Spending Too Much Time on Personal Devices Lead to Distractions in Office - Research Paper Example

?[Your full full October 09, Spending Too Much Time on Personal Devices Lead to Distractions inOffice Summary Personal devices, such as, mobile phones, laptops, and iPads have become some of the main essentials for almost every professional. However, an excessive use of these devices in offices leads to distractions because these devices divert the attention of people away from their official responsibilities. It has become the need of today to implement such measures which can create limit the use of personal devices in offices in order to improve the efficiency of employees at work. This paper includes a discussion on some of the ways these devices and social networking websites lead to distractions in offices. The paper also includes a discussion on the ways the use of these devices and social networks can be limited in offices. Introduction In today's faced paced world, the use of technology has become a need for every individual from any field of life. Students, businesspersons, and employees all make use of different types of technologies to carry out their personal and professional activities. However, sometimes use of these technologies at places where they should not be used leads to problems. For example, use of mobile phones and other personal devices at work lead to distractions in offices when people use these devices for personal matters instead of focusing on work and assigned job responsibilities. It has become a critical need for managers and employers to develop and implement such policies at workplaces, which should be able to bring down the use of personal devices at offices. Let us discuss some of the ways personal devices and social networks used by colleagues lead to distractions in offices. Impact of Personal Devices The impact of the use of personal devices, such as, mobile phones, laptops, and disc players in offices is never positive on the efficiency level of employees. The reason is that the use of such devices at workplaces deviate the attention and focus of colleagues away from their job responsibilities, which not only results in decreasing their efficiency level but also shifts down the company’s level of productivity. Companies are at risk of losing millions of dollars each year through decreased level of employee productivity caused by digital distractions (Anderson 1). Some colleagues make personal calls while sitting in their offices because of which they cannot perform their required official tasks within time. For example, if a customer representative officer starts making a long personal call while sitting in office, he/she will not be in the position to focus properly towards the incoming official calls in that time. The result in such cases is late delivery of work to managers or customers. Similarly, some colleagues use laptops in offices for purposes other than the official ones. The result is again delayed completion of assigned tasks. Moreover, some colleagues like to hear songs at workplace using headphones. This also results in distracting their attention away from work. The use of personal devices at work can also lead to severe accidents at the workplace. A number of cases have occurred in the last few years where a minor distraction from official task because of cell phone or other personal devices have resulted in severe workplace accidents. For example, an incident occurred in California in 2007 where an employee responsible for operating the sugarcane-chopping machine in a mill cut his left hand because he put his hand within the choppers unintentionally being busy in a personal call while operating the machine. This is just a single case out of many where little distractions have caused major injuries to employees. Such cases speak strongly in favor of putting a complete ban on the use of personal devices at the workplace. Impact of Social Networks The impact of using social networking websites, such as, Facebook or Twitter in offices is also not positive on the efficiency and attention of employees. The reason here again is the same as was in the case of using personal devices. The mind of a person is such that if it shifts its focus from one thing to another, it cannot shift it back immediately towards the first task. The shifting of focus from one task to another needs time and that time is usually very critical in managing job responsibilities. When employees are busy in reading and sending comments to their relatives and friends on social websites, they do not remain able to give required level of attention to officially assigned tasks because of focus shift from official to personal tasks. Therefore, employees should avoid using social networking websites in offices in order to reach the highest level of job productivity and efficiency. Conclusion Use of personal devices at work is harmful for the productivity and efficiency of both employees and the company. Official tasks always need top priority in order to be done at the highest level of quality. Minor distractions in such tasks can lead to severe mistakes. Therefore, it is the job of the managers and higher-level officials to design and implement an effective policy for limiting the use of personal devices and social networking websites in offices. Recommendations 1. Limit the Use of Personal Devices and Social Networking Websites The first recommendation for the companies is to limit the use of personal devices, such as, cell phones and laptops in offices. The companies should make a proper plan to limit the use of such devices. For example, some free time within the official working hours should be given to employees so that they can make personal calls or use their laptops for personal matters within that time. For the time other than that, if an employee is caught using these devices for personal matters, heavy fines should be imposed, as well as expelling as the last resort. Who Will Implement the Policy? Managers and higher officials of the comapnies are the people who can implement this policy at the workplace. 2. Apply Negative Reinforcement The second recommendation is to apply negative reinforcement to make employees stay away from using personal devices at the workplaces. Negative reinforcement means removing negative aspects to strengthen a positive behavior (Cherry 1). When employees will know that they can be punished upon using those devices, they will think twice before using them. Who Will Implement the Policy? Managers of the companies are the people who can implement this policy at the workplace. Works Cited Anderson, John. “Texting at Work and Social Media Distractions Costing Billions.” Hubpages.com, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. Cherry, Kendra. “What Is Negative Reinforcement.” About.com, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. Read More