Why Letting Employees Goof Off Boosts Productivity

 As more studies focus on how the employee experience affects productivity, we are learning that the old-school approach to business isn’t the most productive. Gone are the days when overworking employees without encouraging breaks is the norm. The journal Work & Stress conducted a study titled Some positivity per day can protect you a long way, where they discovered that when employees watch a funny video, they can regain lost emotional energy and self-control, leading to better focus.

While it may sound counterintuitive, research shows that short, lighthearted breaks can lead to more satisfied and more productive employees.

Work requires emotional effort. Whether employees are dealing with colleagues or customers, their regulatory resources become depleted. Think about how you feel after receiving an annoying email. Trying to stay calm can cause you to feel drained and leaving you less creative and unable to focus on other tasks.

“This is where positivity comes into play: Watching a funny video increases feelings of positivity,” Professor Vera Schweitzer, researcher at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, explains. “Such positive emotions allow employees to protect their regulatory resources even after dealing with resource-consuming self-control demands. In turn, this positively affects their effectiveness at work.”

Schweitzer and her fellow researchers found that watching funny, unoffensive videos, typically three to five minutes in length, was effective in helping employees replenish emotional resources, remain engaged and enjoy working.

The researchers suggest organizations have a resource with recommendations for videos, such as a daily newsletter or that they share a “joke of the day”. In doing this, employers are able to foster employee effectiveness and increase comradery as workers can bond over discussions of the media.

Learn more about this research with the press release Why silly distractions at work can actually be good for you.