Q: For the last few months, I’ve helped train a new co worker. He’s caught on fairly well and is doing a good job. The problem is that he interrupts me either with questions or comments, all day long. Most of the time he knows the answers. So I’m not sure why he continues to ask questions. What can I do to get him to stop interrupting me? It’s becoming very annoying.

A: Is it possible that your new colleague got used to being on “training mode”? While some people may be eager to venture out and detach from their trainer once they’ve learned the job, others might want to hang on to feeling supported and reassured. Judging from your trainee’s desire to desire to check in and maintain contact even when unnecessary, it sounds like he’s the latter.

Aside from being annoying , interruptions carry a hidden cost: some studies say it can take as long as 20 min to recover after an interruption, why so long? First it’s the actual going off task. Then the restart –reassembling the thoughts and direction after the loss of momentum toward the purpose. Now add a pinch of frustration from having to crank-up those neural pathways back to task.

“Got a minute?” should really be, “Got 20 minutes?”.

So how do you stop his interruptions?

It’s very likely that you were an great trainer and made him feel comfortable interrupting you while he was learning, but now it’s time to set some boundaries, so he doesn’t just mindlessly interrupt but instead stops and determines whether this is the best time.

Here are a couple of tips.

1. Designate some of your time as “Available” and “Unavailable”. Simple yet effective: during your “unavailable time”, he should only interrupt you if it can’t wait. The benefit is twofold: you will get some relief, and he will become more aware of the fact that his questions are in fact interruptions and will learn to discern what’s urgent and what can wait until later.

1. Learn to say, “No”. When you hear, “Got a minute?”It’s perfectly okay to say,” No, I can’t right now, I’m in the middle of something, how about in one hour? “ These are all teaching moments that will make him stop and think.

How about now. Got a minute?

©Copyright Eva Del Rio

Eva Del Rio is creator of HR Box™ – tools for small businesses and startups. Send questions to Eva@evadelrio.com