By Daniel Hunter
Monday morning between 10am-12pm is the most productive time of the week for office workers, according to research by online office supplies retailer Viking.
The poll into levels of productivity and the causes of time wasting in the offices of the country’s small and medium sized businesses picks apart the myth of Monday being the hangover day of a heavy weekend.
According to almost 59 per cent of staff surveyed the so-called ‘Monday morning blues’ no longer exist as that is the busiest and most productive day of the working week. Between 10am and 12pm was cited as the most productive time on a Monday because everyone ‘felt fresher’ than at any other time.
Around 40 per cent said that this was because this was the time of fewer colleague distractions and conditions for working were at their optimum.
More than a quarter [26 per cent] of office workers said IT problems, such as computers and printers breaking down, had a negative impact on their productivity. And a further 26 per cent blamed their boss’s poor management and leadership for falls in productivity.
“The idea that we all dislike Mondays and little or no work is done does not seem to be the case in a modern small business," John O’Keeffe, Commercial Director at Office Depot, parent company of Viking, said.
"The research has shown that people feel more productive and fresher on a Monday morning. It would seem that from Tuesday onwards distractions that impact on productivity seem to start creeping in more and more.”
Meanwhile across different sectors 34 per cent of teachers said time spent in staff meetings where nothing happens affected productivity in school; too much red tape stopped 29 per cent of nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals from getting on with their job; while 41 per cent of mechanics blamed time wasting customers and suppliers as stopping them from being productive.
Industry rules and regulations were a productivity barrier to builders and architects.
Friday was not surprisingly the lowest output day, apart from mechanics, 25 per cent of whom felt the last day of the working day was the most productive.
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