Smartphone Junkies Report Higher Job Satisfaction

Next time the boss catches you playing games on your phone, try this one out: "Candy Crush is helping boost my workplace performance." It wouldn't be a total lie because—and you can thank me later for finding this excuse to burn company time—research has linked frequent phone breaks with being a happy worker drone.

This good news for gaming addicts comes from Sooyeol Kim, a doctoral student at Kansas State University who's investigating how new technology can alleviate occupational fatigue. Kim believes there's something to be said for "microbreaks," the kind of work lulls that used to be filled with water-cooler chats and strolls around the office but now increasingly take the form of cell-phone tunnel vision. While logging a solid hour playing Threes would not be great for productivity, making quick check-ins with your favorite apps could refresh the brain enough to fill out another TPS report, believes Kim.