Synchronized coffee breaks raised a call center’s productivity by $15 million annually

Evidence

Writing in Scientific American on the power of sociometric data, Pentland says, “I persuaded the manager of a Bank of America call center to schedule coffee breaks simultaneously. The goal was to promote more engagement between employees. This single change resulted in a productivity increase of $15 million a year.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1353

Categorization

• CANDY: A fun, lightweight fact: one scheduling change worth $15 million a year — great cocktail conversation and an eye-catching stat.
• QUESTION: Is this estimate robust? One intervention, one reported number from the researcher promoting the technology — worth chasing whether independent studies replicate the coffee-break effect.