University of Gothenburg Study Finds Workplace Phubbing During Breaks Correlates With Lower Employee Trust and Engagement

University of Gothenburg study shows that coworker phone use during breaks reduces trust and engagement among staff. Learn the impact of digital phubbing.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 9, 2026, 11:59 AM EDT

Source: The information in this article was sourced from University of Gothenburg

The Rise of the Digital Barrier in Common Areas

New research from the University of Gothenburg has identified a significant shift in the quality of workplace relationships driven by the habit of "phubbing," or phone snubbing. By prioritizing a mobile device over physically present colleagues during scheduled breaks, employees are inadvertently creating a social barrier that erodes the traditional foundations of the workplace environment. According to psychologist Per Martinsson, whose doctoral thesis examined these interactions, the displacement of social engagement by digital scrolling is often perceived as a withdrawal from the collective. This behavior, while often intended as a personal form of recovery, frequently translates into a lack of meaningful conversation and a visible decline in the quality of inter-office relationships.

Quantifying the Erosion of Workplace Community

The study utilized a dual approach, combining 25 in-depth interviews with a large scale survey of approximately 1,700 working adults across Sweden. The quantitative data revealed a consistent negative association between perceived coworker phubbing and the overall psychosocial work environment. According to the survey results, individuals who felt their colleagues were constantly distracted by phones reported lower levels of emotional and practical support, reduced trust, and a weakened sense of community. Interestingly, the research found that an individual's own mobile phone use did not correlate with these negative perceptions, suggesting that the harm stems specifically from the perceived exclusion by others in a shared space.

Generational Disparities in Digital Etiquette

The findings also highlighted a distinct divide in how different age groups perceive and accept mobile phone use during communal breaks. Younger employees were found to use their devices more frequently and were significantly more likely to consider it a socially acceptable behavior. However, the qualitative interviews with healthcare professionals and electricians suggested that phones are not always used as a tool for isolation. In some instances, devices were incorporated into social interactions, such as sharing videos or looking up information together. According to Martinsson, the ability to read a situation and understand when phone use is inclusive rather than exclusive has become a vital new work...