Supporting workplace detachment and reattachment with conversational intelligence

Alex C. Williams; Harmanpreet Kaur; Gloria Mark; Anne Loomis Thompson; Shamsi T. Iqbal; Jaime Teevan

doi:10.1145/3173574.3173662

Supporting workplace detachment and reattachment with conversational intelligence

Alex C. Williams
, Harmanpreet Kaur
, Gloria Mark
, Anne Loomis Thompson
, Shamsi T. Iqbal
, Jaime Teevan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

79 Scopus citations

Abstract

Research has shown that productivity is mediated by an individual's ability to detach from their work at the end of the day and reattach with it when they return the next day. In this paper we explore the extent to which structured dialogues, focused on individuals' work-related tasks or emotions, can help them with the detachment and reattachment processes. Our inquiry is driven with SwitchBot, a conversational bot which engages with workers at the start and end of their work day. After preliminarily validating the design of a detachment and reattachment dialogue framework with 108 crowdworkers, we study SwitchBot's use in-situ for 14 days with 34 information workers. We find that workers send fewer e-mails after work hours and spend a larger percentage of their first hour at work using productivity applications than they normally would when using SwitchBot. Further, we find that productivity gains were better sustained when conversations focused on work-related emotions. Our results suggest that conversational bots can be effective tools for aiding workplace detachment and reattachment and help people make successful use of their time on and off the job.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publication	Engage with CHI
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450356206, 9781450356213
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173662
State	Published - Apr 20 2018
Externally published	Yes
Event	2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018 - Montreal, Canada Duration: Apr 21 2018 → Apr 26 2018

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Volume	2018-April

Other

Other	2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Montreal
Period	4/21/18 → 4/26/18

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

Keywords

Bot
Detachment
Productivity
Reattachment
Resumption

Publisher link

10.1145/3173574.3173662

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Find It at U of M Libraries

Cite this

Williams, A. C., Kaur, H., Mark, G., Thompson, A. L., Iqbal, S. T., & Teevan, J. (2018). Supporting workplace detachment and reattachment with conversational intelligence. In CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Engage with CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings; Vol. 2018-April). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173662

Supporting workplace detachment and reattachment with conversational intelligence. / Williams, Alex C.; Kaur, Harmanpreet; Mark, Gloria et al.
CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Engage with CHI. Association for Computing Machinery, 2018. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings; Vol. 2018-April).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Williams, AC, Kaur, H, Mark, G, Thompson, AL, Iqbal, ST & Teevan, J 2018, Supporting workplace detachment and reattachment with conversational intelligence. in CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Engage with CHI. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, vol. 2018-April, Association for Computing Machinery, 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018, Montreal, Canada, 4/21/18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173662

Williams AC, Kaur H, Mark G, Thompson AL, Iqbal ST, Teevan J. Supporting workplace detachment and reattachment with conversational intelligence. In CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Engage with CHI. Association for Computing Machinery. 2018. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). doi: 10.1145/3173574.3173662

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Supporting workplace detachment and reattachment with conversational intelligence

Abstract

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Keywords

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