The Cost of Disruptions
There are many studies dedicated to showing just how distracted workers are in the office. The average worker {not just the slacker} is distracted more than two hours every day! This worker is interrupted over 70 times a day, and those interruptions are costly.
Interrupting a task at a computer user’s focus of attention often leads to a switching of attention to the source of the interruption [9]. Conversations with other people, including face-to-face conversations, phone calls, and talk through walls have been found to contribute to 15-45% of switches away from the task at a user’s focus of attention [2, 3]. Indeed, becoming engaged in conversational dialog may pose greater disruptions to users than alerts delivered within a computing system because social conventions on personal responsiveness may make it difficult to take the time and actions to prepare for the task switch [9, 10].
From social media to cell phones to texting to co-worker chatter, workers are hit seemingly non-stop all day to the point that many walk away frustrated, stressed, and aware that too much time was lost and too many errors were made. For some, it’s a depressing reality that will be true tomorrow and the next day, and for others, it means extended work days and lost weekends. For most, this lack of productivity is debilitating and rarely leads to a feeling of job satisfaction.
Sound Masking for Distraction
Interestingly, not all distractions are equally distracting. In fact, the excerpt above shows us that face-to-face and people-initiated interruptions contribute to up to half of users’ switches of attention, and that a worker is able to ignore a computer alert more easily than a social interruption out of typical social norms- no one wants to be rude after all, even if they are trying to stay focused at work. Thus, they discipline themselves against their screens but not their co-workers.
This is where sound masking comes in. Like a white noise generator, aka sound machine, helps people sleep because the low-level background noise {ie white noise} allows their brains to tune out the noise keeping them sleepless, a sound masking system helps workers tune out distracting noise. Distracting noise in the office is usually conversational in nature, and as we saw above, is difficult to ignore socially. A few well-placed speakers work wonders for distracted workers because they minimize the office sound track and free up the brain to stay focused on work.





