The idea that multitasking equals efficiency is a myth. In reality, employees switch tasks every 3 minutes, and once distracted, it can take up to 30 minutes to regain full focus. Multiply that across dozens of tasks in a week, and whole hours vanish. According to Forbes, context switching alone can drain 20% of productive time—meaning one full day lost every week. The losses are silent but real, and they accumulate faster than most managers realize.
When IT Interruptions Pile Up
Now picture a finance director pulled into solving printer jams or a nurse asked to reset a Wi-Fi router between patient visits. Those interruptions don’t just eat into the day; they derail focus. Non-technical staff aren’t hired to wrestle with IT, but when no one else is available, someone has to take a crack at it. The inevitable result is a frustrated staff member and an unresolved technical issue. Meanwhile, the actual business-related work sits neglected.
Overlooked Risks Without Managed IT Services
The risk isn’t only wasted time. Divided attention due to unmanaged tech burdens can create blind spots in employees’ job duties and in the IT environment itself. Vulnerability patches slip through the cracks, error messages go uninvestigated, and backup alerts get ignored. Attackers count on that kind of lapse.
It only takes one. One missed security patch, one ignored alert, one clicked link in an email can translate into ransomware downtime, regulatory fines, or customer data exposure. Security gaps can bring any organization to its knees, regardless of size. It’s not difficult to expose yourself to risk by multitasking, which spreads staff too thin. Multitasking inefficiencies already cost U.S. businesses $450 billion annually in lost productivity, and security missteps only magnify the impact.
The Human Cost: Stress and Burnout
Burnout is another consequence. Employees pulled into IT firefighting on top of their core role will often hit a wall quickly. Stress climbs, morale drops, and turnover follows. That revolving door costs more than most organizations budget for when it doesn’t account for recruiting, training, and lost productivity every time a skilled worker leaves. Asking people to wear too many hats might look resourceful on paper, but in practice it bleeds talent and efficiency.
The Smarter Solution: Partner with a Managed Service Provider
There is a way out: take IT off your team’s plate and put it where it belongs. A managed service provider (MSP) and security operations center (SOC) bring specialized staff, 24/7 monitoring, and proven processes. Whether it’s patching servers and workstations, defending against phishing and other malicious attacks, ensuring crucial data is backed up and recoverable, or optimizing your network to reduce lag and downtime, ITA does it all so that your staff can do what you actually hired them for. That means fewer distractions, tighter security, and more resilient systems that get your organization back to what it’s meant to be doing.
From Distraction to Advantage
If multitasking is dragging down your workplace, stop normalizing it. Shift IT responsibilities to experts who live and breathe them. IT Acceleration delivers “Security That Never Sleeps,” letting your staff focus on their work instead of ours. Contact ITA today and turn IT from a distraction into an advantage.