"It's that pressure to respond, like when I get an email and feel I have to reply quickly, or someone will think, 'What are you doing at home?'"
"The truth is that I leave my phone in the car at night, so I'm not tempted to look at it."
These are just two of the responses featured in a recent study exploring the challenges of hybrid work — the combination of in-person and remote work that has become more prevalent since the pandemic.
The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) has only just accepted "teleworking" as a new word, but society has been ahead of the curve for years, already grappling with the challenges of blending office and remote work. This hybrid format — particularly common in computer-based jobs — has attracted a lot of attention from academia. A recent qualitative study, based on 14 in-depth interviews conducted in 2022 with individuals ranging in age from 27 to 60 and from various work backgrounds, delves into the complexities of this new work dynamic.
"The article provides concrete insights into how the work experience is lived in a digital environment with high demands and intense use of technology," says Elizabeth Marsh, co-author and professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nottingham. "It analyzes how employees perceive being hyperconnected and feeling overwhelmed by their digital work, and the consequences for their mental and physical health."
Five common themes emerged from the responses, highlighting the "dark side" of hybrid work: hyperconnectivity, digital fatigue, system feature overload, informational fear of missing out, and techno-stress. Drawing from previous research, the article mentions that hybrid workers, driven in part by "productivity paranoia" from distrustful bosses, "can spend up to 67 extra minutes a day to avoid appearing to be faltering."
Several of the phrases cited in the study reflect common complaints about hybrid work: "You feel like you have to be there all the time, as if you had to be that little green light that's always on," "I'm constantly on Slack on my phone, and sometimes it affects other things I should be doing," and "I could be working, but I get distracted and think, 'I'm going to check my emails,' and before I know it, I've spent half an hour just looking at emails without doing anything in particular."
Hybrid working and digital environments also have advantages: "They can be good for both wellbeing and productivity," says Marsh. "Avoiding the negative effects, or what we call the 'dark side,' depends on how organizations approach digital tools, involve workers in the process, and give them the skills and mindset necessary to have a healthy digital work life."
Numerous apps and platforms support this digital environment: "I find Microsoft Teams really overwhelming because it's so many different things," says one interviewee. But researchers haven't found any one app to be particularly at fault. "In our study, participants particularly struggled with the overload of emails, chat messages, and video conferences," says Marsh. For some, the sheer number of communication channels in the digital space became stressful, as they tried to keep up with everyone.
While age did not appear to be a significant factor, researchers noted that older workers faced more obstacles in dealing with digital challenges. "All the workers interviewed, regardless of age, felt the effects of technological intensity. Older workers seemed to be at greater risk of stress and anxiety, specifically due to difficulties in performing daily tasks online, using new or updated tools, or internet crashes," the researcher explains.
The feeling of overload is more a feeling than a point of no return. Solutions, Marsh suggests, lie in better focusing workers' efforts: "Participants talked about how the digital work experience has intensified, especially since the pandemic. We need to think about the mental and emotional effort increasingly demanded of employees, and how we can reduce it to protect well-being and improve productivity."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 07, @04:58PM (1 child)
Idiot.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by stormreaver on Tuesday January 07, @05:29PM
The quotes are a result of trying to recover from pervasive abuse in the office. When you've gotten used to the abuse, you carry the results of the abuse home with you. It's classical conditioning.
(Score: 5, Informative) by YeaWhatevs on Tuesday January 07, @05:41PM (3 children)
The association between your work and the area causes stress, so just keep a separate work area. This delves into habit formation. Also, don't fuck off all day. You're checking your phone because pretending to work all day in a non work location builds habits of pretending to be available. Kust work during the work hours, getting something done, and leave the phone in the work area at the end of the day, you'll be fine.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday January 08, @05:22AM (2 children)
FTFY - because in my case the association doesn't cause stress.
The following just to demonstrate that your "association causes stress" is just a hypothesis which can be false, rendering your "Separate your work area" advice neither true, nor false, just useless in such cases (:large-grin:)
1. why not? Some may be able to a level of multi-tasking allowing fucking off all the day and still delivering the expected results to the employer.
2. what would be your recommended daily intake of fucking off?
3. what about fucking off at other times than day?
I'm not checking my phone, no benefit of using the phone thus my entire team is literally overseas (thus any team related thingies that I need to attend take place in my evenings. I'm attending from my bed, I'm not kidding you).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 08, @05:25AM
Errata:
should be read as
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by corey on Thursday January 09, @10:35AM
I also don't feel stress of needing to be at my home-work desk. In the warmer months (now), I can't often withstand the urge to go outside and get some jobs done around my rural property that need done during the day, mainly because it's way better to be out in the fresh air on a nice day than sitting inside at a PC (unless I'm out in the workshop doing PCB rework or testing).
But I am doing work for a startup, who has a relative lack of meetings (and if there are any, they are quick, as in 5-15 minutes) and a very relaxed culture around work schedule so if I feel like I haven't gotten enough done in the day, or if things are busy, I'll just jump back on my PC after dinner and do a couple more hours when the kids are in bed and everything is quiet. Then my brain isn't nagging me to go outside and I can focus more anyway.
