A Modern Day Horror Story

It’s late but you’re still working.

Your mind switches to auto pilot as you delve deeper into an important task, the rhythmic ‘tap’ ‘tap’ ‘tap’ of the keys a source of white noise, enabling you to focus and move methodically through your gears.

You’re making real progress for the first time all day, the big picture finally coming together in your mind. ‘Silence and solitude does have its advantages,’ you think to yourself.

You race to commit your newly-imagined plan to the page, capturing the important points quickly for fear that the message will disappear from your consciousness like a half-remembered dream.

But then you hear a noise, quiet and dull, almost distant. You dismiss it, but something nags at you, there’s a familiarity to the noise that compels you to take note. You try to push it out of your mind and press on with the task at hand. There it is again, that distant sound coming from somewhere in front of you.

You get up, compelled to investigate, drawn to the sound like a moth to a flame. Again the sound emanates - but it’s behind you now. You creep towards the source. It is louder and more insistent now, drawing you closer and closer before finally you are within its grasp. Or more correctly it is within your grasp. Because that it what it wanted all along. Now you have no choice, you are within its power.

You pick up your phone and see the latest Slack, Teams, or email notification. It has stolen your focus - like it has all day but you are powerless, compelled to answer. So you do what you must and head back to your laptop, determined to continue to commit your plan to the page. But only remnants of it exist in your mind, the message gone like wisps of smoke through slipping through your fingers. You’re back to square one. It’s even later now. And you’re still working.

The rhythmic ‘tap’ ‘tap’ ‘tap’ of the keys puts your mind back into autopilot as you race through your gears desperate to get through your important task. But then you hear a noise…

This horror story is the single greatest source of workplace inefficiency worldwide.

Workplace messaging apps such as Slack, Workplace by Facebook, Gmail Chat and Microsoft Teams promise greater workplace communication, collaboration, and efficiency, with quicker answers, permanent availability and access to all the information you need. Brilliant. In theory.

But the reality is that instant messaging apps cause us to lose our focus and our ability to switch off, leading to rising levels of frustration, longer working days and impacted mental health. While they are useful, they do not promote working without distraction.

These days when our home is our office and our office our home we need to take time to turn off. We need to put an end to pointless meetings, endless email threads, and numerous distractions while still ensuring our teams, clients and managers have visibility and connectedness.

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