Taking breaks throughout the work day may positively affect employee productivity, according to recent research from the Department of Psychology at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
According to the researchers, although the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require meal or break times, short rest periods of five to 20 minutes actually may improve employee productivity.
The investigators noted that research in this area has been limited. Therefore, they undertook a study that compared productivity between two test groups. In the control group, set break times were not required; in the other group, breaks were programmed by the experimenter. Sixteen undergraduate students completed two two-hours sessions of a simulated check-processing task on a Dell desktop computer and monitor.
“Overall, 75% of participants completed more checks with programmed breaks during the experimental condition compared with the control condition during which breaks were not required, and this difference was statistically significant,” Jessica Nastasi, Isabella B. Tassistro and Nicole Gravina, PhD, wrote in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.
Most of the participants appeared to benefit from breaks in terms of productivity, the researchers found.
“Considering previous research, at the very least, breaks do not seem to harm productivity;
further, they can benefit the well-being of employees,” the authors noted.
The study had limitations, however, due to human behavior. One factor that might have skewed results, the investigators said, is that some participants reported using a different strategy for check completion than others, such as using the tab and enter keys to submit as opposed to operating the mouse and clicking. The result is not thought to have statistically altered the findings, however, as those strategies were found within each research group.
