THE WORKPLACE Interruptions cut valuable time from job duties

Americans work long hours, but some say much time is wasted.
RALEIGH NEWS & amp; OBSERVER
Wasting time at work? Not you.
Especially not if your hours were cut, but the work load stayed intact. Or if you eat lunch at your desk because you can't find time for a break.
Or if you're covering for laid-off colleagues, in addition to doing your own job.
There are statistics backing up the notion that we're working harder than ever.
Last year, productivity jumped nearly 5 percent, the largest increase in more than 50 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. It has been rising steadily for decades, largely because of better technology.
Americans are also logging more hours on the job than any other workers in the industrialized world -- including nearly 2.5 weeks more a year than Canadians and 12.5 more weeks than Germans, 2001 data from the International Labour Organization show.
So why do some experts insist we must get a handle on distractions that steal time away from work?
Not working at work
Because even as their work load grows, many Americans apparently spend a considerable amount of time handling personal phone calls, surfing the Internet or socializing with co-workers while on the clock.
Some say such diversions are healthy, that we need breaks to make us more productive. Others contend that such distractions can affect our careers as well as our home lives.
"It's very easy to get off track during the day," said Jenifer Wynan, director of OfficeTeam in Charlotte, N.C. "You become a more valuable employee the more productive you are, and in these lean times you want to make yourself the most productive employee your company has."
The administrative staffing company Wynan works for polled 613 workers nationwide this spring to find out how they lose time in the office. The worst culprits, according to the survey, were meetings that last too long, followed by unnecessary interruptions. Socializing too much with co-workers and battling disorganized work areas were other top time-wasters.
"We waste time in little chunks all day long when we've got important things we need to get done," said Jeffrey Mayer, a Chicago corporate consultant and author of "Time Management for Dummies."
He says that most office workers waste 80 percent of their time -- either by doing things that, though work-related, fail to bring results, or by letting e-mail, phone calls or hallway conversations eat into their work day.
Playing catch-up
"And if you allow these distractions, guess what's going to happen? You're going to work late and work weekends to catch up, and tell everybody how crummy your job is," Mayer said. "But a lot of people are too busy to figure that out."
New technology has boosted productivity in the United States, but it has also given us less down time. For instance, we can search for information with the click of a mouse instead of having to leave our building and walk over to the local library.
Ironically, workers who take breaks are often more productive than those who don't.
A 1999 study by Cornell University found that people working in front of a computer were 13 percent more accurate when they typed if they took several short breaks every hour to stretch or walk around. Besides reducing their risk for carpal-tunnel syndrome and other musculoskeletal ailments, such workers were 1 percent more productive than colleagues who didn't take breaks, the study found.
Yet many workers apparently think they need to constantly look swamped. "I think certainly in the last few years, because of the downsizing and the reality that it's harder to get a job and keep a job, people are making greater efforts to look busy," said Jan Yager, a Stamford, Conn., workplace consultant who has written extensively about time management issues. "But the [real question] is, what are you getting done at work? What are the things that your boss is expecting of you and what do you do on top of everything else that's expected of you?"