Shhh! Noisy Coworkers No.1 Office Distraction

It isn’t Facebook or texting that’s distracting workers. It’s their colleagues.

A new survey from Ask.com finds the biggest distraction for American workers is noisy colleagues, with 61% of respondents saying loud coworkers hurt their productivity. Ask.com, an online brand for questions and answers, surveyed 2,060 adults ages 18 and up on their biggest productivity killers in the workplaces.

Knowing their top distraction is their peers, it’s not surprising 86% of respondents said they are most productive when working solo in the office, despite morale-boosting attempts by companies that promote collaboration. More American workers say they prefer to spend “focus time” in their personal workspace (63%) than those who would rather work from home (29%).

Despite wanting to work alone, 27% say they prefer an open workplace environment or “newsroom setting.” In addition, younger adults favor this environment even more--with 39% of those ages 18-to-34, compared to 18% of those aged 45 and up.

And many prefer to steer clear of the boss. Ask.com found 20% said they would, in fact, prefer to have more work responsibilities than to sit alongside their bosses. The survey also found 38% would rather do unpleasant activities than sit next to their boss, including taking on more work, sitting next to a loud worker and even taking on a longer commute.