Coping with the overload
Published Saturday August 30th, 2008
Modern technology Information overload causes workers to lose valuable hours of productivity
Technology was supposed to make life easier, but instead people seem to be working more and producing less, as information overload - the constant flow of e-mails, BlackBerry, Twitter, Facebook, and RSS feeds among others - takes over.
The problem is a relatively recent one, born of our modern communications systems, and research into the issue is still in its infancy, but one company that is looking into it is New York research firm Basex.
According to Basex, information overload takes up almost a third of the day of the average white-collar worker, which translates into more than two hours a day in lost productivity.
Measured against U.S. labour statistics, information overload is costing the American economy US$650 billion per year.
Regena Farnsworth, dean of the faculty of business at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, said the problem is that workplaces don't know how to effectively manage technology.
"What happens is that in your e-mail account or on your BlackBerry or other types of instant messaging, you get the very important things and the absolutely trivial," said Farnsworth, also a professor of human resources management.
"Most organizations don't have a good grasp on what is the appropriate form of media to use for the type of communication that they're sending."
Since there is no systematic plan in place to determine what kind of messages are sent via what type of media, inboxes get flooded with everything.
Overwhelmed, overstressed and overworked, employees forget some of the things they're given information on, or tune things out and ignore them altogether.
"Sometimes people just give up, get totally overloaded and do a mass delete, getting rid of the important along with the unimportant," Farnsworth said.
Stephen P. Franklin, a time management trainer in Moncton, said non-essential information is a huge problem for people these days.
"People live out of their inbox. It's their to-do list, it's their filing cabinet, it's their life," he said. "Whenever a new e-mail comes, they tend to drop what they're doing and the e-mail becomes the priority."
As the e-mails pile up, Franklin said, information overload can leave employees stressed and frustrated.
"When people leave work with their inbox still full, it feels like they haven't done their job," he said. "So people try to process their e-mails at home, and are doing them at 10 o'clock at night. It's really intruding and encroaching on their personal life."
In an effort to find solutions, Basex joined academics and tech giants like Microsoft, IBM and Intel to found the Information Overload Research Group.
Although it's still in the initial stages of research, the group sees two main strategies for coping with the overload.
One is to impose moratoriums on communications technologies, such as declaring Fridays as "no e-mail day."
The other is to adopt tools that help workers manage information.
Farnsworth said that organizations need to do a better job of training managers and employees about appropriate forms of communication, such as not sending important messages via e-mail unless they're urgent.
Franklin said companies also need to establish clear e-mail guidelines for their employees - outlining who should be included in a reply instead of simply replying to everyone, for instance.
Ultimately though, Franklin said, employees need to take personal responsibility for the way they manage information.
"It's up to the individual to make that choice to disconnect from the office," he said.
"That means turning off the BlackBerry, turning off the cellphone, and making the decision that enough is enough."
- with files from CanWest News Service
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