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Title: Working under Distractions

Abstract: Distractions are pervasive in today’s workplaces, from noisy open-plan offices to digital interruptions. Using an incentivized laboratory experiment, I study the effects of distractions on performance and well-being, elicit willingness to pay to avoid distractions, and validate questionnaire items on resilience in working under distractions. I then incorporate these validated items in a representative Dutch survey panel. I obtain four main results. First, despite having little impact on performance in the lab, distractions are detrimental to individuals' self-reported well-being while working. Second, many individuals are willing to pay to eliminate distractions, and this willingness to pay is negatively correlated with the change in well-being. Third, individual heterogeneity in the impact of distractions on well-being can be captured by questionnaire items. Fourth, resilience to distractions strongly predicts income and job satisfaction in the representative survey data, even conditional on education, sector, and other personality traits.