But what role do digital technologies play in these frequent changes in activity? Before attributing any role to ICTs for these interrupted work patterns, let us take a closer look at the nature of the work episodes and how ICTs are actually being used.
To my surprise, workers spend most of their time at work (about five and a half hours) engaged in communication activities (see table 2). However, when divided into direct, face-to-face communications and mediated communications (e-mail, telephone calls), over half of it is technologically mediated. While face-to face communication is still very important, ICTs are now integral to the way knowledge workers carry out their work roles. Strikingly, all forms of mediated communication are short, on average lasting less than five minutes.
ICT usage seems synonymous with short work episodes that fragment workers’ workdays. The widespread perception is that technologies are the cause of these short work episodes, as mediated communications interrupt work on a particular task. Contrary to my expectations, I found that these technologies are a minor reason why people frequently change work activities during a workday. By contrast, face-to-face interruptions from other colleagues in the open-plan ofice take place an average of twelve times per day. But by far the greatest initiator of distinct work episodes are workers themselves—being the reason for change an average of sixty-five times per workday.30
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