Reading Comprehension · Question 15 · Medium

Why did some customer-support teams find quiet hours unhelpful?

A typical office worker today is interrupted every few minutes, by an email alert, a chat message or a colleague's quick question. Each interruption may last only seconds, but research on attention suggests that its cost is much larger. After switching away from a demanding task, people often need many minutes to return to their previous level of concentration, and part of their mind remains occupied with the interruption even after they resume. Psychologists call this lingering distraction 'attention residue'. The effect is strongest for work that requires holding many details in mind at once, such as writing software, analysing data or drafting a complex report. Some organisations have responded by setting aside 'quiet hours' during which meetings are not scheduled and chat notifications are paused. Early results are encouraging, though not universal: teams whose work depends on rapid coordination, such as customer support, have found that long silent periods slow them down. The lesson appears to be that focus time is valuable, but it must be designed around the nature of each team's work rather than imposed uniformly.

1. Their work depends on rapid coordination, which long silent periods slow down
2. They already had very few meetings
3. Their staff ignored the quiet-hour rules
4. Their chat notifications had been disabled earlier

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