? A few solutions have been offered, but all face the increasing realization that human beings are easily distracted and that technologies like the Internet, e-mail, and smart phones have strong addictive properties.
Given the preceding caveat, here are a few suggestions. Managers should consider instituting specific policies that clarify the extent that computers, smart phones, iPads, and the like can be used during work hours for personal activities. This is often part of a program that includes training so employees understand how digital interruptions can undermine work productivity. For instance, it has been found that the optimal number for checking e-mails is four times a day. Employees often don’t realize that there is little to be gained by checking it more often. Other suggestions include tracking online usage patterns of employees or, in cases where abuse is extensive, blocking access to social networks and nonbusiness websites on the organization’s computers.