Research Summary: Whether it’s hearing the sound of a notification on your cell phone or thinking about that new video game you picked up last night, it can be difficult to stay focused during a boring or stressful work day. Distractions are everywhere, and they affect the majority of American workers.
To find out more, we’ve gathered the essential facts about workplace distractions in the US. According to our extensive research:
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79% of employees report being distracted at work.
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It takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to regain focus after a distraction at work.
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US businesses lose an estimated $650 billion total to distractions annually.
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There are an average of 60 distractions per 8-hour workday.
For further analysis, we broke down the data in the following ways:
Top Distractions | Frequency | Cost
Top Distractions in the Workplace
There are many reasons why someone might be distracted in the workplace, but some causes are more troublesome than others. Here are some insightful statistics about the top workplace distractions:
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80% of people are distracted by talkative coworkers.
Chatty co-workers are the top workplace distraction, with the vast majority of employees struggling with their chatty office neighbors.
Workplace distraction Share of employees affected Talkative coworkers 80% Workplace noise 70% Overwhelmed by new changes 61% Meetings 60% Social media 56% -
50% of workers are distracted by their phones at work.
Employees spend an average of 56 minutes doing non-work related activities on their cell phones, with up to two hours of potential work being wasted per day due to cell phones.
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70% of employees cite workplace noise as a distraction.
Employees affected by excessive workplace noise are more likely to be resentful, frustrated, and dissatisfied with their employers. In turn, this can lead to reduced productivity and higher turnover rates.
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The most common remote work distraction is social media, with 61.6% of people being affected.
Remote work comes with a whole manner of new distractions, the most common of which include smartphones (53.7%), binge-watching (42.1%), children (33.8%), and gaming (30.4%).
Workplace distraction Share of remote workers affected Social media 61.6% Smartphones 53.7% Binge watching 42.1% Children 33.8% Gaming 30.4% News media 24.3% Pets 18.1% Online shopping 16.0% Partner 12.3%
Frequency of Workplace Distractions
Workplace distractions have a devastating effect on productivity, and the frequency of the distractions plays a huge part in this. To find out more about how often workplace distractions occur, we’ve gathered some telling statistics:
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98% of workers experience at least three to four interruptions per day.
Believe it or not, the average employee experiences 60 distractions a day. Even if each interruption only wasted a minute of work time, that would still result in over an hour of productivity lost each day.
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36% of Millennials and Gen Z spend 2+ hours per work day distracted by their phones.
Younger generations struggle more with their phone as a workplace distraction. For example, Millennials check their phones 3x more often than Baby Boomers (at least 50 times per day.)
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American workers take an average of 2.7 hours of breaks at work each day.
The majority of this time goes to distractions and not lunch breaks, as only 3% of Americans take lunch breaks that are longer than 1 hour.
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66% of employees never talk to their manager about workplace distractions.
Unfortunately, the majority of employees report feeling “uncomfortable” with the idea of reporting distraction-related issues to their manager.
The Cost of Workplace Distractions
Workplace distractions reduce productivity and cause a whole slew of other problems as well, with the ultimate result being a loss of profit for businesses. To find out more about this side of workplace distractions, here are some interesting trends:
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Distractions cause 2X times more errors than usual.
As an example, consider the fact that 14% of respondents report workplace accidents being caused by mobile devices. Not only can these incidents harm productivity and profits, but they can also result in serious or fatal injuries on the job.
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Companies lose an average of 720 work hours annually to distractions per employee.
That’s at least 60 hours per month, or more than one whole workweek, being lost to distractions.
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34% of employees like their job less when they’re distracted.
A lack of distraction is crucial for employee success and satisfaction, as 75% of non-distracted employees are more productive, 57% have increased motivation, and 49% are happier.
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54% of distracted employees say they aren’t performing as well as they should.
This is then followed by 50% of employees who say they’re significantly less productive ad 20% of employees who say they’re not able to reach their full potential or advance their careers.
Impact of workplace distraction Share of employees Isn’t performing as well as they should 54% Say they’re significantly less productive 50% Unable to reach full potential or advance career 20% -
Businesses lose an average of $4,500 annually per employee to social media distractions.
Social media is the biggest issue for employees checking their smartphones at work, and it’s a problem for remote workers and in-office employees.
Workplace Distractions FAQ
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What percentage of workers are distracted at work?
79% of workers are distracted at work. But that’s also just self-reporting, as nearly all workers experience some distractions in the workplace. For instance, 98% of all workers experience at least three to four interruptions per day, with the average number of total distractions being at least 60.
With numbers like those, it’s hard not to imagine almost all American workers being distracted in the workplace, at least sometimes.
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How much do distractions affect productivity?
Distractions cost businesses an average of 60 hours per month in lost productivity. This equates to at least 720 hours per year and means that distraction costs businesses over a week’s worth of work each month.
Generally speaking, distracted employees are less productive because they like their jobs less, are less motivated, less happy, and feel as though they aren’t advancing their careers.
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How many hours per workday are lost due to distractions?
An average of 2.5 to 3 hours are lost per day due to distractions. Considering the fact that only 3% of Americans take lunch breaks that are longer than an hour, the vast majority are losing time to other things.
Most often, talkative coworkers, smartphones, and noise cause employees to lose hours in their workday, but there are many other causes as well.
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How long does it take to recover from a distraction at work?
It takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to recover from a distraction at work. And, given that 98% of Americans experience at least three to four per day, that means that, at minimum, workers are losing over an hour to just regaining focus from distractions.
Conclusion
Distractions are an ever-growing issue for US workers, as 79% now report feeling distracted in the workplace. A further 98% experience at least three to four interruptions per day. These facts are having a huge impact on businesses and workers alike.
Businesses are losing hundreds of billions of dollars in profits to distractions each year, as well as hundreds of hours worth of productivity. On the worker’s side of things, many feel as though they’re less motivated, less productive, more unhappy, and unable to advance their careers.
While distraction in the workplace isn’t an easy issue to combat, there are steps employers and workers can take to improve the situation. Removing smartphones from the workplace can reduce social media use and other distractions while encouraging a quiet workplace culture that can improve in-office noise and chattiness.
Overall though, the best thing workers can do is acknowledge the problem and work toward reducing negative behaviors.
References
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Business News Daily – Distracted Workers Are Costing You Money
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The Guardian – The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world
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New York Post – Millennials waste five hours a day doing this one thing
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Small Business Trends – American Workers Take 2.7 Hours of Breaks Daily – What are They Doing?
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Business News Daily – How Much Time Are Your Employees Wasting on Their Phones?
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Spiceworks – The 21st Century Workforce: Driving Productivity in an Era of Distractions
- Statistics
- Employee Retention Statistics
- Happy Employees Are More Productive
- Workplace Distraction Statistics
- Average Freelancer Rates
- Average Working Hours
- Offboarding Statistics
- Employee Productivity Statistics
- Workplace Microagression Statistics
- Employee Monitoring Statistics
- Employee Training And Development Statistics
- Lead Generation Statistics
Author
Jack Flynn
Jack Flynn is a writer for Zippia. In his professional career he’s written over 100 research papers, articles and blog posts. Some of his most popular published works include his writing about economic terms and research into job classifications. Jack received his BS from Hampshire College.
