That smartphone break your employee takes is actually good for her. According to new research out of Kansas State University, employees who take smartphone breaks are happier at the end of the workday than employees who worked without personal breaks.
“A smartphone microbreak can be beneficial for both the employee and the organization,” said Sooyeol Kim, a doctoral student in psychological sciences. “For example, if I would 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.”
Kim had 72 full-time employees from various industries install an app on their smartphones that measured usage during work hours. The app also divided the usage into categories, such as social media or games. Kim discovered that the employees only spent an average of 22 minutes out of an eight-hour day playing on their smartphones.
“By interacting with friends or family members through a smartphone or by playing a short game, we found that employees can recover from some of their stress to refresh their minds and take a break,” Kim said.
Smartphone breaks are similar to other breaks, such as walking, chatting with colleagues, or eating a snack. These breaks help people refresh their concentrations and cope with stress.
“These days, people struggle with a lot of different types of stressors, such as work demands, time scheduling, family issues, or personal life issues,” Kim said. “We need to understand how we can help people recover and cope with stressors. Smartphones might help and that is really important not only for individuals, but for an organization, too.”
