Intelligent staff are more distracted at work

Are you easily distracted in the office? Then it could actually be a sign of higher intellect, according to a new study.

A survey taken by Steelcase, which interviewed over 10,000 employees in 17 countries, found that almost half of the people asked admitted they struggle to concentrate at work. The average employee will have eight or more programmes open at one time on their computer, and is distracted around once every three minutes.

Psychiatrist Dr Ned Hallowell spoke to the MailOnline about the findings, explaining that more intelligent people have a harder time prioritising, because they “tried to deal with each idea as it arose, leading to 'a feeling of inadequacy and inability to deal with the workload as a whole.” He went on to comment that employees who were specifically hired for their level of intelligence failed to fulfil their own and their bosses’ expectations.

The report also found that workers check their smartphones around 200 times a day.