According to the head hunter, almost half of those polled globally responded 'talkative colleagues' when asked their most time consuming distraction at work. One-third of respondents picked personal emails and Internet browsing while 8 percent social networking sites, 6 percent smoking breaks, and 5 percent personal calls and/or text messages.

Like respondents in Hong Kong, those from Singapore (49 percent), New Zealand (70 percent), and Ireland (62 percent) also find chatty co-workers distracting.