I have worked in many different environments.  The worst is being interrupted by those seeking help on things they should be capable of doing themselves, if they would just think about it for a minute or two. 

The second worst is trying to concentrate while you're coworkers who are suppose to be working and chatting senselessly nearby.  The real distraction is that they are being paid to work just like I am, so do it.

The third worst is working in total isolation for extended periods of time.  In this case any distraction is welcome except inquiries regarding the schedule.

I am a night owl so I prefer to go to work late, handle the inter office issues  and then do my real work after everyone else has ducked out early for whatever reason.  The problem with that is that you don't get credit for the hard work, because everyone assumes you ducked out early as well.

Working at home can be good, because I can work all night long without feeling like I am chained to the desk.  This at least allows for some necessary distractions, like eating dinner, letting the dog outside, or catching your favorite TV program once in a while.

My favorite though is working at a late night coffee shop, but only if close friends or coworkers are not there.  Faces can be familiar, but best if nobody knows much about you or what you are working on.  This way it is easy to ignore the back ground noise because it has nothing to do with you, but you still get the social satisfaction of seeing random happy people.

But what is really disturbing is that thought that the engineer has not gotten anything done because of all the distractions.  What we call distractions are what other people call work.  If they were not "distracted" they would feel like they didn't accomplish anything all day (the difference being that, indeed, they did not accomplish anything.)

The second worst is trying to concentrate while you're coworkers who are  suppose to be working and chatting senselessly nearby.  The real  distraction is that they are being paid to work just like I am, so do  it.

Humans aren't ants.  They need to chat sometimes to maintain their sanity, share ideas, be social, etc.  There's nothing wrong with it.  What's wrong is open-plan work environments where these non-work conversations distract others who are trying to work.  In fact, it isn't just non-work conversations, work-related conversations are just as distracting, if they're about issues that don't affect you personally.  The answer isn't to stop non-work conversations, the answer is to get rid of open-plan work environments, so that workers can have quiet and privacy and get their work done when they want to.  If they want to converse, they can do it in a common area, conference room, break room, etc.

I am a night owl so I prefer to go to work late, handle the inter  office issues  and then do my real work after everyone else has ducked  out early for whatever reason.  The problem with that is that you don't  get credit for the hard work, because everyone assumes you ducked out  early as well.

The other problem with that is that unless you like working 12 or 16-hour days for 8 hours' of pay, you're not allowed to come into work that late at many places, such as where I work.  Here, we're expected to be here during "core hours" so that we can "collaborate" (even though my job involves very little collaboration).  I'm not about to stay until 10PM every night, and my wife would divorce me anyway if I spent all my time at work, so I end up getting very little work done.

But what is really disturbing is that thought that the engineer has not  gotten anything done because of all the distractions.  What we call  distractions are what other people call work.  If they were not  "distracted" they would feel like they didn't accomplish anything all  day (the difference being that, indeed, they did not accomplish  anything.)

Yep, that's a big part of the problem.  The loud-mouth talkers that come up with these dumb ideas (like bullpen seating arrangements) think that talking == working.

Personally, I guess I've learnt the art of zoning out when I need to.  Part of my job requirement is to be distracted anyway - I am no longer a "designing" engineer or a "problem-solving" engineer, more of a "consulting" and "advising" engineer, so interruptions are a core requirement.  Anyone in the office can, at any time, ask me a question from a customer on the telephone, I have a direct line myself for technical questions from anywhere, we have Live Chat where anyone can instant-message me at any time, and technical@harwin.com also has to be monitored regularly.

But even when I was in Design - which was always a fairly large, open office - I developed the dual skills of being able to zone out conversations, until I heard something involving a project I was working on, or I had some information to contribute to someone that mentioned a topic.  I've called this my "radar", and it's one of the most useful skills I've developed working in an open office.  I'm fairly sure others around me have found it useful too, as it reduced the amount of time they had to go searching for data.

So, I think how well you handle distractions is a personal skill, although interruptions are more difficult to control.  At the end of the day, if the point you are at is really critical, just do not allow any interruptions, tell them to come back later - and if you can't zone out distraction, ask if you can spend a couple of hours in a meeting room or office whilst you do some critical work.

Of course, there's no guarantees any of this will work for you...

Wendy

and if you can't zone out distraction, ask if you can spend a couple of hours in a meeting room or office whilst you do some critical work.

That doesn't work: your workstation is in one fixed place; dual monitors, keyboard, mouse, PC, etc.  You can't exactly move that around when you want privacy.

Personally, I can't zone out distraction.  So I get very, very little work done.  I'm finding this profession to be horrible as a result.  I went into engineering because I like working alone and solving interesting, intellectual problems (mainly programming).  I'm a classic introvert, the type of personality that's usually drawn to programming and engineering.  I'm slightly ADD too, so I don't work well with distractions, but when I get in "the zone", I'm very productive, but that requires quiet and no interruptions.  The college environment is great for that.  For the most part, you work by yourself, in your own room, with no one bothering you.  It's completely the opposite of the "open plan" work environments that are all the rage these days.  Years ago, it wasn't like this: engineers and programmers were given walled offices, and later cubicles (with high walls).  Now, the morons in management think we'll be more productive if we talk to each other all day instead of typing, so bullpens are everywhere it seems.

So if anyone here is considering a career in engineering and you're an introvert, stay away!  It's only for people who like to talk a lot.

Grishnakh,

Welcome to E14. And a great reply.

I've gone from the quiet high walled cubes to the low walled before. The managers, however, remained in the high wall.

I believe that the low cubes is not for collaboration and productivity, but solely so people can be watched. What happens is the one's being watched learn to have the "angry, I'm working" face at all time. Truly a sad state of affairs.

Plus, I don't like people sitting up to look at my screen and asking, "what are you working on?" Resulting in an immediate, and unwarranted, distraction.

Short cubes have to go.

Cabe

Regardless of "where we're going", research on the brain says multitasking works only with low complex activities. The more complex activities require the brain to focus, or so to speak, dedicate more areas of the brain for 1-2 activities. We can multitask while driving (some may disagreee) but a surgeon on open heart surgery definetly cannot take your phone call while operating. I guess, bottom line is, you want quality, then focus. You don't care for efficiency or fixxing silly mistakes along the way, well, then multitask... you get what you pay for. Remember the trade offs: timely-on budget-full quality, cannot have them all 3 at the same time.

@Celsa, your last sentence reminded me of an audio byte I listened to regarding how customers instead of expecting two out of three (cheap, fast and quality) now expect "Free,prefect and now... or else we will go somewhere that can" -  Marty Neumeire definatley worth a listen.

Kelv,

That is so angering, to be honest. "Free,prefect, and now... or else we will go somewhere that can."

There is always someone willing to do a sub-par job for low cost.

But, aside from that, I haven't been able to work on a project for 2 days now, really showcasing the distraction hypothesis.

Maybe I should outsource my work to someone less distracted.

Cabe

Remember the trade offs: timely-on budget-full quality, cannot have them all 3 at the same time.

This isn't exactly true.  If you budget for the high cost of timeliness and high quality, then you can certainly have it done within budget.  The problem is that these days, the word "budget" has somehow been equated to "cheap", and for some reason, every time someone budgets for something, they use unreasonably low numbers.

On the subject of being distracted. One of my most recent projects I could never get to at my job. Every time someone walked by my desk, they had to say something to me.

I ended up designing the whole thing while I was at home, after work hours. I even built a Multisim model of it at home. Worked perfectly.

I had to do this to free up time to chit-chat with everyone that insisted to do so hourly. Anyone else have to do this?

Cabe