What are the Most Common Distractions at Work?

Whilst we all head to the office every day in order to work, it’s all too easy to become distracted in the digital age. This creates a significant issue for business-owners, who are known to lose considerable sums of cash in instances where productivity levels drop over a sustained period of time.

According to TNT Direct, just 57% of employees across the globe agree that their workplaces enable them to work productively, and this has much to do with the distractions that are prevalent in modern offices in 2019.

In this post, we’ll appraise the most common distractions in the workplace, whilst asking why they have such a significant impact on employees.

1. Office Noise

According to a study conducted by the University of Sydney, it’s estimated that up to 25% of workers in open-plan and partitionless offices are unhappy with the noise levels in their offices.

The biggest issue here is chatter between colleagues, as whilst this type of interaction helps the day to go quicker it can also create a distracting level of noise that impairs concentration and mental focus.

This represents a difficult balance for employers to get right, as whilst many may want to create an engaging and collaborative working environment, it’s important not to distract employees or their focus on a daily basis.

1. The Use of Smartphones

Unless you work in a particularly harsh or stringent office (or a call centre), the chances are that you’ll have access to your mobile phone throughout the working day.

This creates a huge potential distraction in the workplace, however, particularly with the average person thought to check their smartphone or mobile device up to 47 times each day.

This means that some employees may be checking their phone up to six times and hour whilst at work, creating a scenario where individuals are largely unproductive and regularly have their flow of work interrupted.

This is why some firms have embraced the principles of BYOD, enabling employees to work on their on their own laptops and smartphones whilst eliminating the need to switch between alternative devices.

1. Social Media

Finally, we come to social media, which has become an incredible distraction over the course of the last decade or more.

Make no mistake; sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest consume an increasing amount of our attention every single year, whilst brands and their employees also tend to be active on their social media accounts.

This creates a clear challenge; as employees may blur the lines between personal and professional account use and become distracted by the lure of social media.

Whilst employers can look to introduce some boundaries here, this may prove difficult. With this in mind, it’s preferable to monitor social media activity across employee devices to see if there’s a clearly defined issue.

Photo credits: eOffice