Speed, flexibility of location and working at a distance are the current effects and opportunities of digitization in the workplace. In this article, based on the statements of my round table, the phenomenon of technostress is discussed. I’ll show those of mine Participants in the round table discussed possible risks in the course of change in the workplace.
What is technostress?
Wikipedia says: Technostress is a specific sub-category of the stress phenomenon. Technostress is caused in everyday situations in which the user is overwhelmed by new technical devices or systems. Technostress is a reaction of the body to the strong psychological stress that can be caused by technology. In many ways, it represents resistance to changes that newly introduced technologies bring with them.
Why is there technostress?
All participants of my Round tables state that their companies use a high proportion of tools and new technologies. Along with this, the participants notice technostress due to overstimulation and constant availability. So is the consensus of the participants:
- Massive number of e-mails, notifications and other tool-internal messages often at the same time
- Often communication takes place on more than one channel at the same time (notification via Skype that an e-mail has been sent)
- Many of those present take the company laptop home or to the weekend
- Rest and leisure suffer mainly from the merging of private and company smartphones
- Many of the participants do not have a private smartphone and admit to answering e-mails while on vacation
- However, the participants do not need external help but demand that employees protect themselves
But how does such a technostress show up alongside the usual stress symptoms? The following examples of focusing are given:
- In the past, more time was spent on a task, nowadays new tasks are often assigned directly while a task is being processed
- E-mails are often only written in lower case letters and are usually sent incompletely, so that several e-mails have to be forwarded
Conclusion: technostress in the workplace
In the summary, the consensus of participants is that “The human factor simply cannot be forgotten” and it’s not enough “Just any tools” to put down. “One must[die Mitarbeiter] raise awareness, have to pick them up “ is the collective opinion of the participants. In conclusion, one of the participants clarified the statements about distance work: “Agility can actually only arise when you have seen each other. Because it makes a difference whether we sit 1.5 meters apart or whether there is a screen in between and the other person is 500km away. “
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