Distracting office noises are seriously harming lawyers’ productivity, according to new research.

Noisy colleagues and mobile telephone rings are among the worst interruptions breaking concentration, according to the survey, carried out to mark last week’s national working from home week.


In total, 1,800 office and home workers were surveyed. Of the 36 lawyers, 55% said they suffered between five and 20 interruptions a day when working in the office, with a fifth (21%) complaining of more than 20 daily interruptions. However, when working from home, they suffer far fewer interruptions – 24% fall foul of between five and 20 breaks in concentration and no one is interrupted more than 20 times.


The survey – sponsored by IT company Brother – said that nine in ten of the lawyers said they are less stressed and more motivated when working from home, and nearly half feel far more productive. Many maintain they waste between two and four hours every day on non-productive work when in the office, including travel time.


Two-thirds of legal respondents said they would like to work from home more often, even though they end up working longer hours. This is despite the finding that many have a different routine at home, often enjoying a leisurely morning.


In addition to those surveyed, researchers also conducted detailed monitoring of the psychological and health effects of home and office working on 50 UK-wide workers.


One of them, in-house employment solicitor Gnosoulla Tsioupra-Lewis, who works for United Business Media, said home working enables her to see her children during the week, removes her commute and has increased her productivity.



‘While I may be working longer hours at home than in the office, I’m doing it in a much more pleasurable way,’ she said.


Although half of respondents were concerned that their managers and colleagues would think they are skiving when working from home, a majority said they would turn down a more highly paid job in favour of the flexibility of working from home.


Anna Kavanagh, a lawyer who set up Time For Balance, a consultancy advising individuals and law firms on flexible working practices, said firms benefit from increased productivity and lawyers get an improved work-life balance, which means less juggling of tasks and less stress.


She advised that home workers need to be highly disciplined to get up, shower and dress as if they were going into the office and maintain that discipline throughout the day. They need to be organised, and their firms must have excellent IT and secretarial support.


‘If lawyers are going to work from home on more than one or two days a week, they can get isolated and so need to be self-sufficient,’ she warned.


She said home working is an issue that firms cannot afford to ignore, as the number of people requesting flexible working practices is set to increase, not least owing to the high proportion of women now entering the profession.


Catherine Baksi