German workers report many interruptions. In the federal Stress Report for 2012, almost 60 percent said they had to handle different tasks at the same time. 44 percent said they were interrupted at work, for example by calls and e-mails. In the 2025 stress report of the health insurer Techniker Krankenkasse, 58 percent named interruptions and disruptions as a cause of stress at work. In the trade unions’ DGB-Index Gute Arbeit of 2022, 46 percent said that multitasking had increased the demands on them. The DGB chair, Yasmin Fahimi, called the results ein Alarmsignal, an alarm signal.
Interruptions are common in German workplaces, and the surveys of the health insurer and the trade unions record them as a source of strain.