A study has just proved what we’ve suspected all along – office workers are only productive for three days a week.
And productivity levels sink to just two and a half days in hot weather, according to new research.
A poor night’s sleep is the biggest cause of an unproductive day, followed by being too hot in the office and being surrounded by distracting colleagues.
IT problems also lead to getting less work done, along with feeling too hungry and the after-effects of having had one too many drinks the night before.
Respondents said they find themselves overtired at work around two days a week, while four in five admit they clock-watch – typically for 55 minutes over the course of a week.
HSS Hire commissioned the research of 2,000 office workers and also found seven in 10 have had bust-ups over how or cold the office should be.
On a typical working day, 15 minutes are spent gossiping to colleagues, 14 minutes are spent looking at no-work related content on the web and eight minutes are spent making teas and coffees for co-workers.
No prizes for guessing, Friday is the least productive day of the week for Brits and Tuesday is the most productive day.
On average those polled said they are most productive at 10.23am during a typical day and least productive at 2.02pm.
Top 10 factors that lead to an unproductive day at work:
- Poor night’s sleep
- Being too hot in the office
- People talking to you too much (distracting colleagues)
- Computer problems
- Noisy office
- Boredom
- Distracted by personal issues in general
- Feeling too hungry
- Being too cold in the office
- Drinking too much the night before