Instant Messaging: Productivity Burden or Boon?

— -- Ping! Ping! Ping! If you use instant messaging, by now you should be used to the sound of friends, coworkers, and even strangers leaping onto your desktop with random messages, sometimes at the least convenient times.

Popular wisdom says that these interruptions divert your attention away from your other tasks, sapping your productivity. Some companies have even installed special Internet filters to control the amount of time employees spend on IM. But now a new study claims that the exact opposite is true -- IM does no harm, and in fact it might even improve communications for Internet-enabled workers.

According to the study, which was based on a random survey of over 900 U.S. workers conducted by researchers at Ohio State University and University of California, Irvine, "IM users will report lower levels of disruptive interruption than non-users." Perhaps even more shockingly, the researchers concluded that "instant messaging in the workplace simultaneously promotes more frequent communications and reduces interruptions."

Got that? When you use IM, not only will you communicate with your coworkers more often, but you will also feel less annoyed about it.

I've often remarked on the apparent irony of sending an e-mail or a text message to a coworker who is just down the hall, but this study's conclusions actually make a fair amount of sense. It's true that Internet-age workers are saturated with more interruptions and have to "change hats" more often than ever before. But an IM conversation is an interruption that you can put off until you're ready to cope with it. In that sense, it's certainly less disruptive than a phone call, or a knock on the side of your cubicle.

Do you find that IM helps your workday go more smoothly, or are instant messages at work more hassle than you need? Or has your company already banned IM in the workplace altogether? Sound off in the PC World Community Forums.