Tech Makes Working Harder

Ant wrote to mention a C|Net article exploring U.S. workers' productivity. People say they actually accomplish less now than they did a decade ago. Research blames technology as the culprit. From the article: "Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it's slowed everything down, paradoxically ... We never concentrate on one task anymore. You take a little chip out of it, and then you're on to the next thing ... It's harder to feel like you're accomplishing something.'"

Comments

Not a technology problem

[KingSkippus]

Well, without technology, I'd be unemployed, so in that sense, I guess I really am working harder because of it.

We never concentrate on one task anymore. You take a little chip out of it, and then you're on to the next thing.

This sounds more like a self-discipline problem than a problem with technology to me. When I have an important task to work on, somehow, I manage to concentrate on it. It's called prioritization, and it's something that people have had to deal with since a naked ape was put in charge of making sure the fire stays lit.

Re:Not a technology problem

[MO!]

Sorry, that's not "technology" failing, quite the opposite - it's fulfilled that dream all too well. The problem is the rush to increase Productivity in the workplace. So instead of 40 employees working less hours and having more free time, we have 10 employees working longer hours doing the work 40 employees did then. I'd have to say the reason we feel overworked and less productive is because we've hit or are at least approaching a limit in this increased Productivity race. You can only reduce the workforce so much before those that remain can no longer keep up with business needs. That's not because technology has failed, it's because it's succeeded and is being expoited to an extreme degree.

Re:Not a technology problem

[KingSkippus]

You're exactly right, and I think that's one of the problems in America today: Businesses are exerting more and more pressure on its workers to accomplish more in less time.

But U.S. workers have to some extent let them get away with it. Once some people went on call 24x7 with their pagers, then cell phones, then Blackberries, it put a lot of pressure on the rest of us to do so. In spite of the fact that no one's really doing their job very well, no one's pushing back and saying, "Enough!" And, of course, the vast majority of CEOs and upper-level managers are either too stupid to recognize what's happening or they just don't care as long as they get their fat bonus.

I don't know what the answer to that problem is, but as far as my job goes, when I'm working on something really important, the pager goes off, the instant message service is put into "Do not disturb" mode, the cell phone stays on but will mostly be ignored, the work phone is forwarded to voice mail, and I focus on the task at hand. I don't have an office door, but people who try to talk to me have been told, "I can't talk right now, I'm working on something very important. I'll come see you later."

If you're trying to get in touch with me, it can be irritating, but if yours is the problem I'm working on, you'd better damn well believe that I'm your best friend.

If more people would do that instead of just sucking it up and trying to process six things at once, not only would they do their job better, but they would start seeing people respect them more as you showed positive results.

Or you may get fired for blowing off the wrong person, in which case you have my sympathy and I sincerely hope that you manage to find another job where management is just a little less stupid.

Re:Not a technology problem

[timeOday]

I don't think it's fair to dismiss the decline in worker productivity as being solely attributal to a lack of prioritization.

What decline in worker productivity? All this story said is that people feel less productive and less successful. Objective measurements show that worker productivity is rising.

I think this quote from the article hits it on the head:

Even if productivity increases, it's constantly outpaced by those expectations, said Don Grimme of GHR Training Solutions, a workplace training company in Coral Springs, Fla.

So I don't think the article has any real statement to make about productivity. However, the fact that people feel less successful and more rushed is an important thing in itself. To me it says that the increase at productivity has come at the cost of some measures of quality of life. When will we wake up and realize that there's more to life than per capita GDP?

Feelings

[Kohath]

The study surveys people. The people feel like they get a smaller percentage of their work done.

This is just the press being stupid again.

It's all about perception

[wolfemi1]

If people get more communications (like email) about work, they will feel like there is more to be done. The article and summary both say that people feel like they are less productive, not that they actually are.

Technology is Neutral.

[malkavian]

The tech part is entirely neutral in the equation.
The real issue here is management. Because information is available, management often believe they do need it.
Often, that's pretty far from the truth. People spend so much time now gathering useless figures, processing those, and presenting them that they often don't bother to take care of the issues that don't readily fit into numeric analysis, or worry about whether they're introducing noise into the signal (which only needs to be filtered out again later).
What people need to do is take a step back and determine what they really need to do their job, and get a process in place that'll automate delivery of the figures they actually need to them when they're needed.
That way, they'll likely find that the job does increase in efficiency.

