The Real Cost of Workplace Distractions and Hidden Biases

Are you getting less done despite working more? This episode breaks down how workplace distractions—from constant notifications to overstimulation—are sabotaging productivity. We discuss why it takes 20 minutes to regain focus after every interruption and what you can do to reclaim deep concentration.

The conversation also takes a turn into the hidden biases affecting workplace culture today. Why are some employees afraid to share their beliefs? We explore how social proof, media influence, and a lack of true dialogue perpetuate hidden divisions.

If you're looking for real talk on productivity, workplace culture, and how to find focus in a noisy world, this episode is for you.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Chuck E. Cheese Office Effect
• 1:08 Workplace Notifications and Lost Productivity
• 2:17 The Cost of Constant Distractions
• 5:56 Remote Work vs. Office Distractions
• 7:42 Hidden Biases and Beliefs in the Workplace
• 10:42 Breaking Rigidity and Encouraging Real Dialogue

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

There's a famous bar, Dave and Busters. It's grown up. Chuck-E-Cheese. I don't know if you've ever been in here. It's a nightmare to me, but, I mean, it's it's sensory overload. So what we have with our children is a little canary in the coal mine. It's telling us overstimulation creates grumpiness. And what we've done with the technology we have created chuck-e-cheese in our offices. We fire up this computer and suddenly there's beeps and buzzes and dings, all of which distract us. And by the end of the day, we are exhausted and we didn't get anything done.

Speaker 2: 0:39

There was a story recently talking about nearly half of all employees being distracted at least once every 30 minutes, and almost a third, report being distracted at least once every 15 minutes by a workplace notification. This means a lot of lost time. This means employees working eight hour days could be experiencing over 160 distractions from their work workplace tools each week. What does this mean for productivity and satisfaction of workers?

Speaker 1: 1:08

Oh. It's awful. I've been teaching on this topic for about 20 years, about distractibility in the workplace, and it's only gotten worse. And so so here's what we know about the way the mind works is that you can be at a shallow level of attention, and it takes a while to dive down into a deep level of concentration. And once you're there in that deep level of concentration, you can get a lot of work done. But it has to be uninterrupted. So every time you're at a shallow level of concentration and you dip down into a deeper level of concentration and are interrupted. How long does how long you think it takes for you to go back to that deep level of concentration? It takes about 20 minutes. Wow. Every for every interrupt in it takes about 20 minutes to get at a deep level of concentration. Again. So if you do the math, they're saying that they have an interruption. How often? Every 30 minutes.

Speaker 2: 2:15

Yeah. Or 15 for something.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Or every 15. That means that if their interruptions are every 15 minutes, they're never in the course of a day, ever in a deep level of concentration. So the quality of work decreases. So anytime somebody tells you, hey, you got a minute? They mean you got a minute plus the 20 minutes it takes to get back on task. Wow. Every time you get a notification on your computer, you know that that our computer companies want to help us. So they have that little dialog box opens up. And so right in the corner is the preview of the email that just came in. And you're you're getting work done and you and must open email and suddenly you're not doing your project. You're opening the email and you find out you've got a 10% discount at the local, you know, yogurt parlor. That's not as important as, as the work that you were doing. Now, what does it do to us as human beings, human beings need quiet reflection. My kids are all adults, but when they were kids, we got invited to a birthday party and my kids were well-behaved, good kids. I would take them to Chuck E cheese and immediately they go run and scream. And there's noise. There's there's ball pools, there's stickers, tickets, there's whac-a-mole there, you know, there's there's these giant tunnels they can crawl around in and catch diseases. And, and so after two hours at this birthday party, I take my kids home and we stop at the store and they're screaming, monster children, okay? And people go, you need to you need a parenting class. They're awful children. And how do my well behaved kids go into Chucky Cheese come out screaming monster children? What do we say? We say they are overstimulated. Okay, so we don't I don't, I swore unless there was a blood oath involved. I was never going back to Chuck E cheese because my kids would get overstimulated. There are now bars. There's a famous bar, Dave and Busters. It's grown up Chuck E cheese. I don't know if you've ever been in there. It's a nightmare to me. I mean, I for all, for all the people who love Chuck E Cheese and Dave and Busters, you keep going. I'm staying home. But, I mean, it's it's sensory overload. So what what we what we have with our children is a little canary in the coal mine. It's telling us overstimulation creates grumpiness. And what we've done with the technology we have. And again I love technology. Okay. What what we've done is we created Chucky Cheese in our offices. We fire up this computer and suddenly there's beeps and buzzes and dings, all of which distract us. And by the end of the day, we are exhausted and we didn't get anything done. God, I feel like I did, like, 10,000 stupid things. And you get one important thing done. Yeah, human beings need periods of time, uninterrupted time where they can concentrate. Not lots and lots of little things.

