The Cell Phone has Killed the World Including Construction

Far be it from me to explain how ubiquitous smartphones are, and this is not fully science-backed, the following is some research mixed with real-world observations. When I first started my career before going to college, I made my living as a worker, apprenticed as a drywall finisher and held the career for five years. I am not ancient by any stretch, but back then, every worker had a cell phone. However, taking calls and sending rudimentary texts (pre-smartphone) was against company policy, and socially, no one accepted that kind of behavior. We were there to work, well or at least work in between pranks and job site drama. Now that I’m over a decade into the consulting side, the workers are different, and much less work seems to be getting done.

Phones on the Jobsite

I constantly visit job sites and rarely is everyone working. Oftentimes, every other guy is checking their crypto or scrolling mindlessly. Gone are the days when workers knew they had to be busy, or at least look busy. With restoration in the city being so strong, no one is worried about their job, so now the patient is running the asylum.

Sure, we’ve all got our guilty pleasures, but when you’re supposed to be laying brick and instead you’re texting your mamacita or searching for…girls shaking their ass productivity plummets. And in construction, delays aren’t just annoying, but they’re also a perception issue. We don’t need to reinforce construction stereotypes that there’s one worker for every five onlookers.

The Data Doesn’t Lie

Gone are the days when a crew comes in and knocks out a parapet wall with efficiency. Research backs this up. According to a study from Zippia, employees spend an average of 56 minutes each workday on their cell phones for non-work-related activities. While this statistic spans various industries, the impact on construction is especially clear.

Additionally, a National Safety Council survey found that nearly half of construction workers admit to using their phones for personal reasons on the clock. Most bosses are quick to explain that non-working time is stealing. If ten guys waste an hour a day, that’s 50 hours a week—the equivalent of hiring another worker.

Why Construction Is Especially Vulnerable

Construction work hours are stringent, especially in restoration, where work often takes place in residential areas with a building full of tenants. This means that working late to hit a deadline is a non-starter.

Construction sites also have inherent dangers. In my 20-plus years of experience, I’ve been on several job sites where accidents resulted in the loss of life, often due to inattention. Add a distracted smartphone user into the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Unsurprisingly, OSHA has linked countless accidents to distracted workers.

Other industries may be able to absorb this kind of distraction. Construction? Not so much.

It’s Not Just Construction Phones Are Wreaking Havoc Everywhere

This issue isn’t endemic to construction. The APA found that the average worker spends 2.5 hours a day on non-work-related activities. That’s like taking a long lunch break without even getting a decent meal out of it.

A recent Atlantic article points out that kids are no longer reading because short-form content has ruined their attention spans. If college students can’t focus, what chance do construction workers on a noisy job site have?

What Can Be Done?

Is there a fix? Banning phones outright is about as realistic as asking workers to commute by horse and buggy. People need their phones for work-related tasks, including checking specs, communicating with the team, or Googling useful hacks. But here are a few ways we think the impact can be mitigated:

Lead by Example: Have clear guidelines for management’s acceptable cell phone practices. Don’t instantly text or message back responses. Provide clear times when it’s acceptable to send messages and be clear that responses will be given during those times as well.
Educate: Sometimes people don’t even realize how much time they’re wasting. I implemented what I called deep work hours (Google Cal Newport for a more eloquent explanation) and asked that the entire team, during certain time blocks, put away their phones and focus on tedious tasks.
Set Boundaries: Create clear policies about when and where phones can be used. Emergency call? Fine. Crypto trading? Save it for lunch.
Reward: Set production goals and offer incentives for hitting them. Track and share the results across the company to create friendly competition.

Change is possible. Not saying we should go back to a bored workforce that tolerated job site hazing, which was fun, but with some creativity and synergy, the paradigm can shift.

Final Thoughts

So, did the cell phone really “kill” construction? Technology has certainly made things harder for the workforce. I’m seeing fewer and fewer young people enter the trades, which is a tragedy because soon there will be a limited few to actually do the work or they’ll be doing it in between Instagram stories.