Recover Overnight? Work Interruption and Worker Productivity

This paper investigates the effect of work interruption on workers' subsequent productivity. We employ a data set of individual productivity and machine conditions, in which each worker faces the chance, on a daily basis, that her machine will break down randomly. Our analysis finds that compared to a workday with smooth production, experiencing a machine breakdown is associated with a 3.3 percentage point decline in the worker's productivity the following day. We discuss possible explanations for the observed effect, including negative emotions, increased cautiousness in operating the machine, and proficiency loss. Our findings shed light on the importance of understanding and managing interruptions in the workplace, and contribute to a growing literature on the determinants of productivity at the micro level. History: Accepted by John List, behavioral economics. Funding: X. Cai acknowledges financial support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University [Grant 0140ZK1110]. S. Zhong acknowledges financial support from the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 1. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ mnsc.2017.2792. Keywords: productivity * labor supply * work interruption * reference dependence * emotion
1. Introduction Interruptions are common in the workplace and costly to individuals, firms, and organizations. From equipment breakdowns to unscheduled meetings and communication requests, unplanned breaks from a smooth and [...]