Workplace Interruptions and Employee Productivity

The workplace interruptions are a major concern today with employees struggling to get off with these interruptions and organizations trying to improve the workplace scenario. Employees are interrupted in a number of ways and this has particularly been observed in the information technology sector. The study of various IT organizations have revealed that workers either get interrupted by other employees, or due to the fault in systems or the interruptions have been created by themselves. An employee may get interrupted by his boss due to the errors committed on the task at hand but the study confines the interruptions to the unrelated issues which have no connection to the tasks at hand.

Such kind of interruptions at workplace and that too often is bound to affect the productivity and hence loss of morale. The supervisors or managers are concerned about the employee’s performance and are least bothered about how an employee manages with the workplace interruptions which may appear in different forms. There are certain sectors where high level of concentration is required and hence any interruption will definitely hamper the career of the employees who work in these sectors.

The field of Research and Development, information technology and IT support sectors suffer because of recurring workplace disruptions. The thought processes and ability of problem-solving gets delayed due to frequent interruptions.

The disruptions at work are caused due to the self when an employee gets distracted by minute disturbances like popping of emails after every frequent intervals or he himself indulges in gossip with his associates or colleagues in his office. A mobile occasionally rings up and a person gets away from work. But, talking on cellphone and checking of emails is mandatory and can not be avoided. And as a result, a substitute method has come up and has been found to be useful in reducing the workplace interruptions.

And this method is instant messaging system. This is because a brief conversation takes place in the mute form on the cellphone when there is instant messaging. How effectively employees utilize the technology is important as it will eliminate all the unnecessary disruptions caused due to the technology. No doubt, gadgets today have evoked lot of interruptions rendering the employees less productive and costing the company worth millions of bucks.

There must be certain strategies to evade constant interruptions at work and following are some of them:

Use the technology to your advantage. Take calls only when necessary and when time permits.

You can put your phone on voice mail mode so that you can hear to the messages later on. You can also put your mobile on silent mode and make urgent calls later. Alternatively, respond through the IM (Instant Messaging) and tell others to interact with you through the same.

Arrive early at work and go through your mails swiftly and once you start your work, do check your mails only after finishing off your work. Contrary to this, some people feel pleasure to check mails in between their work as t relieves their stress due to the workload.

Avoid unnecessary gossips with your friends or colleagues when performing any task.

Avoid lengthy discussions explaining to your subordinates regarding their performance on the job. Make the discussion short and crisp.

Prioritize your tasks so that you finish up tasks one by one in the order of priority.

If possible, try to delegate some of your responsibilities on whom you trust the most.

Helping your colleagues and associates is good but do it only when you have free time. Give priority to your jobs first. In essence, scheduling will hep enormously.

Impart training to other employees to have self-control and exercise some restraint.

Pen down your tasks so that there is no discrepancy in following the routine.

Be open in your communication and let others know that you are adamant in accomplishing your tasks.

Above all, remember that completing you tasks require an organized work schedule and the more you are organized, more you will be successful.