High Cost of Multitasking, 3

People try to multitask at work, too, not just at home. One study found that in the workplace, managers were the main offenders. Their attempts at multitasking caused a large number of delays. Rather than focusing on a single task at a time, the managers tried to fit in several tasks at once. One researcher put it this way: “When managers multitask, even small decisions can take days. Instead of spending, say, a quality 15 minutes with people, they can afford only a rushed and ineffective two to three minutes.” Researchers found that organizations lose up to 27.5% of productivity as a result of multitasking. They did some math and calculated this loss to equate to more than $450 billion a year globally, an amazing figure that all organizations would undoubtedly like to decrease. More tomorrow.