More on At-Home Distractions…

Bergefurt and colleagues determined that “Previous research showed that office workers are mainly distracted by noise, influencing their mental health. . . . at home, employees were distracted by noise and when having a small desk. Those with a dedicated workroom were less distracted. . . . although only correlation inferences could be drawn from the current dataset, the findings do suggest that suboptimal workplace conditions, also when working from home, may lead to lower transient as well as chronic mental health states. Workplace managers should therefore consider more flexible workplace concepts and policies that allow employees to choose where to work, and, in case work is forcefully located at home, to help employees create good conditions there. Such considerations could possibly reduce employees’ experience of distractions, raise their productivity, and protect their mental health.”

Lisanne Bergefurt, Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek, Celine Maris, Theo Arentze, Minou Weijs-Perree and Yvonne de Kort.  2023. “The Influence of Distractions of the Home-Work Environment on Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”  Ergonomics, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 16-33, https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2022.2053590