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What Organizations Get Wrong About Interruptions at Work

Two people working at separate laptops

UIC Today covers research led by Harshad Puranik, Assistant Professor of Managerial Studies, which looked at this common workplace phenomenon from two aspects. While there were downsides to interruptions at work, like raising levels of stress and lowering people’s energy, there was an upside, the researchers found. Employees felt more like they belonged, and that eventually led to higher job satisfaction.

The study found something else on top of this. The social aspect of work interruptions also weakened the negative impact that the switching of tasks during interruptions had on employees’ job satisfaction.