Inattention has been a major safety and performance issue for many years. It is often a result of a distraction such as a ringing phone or a conversation attempt made by someone else.
Many people consider themselves capable of multitasking, yet they proceed through a task without paying attention to what they are doing. However, the human brain can’t multitask. We have the accident data and dozens of performance studies showing that attempts to multitask reduce work quality, extend total task completion time, and increase the rate of injury compared to people who focus on what they are doing.
While you cannot eliminate all sources of distraction, you can reduce them:
- Leave your phone elsewhere (e.g., in your locker at the shop or the service van) while you perform testing, maintenance, or repair work — or shut it off.
- Prepare your mind for focus. Pro athletes often use seemingly silly rituals to demarcate the line between coming to the game and playing the game. At a Kentucky plastics plant, one electrician inserts his earplugs to start his workday, and they don’t come out until he’s off the clock; that’s his ritual and it works for him. Find something that works for you to switch your thoughts to work mode so you aren’t distracted by concerns from outside the job.
- If people are chatting by where you are performing your work, politely ask them to move the conversation to another location.
Engage or ignore
The best way to deal with a distraction is to decide whether to engage with it or whether to ignore it and keep doing what you are doing. If you try to do both, you may create a lethal situation for yourself or someone else.
A common misperception is that if someone asks you a question or, in some other way, interrupts your concentration on the job at hand, you must engage with that person or be perceived as rude. It is not rude to let them know it is not a good time for you. You are being rude to your employer if you’re only half-focused on the job and mess it up or take far longer to do it than you should.
For example, you are deep into a repair when a production supervisor walks up and starts asking questions about what’s wrong and how long the repair will take. Rather than respond to his questions, tell him you can either talk right now or stop work, but you’d rather get the equipment running. That gets the message across better than a snarky, “Can’t you see I’m working?” — and it eliminates the temptation to multitask.
In this case, you’ve decided not to engage with the distraction. However, that is not always the best decision.
In this example, you’re struggling with a repair when a coworker arrives on the scene. She says that your boss sent her over to help you with this particular problem. Unlike you, she’s received vendor training on this equipment. You have the same choice as in the previously described situation. This time, it makes sense to stop what you are doing and engage with the distraction. Thank her for the assist, then ask if she’d a description of the failure and what you have found.
Or go back to the first example. The production supervisor understands what you prefer but wants to proceed with the conversation anyhow. Since you’ve already said you can talk or you can work, you need to stop working and talk. The production supervisor is an important person in your plant and is also your customer. So, the work would distract from the job you need to be doing at that moment: giving the production supervisor the requested information. You can do a good job of that and then get back to the repair.
However, if you try to move the repair along while also having the conversation, you will likely leave the production supervisor unsatisfied with your answer and then have to redo the steps you just completed. Or you might inadvertently cause an arc blast because your mouth was doing one thing and your hands another.
Eliminate the distractions that you can easily eliminate. When you do encounter a distraction, decide whether to give it your full attention or ignore it to give your work your full attention. By doing this, you will work more safely while turning in better work.