Speaker 2: 5:40

Okay, well, that makes a lot of sense. And yeah, I it's, wonder how anyone ever gets anything done in the, in the workplace these days. And I actually wonder if maybe the pandemic and stepping back and everybody working from home helped with productivity a little bit because of that.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Now, it didn't it didn't it didn't. Because at home you have even more distractions.

Speaker 2: 6:02

Yeah I mean different distractions.

Speaker 1: 6:04

They're different distractions, but they're still distractions. A subset of people really thrive in that environment. Introverts, people who do very detailed close work, like accountants, bookkeepers, they rock in that environment because they're naturally as a whole. Not everyone of them. They're naturally introverted. They're naturally focused on data, and they work in a solitary environment. They do great, and it requires concentration without interruption. They do great in their marketing people where it's social, it's interactive, and they're trying to come up with creative ideas. They're lost. Yeah. They're lost. Yeah. So so some people have been more productive, some less productive. My advice to people is, as you mentioned, hit the unsubscribe button. Eventually, if it's important enough, it'll rise to the surface. So turn off your notifications so so that you don't see your computer doesn't ding when a voice mail or an email comes in, and it doesn't ding when a text comes through and it doesn't ding when somebody mentioned something on Facebook that Facebook thinks you need to know about. Turn off all those notifications. You don't.

Speaker 2: 7:18

Need them. All right. So my last question then for you, the June Freedom Economy Index just came out and it showed that 62%. So a majority of conservative workers are worried that people discover that they're Republican in the workplace, that that fact might affect their career. What impact do you think that has on workers and how does it impact workplace culture?

Speaker 1: 7:42

I think there are and I have I have seen this in my work with organizations. There are lots of people who recognize that if they make their world view public, they will be cast out. And so there are lots of people in certain environments that are just hiding out with their beliefs. And, right now it does appear that folks on the right are the ones hiding out more partly because we believe. It's called social proof. We look for evidence around us of what other people are doing, and believe that's the right thing to do. And right now, the media saturation leans left. And so when people look at the media, when they look at the content of entertainment, when they look at the content of commercials, anywhere they look or music, they see a left leaning bias in the media. So they think that is the natural state. And so people on the right whose ideas are different than what is being broadcast, they don't see as many examples. And so they they realize that they're alone. People in the workforce who lean left, look around in the media and go, well, look, everybody believes this. Look, look how much evidence there is. So, I have seen in workplaces that folks on the right are far less eager to talk about their worldview than folks on the left, because the social proof in the media, in the news and entertainment and in music, all points to the left. And so, yeah, I'm not at all surprised. And it, it's consistent with my experience of talking with people in these workplaces.

Speaker 2: 9:36

Now, how do you think that impacts workplace culture? Does it end up perpetuating that cycle?

Speaker 1: 9:42

If I look at the it, if I believe a certain way and I look for all the evidence around me in the media and in the popular culture, and then I look at the way my company is projecting itself to the world. Then I think everybody must believe, like me. So I, I would assume a monolithic workplace culture. And if somebody believes differently than me, I can't believe, like, how could you do that? And so, so I think, people on the right are hiding out and people on the left don't know they're hiding out. They just think they're quiet. And that's unfortunate because, they could be having interesting discussions, debates. But again, this rigidity that has has descended in our culture, precludes, precludes, a spirit of debate without hatred.

Speaker 2: 10:42

What advice would you give to try and break that rigidity? And what do people need to work on? What kind of traits do they need to work on in order to break through that and be a little bit more confident in their own views and talking about them?

Speaker 1: 10:56

This goes back to what I talked about with dogmatism is, is that the more information we consume, the more dogmatic people become. And so time of quiet reflection for everybody would be a good idea. Unplug from the media. At some points, in in the day or in the week, so that our brain has a chance to recalibrate, and then intentionally look for viewpoint diversity. And this is true for everybody. Find find viewpoints that are different than yours and listen to them, you know, one one of the places where this is still alive and well is the Oxford Debate Union, or Oxford Union debates, where you have two, two different people and they film the debate and it's very often, entertaining, lively, but usually not hostile. And so it, it it will take us back to the practice of, okay, we can have a spirited debate and still get along afterward.