Driving Multitaskers Need Time, and Their Employers Need Money — Tip of the Week

The recession drags on. The competition intensifies. The time it takes to respond to voice mail or email makes the difference between success and failure. Multitasking is the road to reward, particularly when you’re actually on the road in your vehicle. As reported in a lengthy article in the New York Times, however, the much-heralded multitasking has become the deadly epidemic of distracted driving.

Employees are using their vehicles as mobile offices. They hold BlackBerrys above the steering wheel so they can see an e-mail and the road simultaneously. They cradle a cell phone between their ear and shoulder, have a sandwich in one hand and a smartphone in the other, and steer the car with their knee. They are the hyper-productive employees of the 21st century.

It turns out they’re not. Research shows that the brain can perform only one difficult task at a time. It’s wired to unitask, not multitask. This fact puts multitasking drivers at a disadvantage when they’re negotiating a contract or making a difficult decision. Quality suffers.

Finally, there’s safety. Employers that allow multitasking while driving might as well promote drunken driving. That’s how impaired a multitasking driver is. Employers are paying millions on lawsuits resulting from the negligence of multitasking drivers. Most tragically, people are being killed in resulting crashes.

As the Times article notes, employers are beginning to pay attention, some to the point of banning the use of technological devices while their employees are driving. A violation of the policy results in termination.

Some employers haven’t gone that far, still performing a risk-reward analysis, still believing that multitasking while driving provides an edge in this merciless economy, still trying to train driving employees to safely multitask. What you should do is outlaw multitasking in a vehicle. You’ll make your employees more productive, save money on inevitable lawsuits, spare lives, and do the right thing.