Though, I've had enough years in my profession to know what is a reasonable work day and what I should be outputting. Maybe some younger guys might not if they're working remotely as well.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday January 07, @06:08PM (9 children)
Nobody goes to their grave thinking they should have worked more.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Deep Blue on Tuesday January 07, @08:19PM
But many do thinking they should've made others work more.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday January 07, @08:43PM (3 children)
Maybe that they should have achieved more? You generally do that by working smarter, not harder. The problem is, the smart approach isn't sometimes obvious until after the fact.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by YeaWhatevs on Wednesday January 08, @12:53AM
Smart is a teailing indicator. Smart is whatever let's you "win".
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday January 09, @06:24PM (1 child)
You can achieve nothing of importance, except making your fellows happier. All you create will eventually be gone, especially if you're an architect. Even the pyramids will be gone some day. In about five billion years the sun will swallow the Earth and everything on and in it.
As the song says, all we are is dust in the wind.
A man legally forbidden from possessing a firearm is in charge of America's nuclear arsenal. Have a nice day.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday January 09, @07:53PM
Very good point.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday January 08, @05:27AM (3 children)
Pedantry, I know, but in our civilization stage, we don't usually go burying people still able to think something/anything (ie alive).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08, @08:21AM
Well, he was referring to the unusual cases...
(Score: 2) by corey on Thursday January 09, @10:38AM
Yes, unless they were buried in the building foundation concrete slab by a mobster. (There's my Lethal Weapon reference achievement unlocked for the day)
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday January 09, @06:30PM
Usually when you go to the grave, there's a hospital first. Even if you're killed violently, time slows to a crawl then and there's plenty of time for regrets.
With cancer you may have years of regrets before you're relieved of the worst pain anyone can ever feel. Yes, the pain of cancer is worse than the pain of childbirth, even for a five foot two woman 140 pounds full term delivering an 11 pound baby after a 72 hour labor; I am referring to my own mother, who told me on her deathbed she had never felt such pain as the cancer that killed her.
A man legally forbidden from possessing a firearm is in charge of America's nuclear arsenal. Have a nice day.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 07, @06:25PM
So, my experience for the past 5+ or so years has been:
I have my work colleagues in my contacts list on my phone, the ones I work with on a regular basis have my personal number and I have theirs. Number of "out of the blue" phone calls I have received in the past 5 years (without prior permission asked/granted via e-mail or Teams)? One, my direct manager, during business hours, apologizing that he just had a minute to make contact and wanted to tell me sooner than later about my promotion / raise. Number of calls I have made to colleagues without prior scheduling? Zero. I do call my direct manager once every two weeks for our scheduled call, that way I reach him when he's on the road / picking up his kids / whatever at 2 in the afternoon. I probably have voice-calls with colleagues about once a month. Other business is handled in e-mail, Teams (ick for me, but some seem to only use it and never look at their e-mail), and scheduled conference calls on the computer.
I will check my work e-mail after hours and on weekends, when I'm bored, when I might rather be doing some work then and maybe taking a few hours off during the regular work week in exchange.
If anybody ever starts abusing my phone number, they're in my contact list and can easily be configured to not ring. Has never come even close to happening.
I am aware not every workplace is "this good." That's one of the best things about employment at will.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Offtopic) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 07, @06:47PM (1 child)
Hey! That's what i do with my son! After a hard, stressful day at work, i'm tired and stressed and feel like "Hey... i don't want to deal with my son and all his stressing too, so imma just gonna lock him in the car all night!"
Wait... what? That's abuse and neglect? Sheit. Guess i just gotta deal with 25/8/366 stress because I GOT NO OTHER CHOICE.
Real life. You just can't quit or retire until you die.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Funny) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday January 07, @09:38PM
Well.... you could, but then could you look at yourself in the mirror without disgust?
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Deep Blue on Tuesday January 07, @08:16PM
looks more like a meeting problem. It doesn't matter if you have 10 meetings a day in person or remotely, if they mess up your other work, then that's the part that needs to be handled with.
Email and other communication has been there for decades. It's basically the same as if someone pops up to your cubicle and asks you a question, except you can respond later. So i disagree with this article.
But Teams does suck ass. It's a bad design, not unlike many things done by MS.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by vistic on Tuesday January 07, @09:10PM
I worked for a huge company before Slack and work was smooth.
I left for a few years and then got rehired in the age of Slack.
Tell me what you do when you post a detailed precise technical question to a junior engineer who has never known work before Slack, when they simply reply "😔".Uhhh... was that a"yes"? A "no"? An "I don't understand"? WTF. Here I thought I was supposed to be working with intelligent people.
But when we were in covid lockdown, if you weren't on Slack then the only way your coworkers get to know you is by bugs and feature requests filed. Can never let yourself be away. Especially when Slack replaces official channels to make "little" requests that are going to eat up a lot of time to get done.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RTJunkie on Wednesday January 08, @12:30PM (1 child)
What a load of garbage thinking.
The stresses of the work place are largely caused by toxic management and poor individual time management, neither of which is _caused_ by telework.
El Pais seems to have some obsession with reporting the _problems_ with telework. Giant red flag.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 08, @01:35PM
There is overall a massive push by the managerial class that simultaneously produces nothing and is in charge of everything to force everyone back to an office where they can be more easily surveilled and controlled. This managerial class knows that they can't justify this via anything resembling facts and figures, so they've taken to just plain making stuff up about how bad working from home must be.
One of the many reasons they really don't like remote work: In my local market, with a low cost of living, the cost of people that do what I do is less than half of what it is in more expensive areas. They want to collect that difference for themselves rather than give it to me. I on the other hand of course want to take advantage of that to have more money after housing and other basic necessities.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin