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Note that work does not trump anything.
If you google distracted at work, you might be surprised at what you find. While you hope your employees are committed to their jobs and focused on their tasks, one glance at this site will set you straight. Based on the number of websites and blogs devoted to passing time during your work day, it’s a fair guess that many workers choose to be distracted by email, iPhones, texting, messaging, coworkers, etc. On the other hand, many of your workers do want to concentrate on their work, only to find themselves held hostage by office noise or the target of the distracted coworker previously described.
Regardless of how many of each kind of worker you have, office distractions are a given. In fact, the average worker loses more than 2 hours every day to them. Don’t be alarmed- there are many courses of action you can take to prevent office noise from killing productivity.
According to Associated Content, here are few active steps you can take to minimize distractions:
- Know yourself and what distracts you
- Change your atmosphere if necessary (turn down music, for instance)
- Limit computer distractions to certain times of day or a certain number of times (such as checking your email 3 xs/day)
- Don’t take calls unless convenient for you; you can call back
- Shorten conversations with coworkers, and if that doesn’t work,
- Nicely confront distracting coworkers
Unfortunately, these steps are only effective for the self-motivated, and self-aware worker. If the worker does not care about the time frittered away to distraction, neither will he care to implement time-saving steps. In that case, it might be wise to install a sound masking system office-wide. These units are particularly helpful for open offices.
Whatever route you choose, know that you are working in the best interests of not only your workers, but also your company.