Recover Overnight? Work Interruption and Worker Productivity

This paper investigates whether and how work interruption influences workers ’ sub-sequent productivity in the setting of machine breakdown. The study utilizes a data set of individual productivity and machine conditions, where each worker faces a chance that her machine breaks down randomly on a daily basis. The analysis finds that compared with a workday with smooth production, experiencing machine breakdown is associated with a decline in individual productivity the following day. The paper dis-cusses possible explanations, including proficiency loss and negative emotion induced by work interruption, for the observed effect. The findings suggest the importance of understanding and managing interruption in the workplace, and contribute to unfold-ing the hidden determinants of productivity at the micro level