Survey reveals surprising results for office distractions

Talkative co-workers are the most common distraction for office workers, according to a global poll of 600 candidates by Robert Walters.

Surprisingly, talkative co-workers received top honours clinching 48% of the vote as candidates vented their frustrations over yappy co-workers. Everybody's favourite punching bag - social networking sites - were barely mentioned with a tiny 8%.

MD of Robert Walters Australia, James Nicholson, believes that discussion amongst colleagues can be fruitful but it is when the discussion turns away from work that problems arise.

"Dialogue with colleagues can fuel productivity but a lot of the time professionals are engaging in conversations that are not relevant, productive or strengthening corporate relationships and networks," said Nicholson.

"This survey produced some interesting and surprising results. Many organisations presume that social networking sites and the misuse of internet and email are the most common distractions at work," he said.

These global results were largely mirrored in Australia, where 50% of professionals polled said talkative colleagues were the most time-consuming office distraction. Surprisingly, however, only 2.5% claimed social networking sites were the most distractive influence - one of the lowest results across the globe.

Attitudes did vary somewhat across the globe with 70% of office workers in New Zealand, 67% in Hong Kong and 62% in Ireland claiming talkative colleagues were the most time consuming distraction at work.

Professionals in South Africa had different concerns - 56% of respondents there claimed personal e-mail and internet usage was the biggest office distraction.

Global survey results:

1. Talkative colleagues - 48%
2. Personal e-mail and internet browsing - 34%
3. Social networking sites - 8%
4. \Smoking breaks - 6%
5. Personal calls and/or text messages -5%.

Australian survey results:

1. Talkative colleagues - 48%
2. Personal e-mail and internet browsing -38%
3. Smoking breaks -5%
4. Personal calls and/or text messages -4%
5. Social networking sites -2.5%.

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