Productivity gap solved? British businesses lose £250m through distracting office behaviours

We've all been there: a colleague talks loudly and you lose your train of thought. You go to make a cup of tea and find you're making a round for the entire bank of desks. Someone is typing really loudly and you sit and glare in their general direction. 

 

Well apparently all this is costing British businesses £250m a year., according to a report carried out by the University of Leeds for Samsung.

 

Apparently we are so easily distracted respondents said they only felt they had been productive for 3.6 days a week on average. That's a total of 70 days a year where they are not doing what they should be. 

 

Loud talkers are the main culprit when it comes to distractions – 57 per cent of people said this prevented them from working. Ringing phones put 39 per cent of people off, while unnecessary meetings affected 26 per cent of people. 

 

And, following the news earlier this week that we spend 36 days a year writing emails, the Ahead of the Curve report found that over a third of us – 38 per cent – check our emails every 15 minutes.