What Factors Make You Unproductive At Work?

By Charles Hibbert

Office workers are only productive three days of the working week, but new research shows that with the sweltering heat of the British summer, office workers are now productive only two and a half days of the week.

HSS Hire, the leading national supplier of tools and equipment, commissioned the research of 2,000 office workers, discovering how unproductive office workers can be for half the week.

A spokesman for HSS Hire said: “The results show the wide range of factors affecting our ability to perform at work day in day out.”

Friday is the relaxed day for workers with the research unsurprisingly highlighting this day as the least productive day of the week, with Tuesday being the most productive.

Those polled also said that they are most hard working at 10.23 am during a normal day and least productive after lunch at 2.02pm.

With this latest research we can learn what factors make us unproductive at work, and what we can do to make sure we earn out money’s worth at work.

A poor nights sleep was identified as the biggest cause of an unproductive day, followed by being too hot in the office and being surrounded by distracting colleagues.

IT problems also mean, being too hungry and being hung over also lead to unproductive days at work.

On a normal day 15 minutes are spent gossiping to colleagues, 14 minutes are spent browsing non-work related content on the web with another 8 minutes spent making teas and coffees for work mates, showing at least 40 minutes a day are spent being unproductive.

“It’s important to take care of ourselves, but given the recent hot weather, perhaps bosses will have noticed a drop in productivity and will be wondering if there is anything they can do to solve that problem.”

There are a few specific things bosses can do to improve this, which includes turning the air conditioning on, something that a fifth of bosses reject according to research.

If the temperature is too hot, then half of the workers dress inappropriately, wearing clothing such as flip flops and vests, and one in ten being more flirtatious, another distraction from work.

Three quarters of people polled believe that if the weather exceeds 27 degrees Celsius, then work becomes impossible and feel that the working day should be shorter.

Making sure all the equipment works, with IT problems leading to a stressful working environment with forty per cent becoming bad tempered.

Making sure you get a good night’s sleep, eating enough food to make you concentrate for the whole day and saving your drinking nights for Friday and Saturday are also other means of having a productive days work.

The HSS Hire spokesman said “We all work hard but certain factors can make our ability to be productive that little bit harder.”

“Indeed, the results suggest that workers in cool air-conditioned offices are actually more productive, less stressed and generally happier to be at work.”