Slashdot Mirror
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?
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.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Productivity goes up. Less labor is needed. The value of your labor goes down. You have to work more. Also, unemployment is higher.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Email is an anathema. It sucks the life blood out of creativity, focus, and productivity. Unless you are in a job that is all about processing a series of tasks there is no way you could think email increases your productivity.
Not a reasonable expectation, and to "remember" someone for not responding to an email that could wait until the next day is beyond draconian.
People have lives that start at the close of business. Yes, yes, I realise that for some people, there is no close of business, but I have told every boss I've ever worked for that when I walk out the door, I'm unemployed until I walk back in the following work day. I do not give out my personal mobile number to colleagues, only to the boss -- on the understand it's for emergency use only. I don't want to be "online" at all hours as I've got a family, and they come first. Work for me is a means to make money and do something I find relatively interesting -- it's not the be all and end all. I don't live to work -- I work to live. Try it. Get a girlfriend, have a beer, go see the sights with said girl. Getting off the grid is healthy and let's you enjoy life.
I never promace that the stuff I make will make their lives easier. Actually I state it will make their job harder... Because you will need to focus on the hard stuff (People relations, Understanding the business and exceptions...) and less time on the easy stuff (pushing papers, following a prescribed workflow, Double checking you math, Collecting data that already exists...)
I have been hired to make your job more difficult. But at the same thread it is more efficient. And because you are not doing a lot of the mind numbing job, chances are you are not eyeing the clock as carefully as if you were.
The problem is good software replaces the need for Jr. Employees. This is making it harder for new employees to get in at the ground floor. As the new starting job is already more demanding.
Back in them good old days, the stereotypical success stories is about the guy who started in the mail room and worked himself up to CEO. That doesn't happen anymore. Email has replaced that mailroom. Now the person who is starting needs a degree of professional skills even to get hired. So the story no longer works any more.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The fact that technology improves our ability to bitch about working from home and complaining about technology does not negate the fact that the answer is yes, rapid communication increases wealth and productivity. Secretaries taking notes by shorthand and being trained on electric typewriters was less productive. It's as obvious as the phone call replacing telegrams, and radio replacing the Towne Crier. The hope is savings, if labor saves and invests its money (especially in the stocks of companies benfitting from the progress) labor can survive and even come out ahead. If ou dad and mom blew their savings however, we have far more competition than they did to achieve the same asset base. We compete not just with technology, but with billions of other people in wired emerging markets.
Gently reply
>> 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.
It kind of reminds me of this PSA
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.)
You stereotypers are all the same...
Since my employer is working me 10+ hours a day, I do not feel any regret over checking my personal email or craigslist during the workday. There's plenty of work to be done; there should be some slack time too.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Those surveyed were folks who still had thier jobs, and they are more productuive doing the work of multiple people thanks to computers. Let's get a little more balanced and see how email affected the folks who had jobs.
If you are in the tech sector, useful technology will usually make you more productive.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
I will typically check my email (work or otherwise) as it comes in on my phone. Key word there, "check" - not "act on", not "respond to", not even "give a second thought".
I have always made it entirely clear to my employers that I treat my free time as my free time. Any time outside of 9-to-5, my employer should fully expect to find me either three hours from the nearest computer, or three sheets to the wind, or asleep, or any of a number of other conditions that would preclude me actually "working". Note that I don't act like a dick about it - If something needs to happen off-hours, I usually count as the first one to volunteer to stay late... With the understanding that I will come in similarly late the next day.
That said, I do appreciate having an "early warning system" for serious problems... If a server goes down over the weekend, I'll make a point of preparing myself for the inevitable barrage of shit that will fly around Monday morning - Extra cup of coffee, maybe even go in a few minutes early so I can do my normal settling-in routine before everyone expects me in six places at once.
As for blocking websites - Do any companies seriously still not block at least some websites?
6/10. And you only scored that high because someone bit.
Technology is part of the reason we can't get away from work, the other is the change in overtime rules. It used to be that companies had to pay overtime for hours worked over 40. This meant that when people left their job, they also left their work at their job in general. Even if you could call someone at home and ask them a question, you didn't. Unfortunately, the overtime rules were eroded to the point that almost no one gets overtime. If you work in an office setting at all, you are expected to put in more than 40 hours a week every single week and not get paid for it. Since they don't have to pay overtime, there is no issue with calling and emailing people at all hours and expecting them to answer. Technology made it easier to get a hold of people outside of business hours, but the reduction of overtime meant that it was okay to do it, which is the bigger issue.
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
All the posts on slashdot bitching about just about every aspect of working, you'd think it was the worst thing ever. Why don't you just freelance if you hate it so much? It seems to have worked out well for me so far, but then again, I didn't think an open office was the devil, either.
"Almost half of the surveyed employees say their employer either forbids or explicitly blocks access to certain websites at the office."
That's why people bring their iPads and use their cellphone's connection to play games and buy stuff on company dime.
Have gnu, will travel.
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).
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
My employment contract specifically states that I can only work 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday, during normal business hours. My productivity is dependent on what tools I get from upper management to do my job and what the IT department do to stay out of my way.
I call a cell phone an electronic leash. But I've refused to get email on the phone. Sorry - if it's burning down you can text me or in really extreme cases call me. And I make that clear wherever I've worked.
Let me fix that headline:
More Time Spent Working Increases Productivity
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped