Pew Survey: Tech Increases Productivity, But Also Time Spent Working

An anonymous reader writes: A survey of American workers conducted by the Pew Research Center found that email was their most indispensable tool, topping even broad access to the internet. 46% of workers say their productivity has increased thanks to email, the internet, and cell phones, while only 7% say those technologies have caused it to decrease. While many workers say technology has created a more flexible work schedule, they also say it has increased the total amount of hours they spend working. Almost half of the surveyed employees say their employer either forbids or explicitly blocks access to certain websites at the office. How have these technologies affected your work environment?

Comments

Duh

[Virtucon]

Talk about overstating the obvious. You can't leave work anymore. Every boss or company problem invades you digitally. Whether it's an e-mail or a text message you're always on the clock and expected in most cases to be available. This used to be true for tech workers but it's now anybody.

Depends on the job

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Whether it's an e-mail or a text message you're always on the clock and expected in most cases to be available

That really depends on the job, my friend. I don't have any work email on my mobile devices. I do publish my cell phone number on all my email sigs, at my desk, etc. What happens in practice is this:

1) You send me email when I'm not in the office: I learn about the next time I sit down or RPC in - during business hours.
2) You send me a text: you get "twitter length and quality" answers from me. After every 3-5 messages I'm likely to ask you, "is this something I need to sign on and look at immediately?" If that answer is "no" I'll have you send me an email and I'll look at it during business hours.
3) You call me: OK, you've got my attention, but thanks to recent changes in culture a live phone call is considered invasive and for high-priority stuff only.

The result is that I'm really only pulled into business work about once a week, maybe twice if I'm on vacation.

Jeavon's Paradox

[Radtastic]

Interestingly, this effect is like a twisted manifestation of Jeavon's Paradox. As we become more efficient with a resource, more of the resource is used up. (Conventional wisdom would suggest the opposite; that efficiency drives conservation.)

Opinion!=Fact

[wisnoskij]

Asking someone their opinion one (i.e. "has email made you more productive") never returns the same answer as actually measuring that quantity.
This survey's results do not in anyway state that email increases productivity, instead they found that there is a general public perception that email increases productivity, but that perception is far from ubiquitous (only 46% of people apparently agree).