6.04 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

Here's what happens when you play on smartphones during work

Published
By Joseph George

Is your boss is unhappy with your work? Here is a little help to increase your productivity and also be happy after work.

Take a short smartphone break. Yes it could be anything from playing an online game or checking your social networking site.
The end result could be more productivity.

In new research, 72 full-time employees were investigated with regards to their smartphone use during work hours and it was found that regular micro-breaks, limited to two to three minutes on their smartphones greatly helped increase productivity.

The research was conducted in the United States by a researcher at Kansas State University, and could be very relevant anywhere in the world, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where per capita smartphone ratio is one of the highest in the world.

Sooyeol Kim, a doctoral student in Psychological Sciences at the university found that employees only spend an average of 22 minutes out of an eight-hour workday playing on their smartphones.

The researchers developed an application which was then installed on the participants’ smartphones.
The app privately and securely measured the employees' smartphone usage during work hours.

The app also divided the employees' smartphone usage into categories such as entertainment, which included games such as ‘Angry Birds’ and social media, which included Facebook and Twitter.

At the end of each workday, the participants recorded their perceived well-being.

"A smartphone microbreak can be beneficial for both the employee and the organisation," Kim said.
"For example, if I play a game for an hour during my working hours, it would definitely hurt my work performance. But if I take short breaks of one or two minutes throughout the day, it could provide me with refreshment to do my job."

He also found that employees who take smartphone breaks throughout the day are happier at the end of the workday.
The smartphone study is part of an overall research that focuses on workplace microbreaks.

There have already been multiple studies on how regular breaks between your work hours can increase productivity.

However, it is important to note that the breaks are limited to short breaks of two to three minutes and not 15 minute cigarette breaks.
A recent study in the UK pointed out to how the economy lost almost £8.4bn (Dh52.86 billion) in one year as a result of employees’ cigarette breaks of 10 minutes each, four times a day.