{
  "title": "Attention residue: what an interruption actually costs",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/interruptions-residu-attentionnel-cout-cache-management-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2026-09-17",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "Returning to a task after an interruption is not resuming where you left off. A critical reading of a documented mechanism — and of what it does not license us to conclude.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Frontline Management",
  "place": {
    "name": "Geneva",
    "region": "Genève",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "The mechanism described",
      "point": "Sophie Leroy (2009, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes) named attention residue the fact that part of one's cognitive resources remains engaged with an interrupted task when another one begins."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What field observation adds",
      "point": "Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith and Ulrich Klocke (2008, CHI) observed that interrupted people completed their task in comparable time, but at the price of higher reported effort and stress."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The managerial temptation to resist",
      "point": "The mechanism is often converted into a simple rule: eliminate interruptions."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Why this concerns front-line management first",
      "point": "The front-line manager is simultaneously the most interrupted person and the first source of interruption for the team."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Two defensible conditions, and their limits",
      "point": "What current knowledge cautiously supports: allowing even partial closure before switching — noting where one stands and the next step — reduces the residue Leroy describes; and grouping requests into announced windows preserves the mutual help Perlow describes while limiting fragmentation."
    },
    {
      "heading": "One practical implication, testable internally",
      "point": "Before installing new time-management tooling, it is cheaper to measure one thing: over a week, how many meetings or messages demanded an immediate answer that could have waited four hours."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Leroy",
      "year": "2009",
      "source": "Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Klocke",
      "year": "2008",
      "source": "CHI"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Perlow",
      "year": "1999",
      "source": "Administrative Science Quarterly"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 436,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-editorial-2026-09-17-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/interruptions-residu-attentionnel-cout-cache-management",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/interruptions-residu-attentionnel-cout-cache-management-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/interruptions-residu-attentionnel-cout-cache-management-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/interruptions-residu-attentionnel-cout-cache-management-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/management-de-proximite/geneve",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/geneve",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}