Co-workers spending too much time on personal devices or social Research Paper

Co-workers spending too much time on personal devices or social networks, leading to distractions in the office - Research Paper Example This paper includes a discussion on some of the ways these devices and social networking websites lead to distractions in offices. The paper also includes a discussion on the ways the use of these devices and social networks can be limited in offices. Introduction In today's faced paced world, the use of technology has become a need for every individual from any field of life. Students, businesspersons, and employees all make use of different types of technologies to carry out their personal and professional activities. However, sometimes use of these technologies at places where they should not be used leads to problems. For example, use of mobile phones and other personal devices at work lead to distractions in offices when people use these devices for personal matters instead of focusing on work and assigned job responsibilities. It has become a critical need for managers and employers to develop and implement such policies at workplaces, which should be able to bring down the use of personal devices at offices. Let us discuss some of the ways personal devices and social networks used by colleagues lead to distractions in offices. Impact of Personal Devices The impact of the use of personal devices, such as, mobile phones, laptops, and disc players in offices is never positive on the efficiency level of employees. The reason is that the use of such devices at workplaces deviate the attention and focus of colleagues away from their job responsibilities, which not only results in decreasing their efficiency level but also shifts down the company’s level of productivity. Companies are at risk of losing millions of dollars each year through decreased level of employee productivity caused by digital distractions (Anderson 1). Some colleagues make personal calls while sitting in their offices because of which they cannot perform their required official tasks within time. For example, if a customer representative officer starts making a long personal call wh ile sitting in office, he/she will not be in the position to focus properly towards the incoming official calls in that time. The result in such cases is late delivery of work to managers or customers. Similarly, some colleagues use laptops in offices for purposes other than the official ones. The result is again delayed completion of assigned tasks. Moreover, some colleagues like to hear songs at workplace using headphones. This also results in distracting their attention away from work. The use of personal devices at work can also lead to severe accidents at the workplace. A number of cases have occurred in the last few years where a minor distraction from official task because of cell phone or other personal devices have resulted in severe workplace accidents. For example, an incident occurred in California in 2007 where an employee responsible for operating the sugarcane-chopping machine in a mill cut his left hand because he put his hand within the choppers unintentionally bein g busy in a personal call while operating the machine. This is just a single case out of many where little distractions have caused major injuries to employees. Such cases speak strongly in favor of putting a complete ban on the use of personal devices at the workplace. Impact of Social Networks The impact of using social networking websites, such as, Facebook or Twitter in offices is also not positive on the efficiency and attention of