Microsoft says it’s true: Cat videos distract workers

Used for representational purpose only. Employees of the Fintech N26 (Number26), work on computers in Berlin, Germany, August 19, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/Files

Economists have been puzzled in recent years by the so-called “productivity paradox,” the fact that the digital revolution of the past four decades hasn’t resulted in big gains in output per worker as happened with earlier technological upheaval. Many developed economies have actually seen productivity stagnate or decline. 

A survey from Microsoft Corp. is bolstering one theory about this disconnect. In a poll of 20,000 European workers released Feb 5, Microsoft, which became one of the world’s most profitable companies by marketing office productivity software, acknowledges new digital technology can, in some circumstances, make businesses less productive.