Not just that

[Lord_Dweomer]

Not only do I feel like I actually get LESS done with tech....I also feel like more is expected of me. Its like....ok, we gave you this computer that can do all these things, now do it in half the time it used to take. Not to mention that since tech definitely does increase efficiency in some area...suddenly they dump even more work on you to fill up whatever free time you might have had their. So instead of being able to be more thorough and spend more time with a project thanks to the free time the technology enables, instead in leads to us getting rushed through it more and more.

Not to mention that tech has only added to the problem of employers thinking they rule your life...expecting you to stay late every night and work on weekends.

Its funny...but I'm sure I'm not the only one here who wishes for simpler times when life was a bit slower.

Dynamics are more complex than that!

[quad4b]

There is virtually no way to make a rational and reasonable argument about this. Technology is not just about worker productivity it is about how transactions are done between businesses. Money flows electronically between banks; ERP systems help schedule work orders, raw materials purchase, plant employee scheduling; Databases track client interactions, purchases, bank transactions...the list is long. People are not disciplined in their use of time and waste it sending/replying to meaningless e-mails, reading ones that don't concern them. Some systems do hamstring employees by forcing them to work in ways that are counterproductive but these are few. Turn of your Blackberry vibrator so it doesn't break your concentration every time you get an e-mail. Kill that Outlook pop-up telling you there is a new mail message. Forward your phone two hours a day and concentrate on tasks that require it. There is a sense that more is expected and it is. Technology has made faster trade requiring faster decisions and task turn-around. People have decided to compete on that level. The market economy encourages work to the max and without limits. Globalization has increased this effect. Blame capitalism not technology. Stop blaming an individual casue for the resulting problems - it's a question of dynamics that involve the entire system and not just one or two parts. But that would require that people inform themselves and actually think instead of whine and complain.

Re:What's happening...

[gclef]

I hate to sound like a fogey, but I'm in my mid-thirties, I grew up using computers, and trust me, it won't help.

The problem is not familiarity with computers. It's an overload of tasks. Productivity is expected to rise on a regular basis (heck, we measure the growth of our economy this way), which means we are expected to do more with the same resources. Automation of common tasks has helped immensely in keeping up with this curve, but eventuallly the edge cases (the things that don't fit in the automation) overwhelm your time.

I'm starting to see that regularly at my office: I've automated about as much as I can automate, and my job now consists of firefighting the systems that (for various technical and political reasons) I can't automate. It's not that I don't know how to use computers, it's that the task list is rising faster than I can finish them or automate them away.

More ways...

[zubinjdalal]

... to slack off. Agreed that technology causes us to be distracted more often... but it also speeds up certain tasks in the process. Now if you don't want to work...

So true

[bioglaze]

So true. Context switching wastes clock cycles, but pre-emptive scheduling is still a must. I have tried to learn to manage my own time from operating systems studies. I still have a lot to learn. Especially IRC is bad. Just have to check new messages frequently. These things can help to improve workflow:

- Use laptop, without network connection, so you can find a quiet and comfortable place
- If you listen to music, make sure it's pleasant
- Think about room's lightning and improve it if necessary
- There's on/off button on your cellphone
- Noisy computer distracts your mind
- Keep only tabs related to your work open in your browser
- Human mind takes ~15 minutes to concentrate on a subject, so that's a good minimum running time of a process
- Meditation and yoga can help on concentration

Re:What's happening...

[gclef]

I see the effect mentioned in the article (lots of work, more coming, so you don't have time to fully *finish* everything) in offices with lots of tech-savvy workers, and in offices without them. I don't think tech familarity fixes the problem, it just shifts which problems become your time sinks.

I think that's the core of the problem: not that we're getting better at tech, but that finishing some tasks faster with tech doesn't necessarily allow us to actually *accomplish* more. (Does it help me accomplish more if I can talk to my boss more often via email? Maybe. Maybe not.)