This is a Hoot: Constant Messaging More of a Hit on Worker Productivity than Pot Smoking

I found this study - reported everywhere but I'm linking from CNN - a hoot. I'll tell you why on the other side.

Workers distracted by phone calls, e-mails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than a person smoking marijuana, a British study shows.

The constant interruptions reduce productivity and leave people feeling tired and lethargic, according to a survey carried out by TNS Research and commissioned by Hewlett Packard.

The survey of 1,100 Britons showed:

• Almost two out three people check their electronic messages out of office hours and when on holiday
  Half of all workers respond to an e-mail within 60 minutes of receiving one
  One in five will break off from a business or social engagement to respond to a message.
  Nine out of 10 people thought colleagues who answered messages during face-to-face meetings were rude, while three out of 10 believed it was not only acceptable, but a sign of diligence and efficiency.

But the mental impact of trying to balance a steady inflow of messages with getting on with normal work took its toll, the UK's Press Association reported.

I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to try to work in a busy office setting stoned simply because I know how little fun it is when I try to write complicated, detailed, technical text on something as lightweight as an antihistamine ('tis the season, as they say).

I've (unfortunately, for the most part) worked in busy office settings where others were under the influence of everything from caffeine overdoses and three-martini lunches up through the full range of heavy-duty prescription painkillers and things like Xanax all the way to sniffing heroin and cocaine. I used to believe that the only thing to make an office less productive than drugs/alcohol was the inter-office romance (now there's a killer!).

Yet my opinion changed with the advent of more work-based e-mail and messaging. I've seen a total nutcake cokehead programmer work better than I've seen lots of people being barraged by constant messaging of any time (phone, e-mail, instant messages, faxes, pages).

Now, I happen to be a great multitasker. The more things I juggle (up to a certain point), the more productive I can be. It's just my nature. I work remotely for publishers and companies across the country and I'm frequently working simultaneously on a wide range of projects. I happen to prefer e-mail for contact over phone, where possible, because it allows me (and them) to go back and reference what was said so there are fewer mistakes/wrong assumptions.

But even with all of that, the fastest way to put my productivity in the toilet isn't my occasional dose of antihistamine (to fight an allergy-originated migraine); it's when somebody decides they want to talk to me and then proceed to use 11 different forms of contact to say, "let's talk."

See the next message for an example.