From chatty colleagues to shared workspaces, Canadian workers are losing productivity, survey finds

By Amanda Wawryk, Hana Mae Nassar

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Working hard or hardly working?

Turns out a lot of Canadian workers are distracted and losing up to two hours of productivity every day.

The biggest productivity drain? Loud talkers and “talk-a-holic” chatty colleagues.

The survey from iQ Offices has found more than half of workers agree it’s easy to get distracted, and the numbers are even higher for those under 35 — a whopping 68 per cent agreed.

Physical workspace issues ranked second on the list of productivity drains, with nearly half of Canadians blaming “noisy recreation areas” and a “distracting open concept work environment.”

“Canadians overwhelmingly highlight design, physical environment productivity challenges like nomad seating arrangements, noise and distracting open concept design, ahead of other workload-related challenges, such as excessive email (17 per cent) or unexpected extra work (19 per cent),” explains Kane Willmott, iQ Offices CEO and co-founder.

The third biggest productivity challenge for Canadians was “unassigned workspaces” according to those surveyed. Almost half of all Canadians name this as a key complaint.

According to iQ Offices, addressing these complaints would make for significant improvements. “At the very least, perhaps better business performance and improved work life balance could be achieved,” the company says.

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