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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"
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.
>> 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.
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.