Discussion of Fast Company Technology Poll: Does technology in the workplace make your life easier-or does it end up making you work longer hours?"

I LOVE the technology at my fingertips! As someone who once thought that a mimeograph machine was a labor-saving device, todays technical possibilities are awesome. Yet, I think I am more stressed out than ever because demands and expectations of supervisors, coworkers and customers are unlimited today.

With this gut-reaction, I read with interest all of the responses to this online poll. According to this Fast Company data, 78% feel that "Technology Helps" while 22% say that "Technology Sucks".

Of course such an online poll necessarily represents a very biased sample of technology-savy respondents.

Yet, I was pleased with the number of people who, like me, questioned the ramifications of technology for our professional and personal lives. Even though 78% voted "Technology Helps", many of those are becoming increasingly aware of these negatives:

7 Technology is causing a greater demand for detail than ever before resulting in a "never out of reach syndrome" and "never too much information syndrome"; 7 Although we cant do our work without technology, "how many potentially productive hours have you lost because you couldnt figure out how to make a program do what you needed; the program did what you needed, but not reliably; something crashed; you had to upgrade; you got disconnected for no reasonyou spent hours making a spreadsheet look pretty because standards are now so much higher for what people will read and respond to" 7 We work more hours today because technology allows us to produce more and therefore our employers ask for more; 7 Technology has sped up the pace of business so much that it is increasing difficult to achieve a balance between work and home; 7 Technology is replacing activities that have been important to human development: face-to-face interaction, creativity, and privacy; 7 Technology allows us to be much more productive, but creates a higher burnout rate.

In polling my own coworkers and friends, even the "techies" agreed that the increasing demands on technology has increased job stress and reduced job satisfaction. Most commented that the sophistication of todays technology has increased rather than decreased the number of hours that they spend "at work".

Since possibilities are endless, how can you know when to stop working? How do you keep it from taking over your life?

From reading this poll, taking with coworkers and looking at my own life, I realize that I must take charge of when to shut the computer off. As always, I am in control of when to stop working. I must be aware of and set my priorities. My ability to take control of my work and my life has not been reduced with this technological revolution. I can still set my boundaries and establish my priorities. This has not changed.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 1998

Answers

Good observations about the use of technology. Where did you access this online poll (URL address)? One of the items no mentioned here, is the amount of time that we as professionals spend word processing, inputting data, etc. that was previously done by administrative personnel. Is this really an efficient use of our time?

I appreciate the point that you made of taking control of your work and your time. We often are mislead into believing that all this wonderful technology will make our jobs much easier. The key point is to ensure that we use technology for what it is--a tool. We cannot allow it to run our lives.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 1999

Mari, I agree with your observations!! Today I took a day off to try to catch up on this class. So far I have spent 2 hours "traveling" the Internet for info and the day is quickly slipping away!! At work, too; I often wish I knew right where to go to get answers, but even if I keep the addresses of good sites, I have a folder so full it still takes a long time to find the sites I want! I guess a possible solution is a good web-site address filing system by subject. Anyone have time to organize that?? Kari

-- Anonymous, March 04, 1999