In the age of documented phone addiction, digital distractions in the workplace are endless. From social media to countless emails, the opportunities to be sidetracked from work keep on coming. However, with the rise of remote work and business trips, companies have since implemented messenger chats and workplace facing apps to keep communication in the workplace consistent; however, are these new workplace technologies helping or hindering productivity?
When it comes to productivity, 1 in 3 full time employees claim to be distracted by their company’s chat messenger during the workday and 15% of employees said they experienced conversations that involved device or app distractions all too often.
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Is company tech increasing gossip?
A new study by It’s Worth More dove deeper into tech usage in the workplace and found out whether full-time employees use tech, such as Slack, to streamline their work or rather to “slack off.” Workplace technology is widespread — with 78% of respondents admitting to utilize company chat messengers in the workplace and more than half of those people claimed this tech has helped their relationships with both their coworkers and boss.
However, this technology is not all work and no play. Although digital communication has proven productive in the workplace, many employees still admit to using these communication channels for personal reasons. In fact, 27% of executives admit to complaining about their coworkers via these tools. Even with the majority of respondents claim to stay focussed on work tasks over these messengers, nearly 1 in 4 respondents admit to complaining about work.
Combatting digital distraction
It’s important that companies find a balance in their tech utilization in order to streamline productivity in the most beneficial way possible and with the least distractions. So how can employees combat this digital distraction? Here are a few ways that employees combat work distraction:
Although 39% mute notifications to combat workplace distraction, 4% of employees take it upon themselves to block certain sites that could cause a potential distraction. Over 21% set their status to “away” and close to another 21% closed their messenger app altogether to focus on their work.
Technology has changed the way we do business and is even impacting the way we build relationships at work. The survey revealed that senior- and executive-level respondents found it easier to use their company’s online chat to communicate with co-workers than the potentially younger entry-level employees. In fact, 18% of executives actually list chat messengers as their preferred method to talk to their boss or manager. No matter the prevalence of digital communication in the workplace, more than half of employees, in all different position levels, agree that face to face is the preferred communication method.
