New research has found the open plan office space may not be the best idea, with constant interruptions leading to errors all over the shop.

Efforts to increase interaction and collaboration in the workplace can have a negative effect, research shows. Studies have linked frequent interruptions to exhaustion, stress and a doubling of error rates.

While it may be easy to pretend the phone or inbox does not exist when the time comes to get something done, it is much harder to ignore a live co-worker.

A recent report said that interrupting people for 2.8 seconds caused them to make twice as many errors in a simple typing exercise, also finding it can take up to 25 minutes to refocus on the task.

“Two seconds is long enough to make people lose the thread,” says Erik Altmann, a psychology professor at Michigan State University.

“It takes effort to get back into it. That work is aversive, so you start checking your email,” Dr. Altmann said.

Employees who experienced frequent interruptions reported 9% higher rates of exhaustion, almost as much as the 12% increase caused by oversized workloads, according to a report in the International Journal of Stress Management. Interruptions also led to a 4% jump in physical ailments such as migraines and backaches.

Some companies have already begun to combat the negative effects of distraction. One hospital in the US has nurses wearing brightly coloured sashes while they are preparing medications, to warn others off interrupting the critical job.