Can multitasking make an employee become more productive?
Most comporate manager these days has an assumption that small teams can do the work of many. As it turns out, task switching can hurt the over-all quality of product in development. It is counterproductive.
The more task at hand the more time is required to switch between task. Unlike computers which can really benefit from multitasking; human are prone to error and usually requires concentration when working on a task. My favorite tech blogger Joel Spolsky wrote an article entitled “Human Task Switches Considered Harmful” where he discussed why managers should never let people work on more than one thing at once as it becomes an obstacle that needs to be removed to focus on one thing and really get the job done. There had been some discussion regarding this matter on PinoyJUG Mailing list where most of the replies are either affirming and refuting this issue.
My take on this is YES, multitasking is considered harmful and counterproductive. But employee should also learn to focus, I mean REALLY focus on what they are doing work-related and not waste their company’s resources doing other things.
In closing, let me just remind everyone not to text-and-drive as it can lead to a very dangerous situation; a very unpleasant example of “multitasking gone bad.” Pedestrian should also refrain from checking their mobile phones while crossing the road or walking with the crowd. Just friendly reminder..
Shoot!