Distractions at Work
Based on reports about research on information overload, Shimon Rura writes about how distractions in his work environment prevent him from reaching his full potential.
I’m blogging during a meeting [don't worry: it's a blog meeting and they all know I'm doing it] and am finding the conversation around me quite distracting from what I’d like to be writing. = )
But back to blogging: The description of his day sounds a lot like my day except for our work environments. I am fortunate enough to have an office with a real door I can close, though I keep it open most of the time to make sure I’m available to my clients.
I am frequently interrupted by phone calls, e-mails, and people walking into my office to ask for assistance. That is the nature of my job as a librarian. Many of our jobs are like that.
We’re also responsible for many other tasks like archiving the news, tracking topics, maintaining Web sites, managing databases, updating publications, etc., tasks that sometimes require lots of concentration and a time without interruption.
How do we balance the distractions with all these other tasks we need to do?
News environments seem like they’d have lots of distractions. Every time I walk into a newsroom and look over the cubicles, I wonder how anyone can get anything done.
January 7th, 2005 at 9:03 am
Heh! As a former ink-stained wretch in one of those classic “Lou Grant” style newsrooms, I can say you just learn to tune out all the noise (how do people read on the subway?). But open newsrooms are absolutely great for collaboration – you just lean over and tap your podmate on the shoulder for some help or yell “Stop the presses, I’ve got a scoop!” (well, OK, nobody ever did that, but you get the idea). Sure, you have to balance that with the odd cases of night editors getting upset and throwing a chair in the general direction of the sports department, but I found myself missing that environment when I moved to a trade publication with high walls around all the cubes.
January 7th, 2005 at 12:41 pm
I can read on the subway and I’m generally not the kind of person who minds background noise and distractions. In fact, I work much better when there’s music or something else in the background than when there’s silence. That’s another reason why I prefer working outside of a traditional library setting.
The publications I’ve worked for have all had offices, not big open spaces filled with cubicles. In one setting, there were pods–a few offices branching off of an open area. Would there be more collaboration if we didn’t have offices? How important is collaboration to the kinds of work we do?
When some of my news library colleagues learn that I have a real office with a real door, they feel envy. Sometimes, we’re called upon to handle sensitive or confidential research. It’s nice to have a space where someone can come in, close the door, and discuss confidential research without fear of being overheard. Some of my colleagues have to leave the news library to find a space like that.