Communications Both Helps, Hinders "Work"

Dealing with on-the-job distractions is a constant part of every marketing professional's day, according to a new survey by The Creative Group.

Ad and marketing executives surveyed say the longest they can work on a task without being interrupted is 30 minutes, on average, according to the study. 


As you might guess, it also takes some time to get back to whatever task it was that any respondent was working on, before the interruption.
The most common culprits of on-the-job distractions are people stopping by to chat and phone calls, cited by 27 percent and 26 percent of ad and marketing execs, respectively.

Such distractions, one might argue, are the downside of “always connected”  communications. In a sense, one value “presence” features offer is the saving of time wasted trying to find and communicate with people. The flip side of all our enhanced communications, though, is the risk of even more interruptions, from more channels, than ever before.

That is probably why many professionals who work away from the office say they get more actual work done. Approximately 69 percent of the employees surveyed by Cisco cited higher  productivity when working remote, and 75 percent of those surveyed said the timeliness of their work improved.

Of course, communications are essential for those telecommuting workers, just as it would be for at the office workers. But communications can aid or hinder “work,” it can be argued.