Southlanders Find It Hard to Concentrate

Anxious workers returned to their Southern California offices Wednesday, but many acknowledged that little was being accomplished as the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington proved to be an overwhelming distraction.

“Everyone showed up for work, but people are either surfing the Internet for the latest news or watching the television,” said Bruce Forman, 30, co-chief executive of Romp, a Santa Monica film production company with 22 employees. “It’s perfectly understandable. I’m not getting anything done either. I’m really not expecting much from them through the remainder of the week.”

Many high-rise buildings and other businesses in Southern California were closed Tuesday after hijacked jets destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and badly damaged the Pentagon. As companies reopened Wednesday, some workers wondered whether they also could be victims of terrorists.

Steve Pena, a partner in the law firm of Loeb & Loeb in Century City, said from his 21st-floor office that the idea of being a target was distracting him.

“Our building isn’t the tallest,” Pena said. “No one of notoriety is located here. There are more prominent buildings. Of course I was thinking about that, and I am absolutely not able to concentrate.”

And even the work that was getting done held reminders of Tuesday’s tragedy.

“I have a meeting later with a guy from Phoenix,” said Pena, a Westlake Village resident. “He had to drive all the way here because all of the airports were still closed.”

In downtown Los Angeles, 55-year-old attorney Merrick Bobb described “a completely eerie day” at his office on the 36th floor of the Gas Company Tower.

“There’s a pall over the office,” Bobb said. “On the elevator, one woman was wondering whether she knew someone who had died on one of the hijacked planes. I didn’t have any hesitation about coming to work today, but it’s difficult to stay focused on my work. The thought that terrorists might want to continue the panic with an attack on a place like this has run through my mind.”

Psychologists say that such reactions are normal, and that most businesses should expect productivity to suffer.

“People are in a state of shock,” said Steven Berglas, a clinical psychologist and instructor at UCLA’s Anderson business school. “When a professional is successful, he feels in control of his world, but our sense of control has been shattered.”

Yet going to work is a victory in itself, said Jill Stein, a lecturer and administrator in UCLA’s sociology department.

“They could feel powerless and overwrought and stay at home, or they could go in and try to work,” she said. “For them to show up is a symbol of strength. Even if they are just going through the motions, that is better than being incapacitated.”

Employees and employers should give themselves a break this week, take work in small chunks and reestablish contacts with friends and relatives, said J. Mitchell Perry, a psychologist and chief executive of JMP Learning Technologies in Ventura County.

“It’s perfectly understandable that the vast majority of people are going to have trouble concentrating on their computers,” Perry said.

Kirsten Clausen, who works at downtown Los Angeles public relations firm Golin/Harris International, was one of those having trouble concentrating.

“It’s hard to get back to what you consider normal,” Clausen said. “I’m only 25. I have nothing to compare this to.”