Overly talkative colleagues have taken over from cigarette breaks as the biggest enemy of workplace productivity – and New Zealanders are among the worst culprits.
The latest Robert Walters global survey shows the distraction caused by smoking (seven percent) pales in comparison to surfing the internet (28 percent) personal emails (22 percent) and the number one disruption, talkative colleagues (39 percent).
Personal calls were found to be the least common work distraction (four percent).
Regional trends uncovered included:
•Luxembourg and Belgium workers are most disrupted by office chatter, with more than 60 percent of their local vote going to talkative colleagues. New Zealand came in at 50 percent.
•UK workers are the worst culprits for time-wasting with personal emails at 36 percent.
The survey was completed by 1036 respondents from 15 countries.
Q: What is your most time consuming distraction at work? Globally
a. Personal email 22%
b. Internet surfing 28%
c. Smoking breaks 7%
d. Talkative colleagues 39%
e. Personal calls 4%
