It seems as though our ability to evolve wisely is not keeping pace with the technological revolution, and that all the wonderful new technologies that we have come to rely on are controlling many of us. A survey of 1,300 members of the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) indicates that we are not able to use our mobile phones and Blackberrys wisely, and that they are making our lives more stressful.

Modern communication technology = stress

Britain’s managers are stressed because of the never-ending stream of emails that need immediate attention, and the expectation from bosses that they be available 24/7 thanks to the advent of mobile phones and all the rest of our communication devices.

Too many e-mails

They are reported to receive an average of 40 more emails each day compared with 10 years ago. For the most busy five per cent, they receive 100 extra emails a day.

Fifty one per cent of managers are feeling more stressed than they did ten years ago, and two-thirds reporting higher workloads.

Two-fifths of the respondents said that their work-life balance was now worse than before.

It tends to be the younger managers (under 35) who are on their way up the career ladder who are the most dissatisfied with 71 per cent reporting an increase in stress over the last 10 years.

In the technology that managers “could not live without” category, surprisingly only 57% said they could not live without the PC and only 44% could not live without their laptop. Given our reliance on computers nowadays it is surprising that these figure aren’t far higher. Perhaps some of the older generation of top managers is still not computer literate.

Far more interestingly is the category of technologies that managers “wish had never been invented” in which the mobile phone heads the list with 29% with the BlackBerry close behind at 27%.

Love / hate relationship with mobile phones

Mobile phones divide opinion strongly: we clearly have a love / hate relationship with mobile phones. For whilst 29% wish they had never been invented, 28% could not live without them!  

Peter Cheese, chairman of the Institute of Leadership & Management, says: “Over the last ten years, the workplace has become much more challenging for managers. Mobile technology brings with it a pressure to respond quickly and a temptation to work longer hours which is impacting on stress levels. While technology also offers a huge opportunity for organisations to enable staff to work smarter, the fact that business travel and commuting times are increasing, shows that many firms are missing that opportunity.”

People clearly need to bring a little wisdom into the use of these wonderful technologies. The survey does rather indicate that too many of us live our working lives at the whims of these tools.

I was shocked recently when I had lunch with a friend of mine who is a very successful partner in a large City Law firm. He apologised for having to keep his mobile phone on, as he was expecting two very important phone calls from clients. Needless to say he spent most of our lunch together on the phone.

We are even expected to answer our mobile phones in the toilet!

He told me that clients who paid “top dollar” for his services, expected his constant availability. He laughingly told me of one client who had got angry once when he did not respond to his mobile phone when he was in the toilet. Even the toilet is no longer sacrosanct space from the mobile phone!

Information Overload

This partner suffers badly from information overload. He receives nearly 400 email messages in his in-box every morning when he arrives at work, 350 of which he simply does not need to see – people unnecessarily copying him in on material which is trivial or which is a back-covering exercise on the part of the sender. Of course he has to go through the list to file these away in order to discover the 50 which he does need to see.  Of these 30 can be dealt with a simple one to two sentence reply, and perhaps 20 need proper attention. That is just 5% of the total inbox.

The ease of hitting the send button encourages laziness and discourages the age old art of talking to people. There is something rather absurd about receiving an unecessary email from someone sitting a few feet away from you in the office.

Great expectations

Our expectations have become overbearing. Thirty years ago a manager would receive a letter in the post, and have all day to prepare a reply and get it in the post by the end of the day. Then along came the widespread use of the fax machine, and suddenly the manager started receiving calls from clients about whether the fax which had been sent 5 minutes earlier had been received or not – invariably he or she had not as it was still in the fax room.

Now documents are instantaneously delivered and managers are expected to deal with them instantly. It is, apparently, often irrelevant if that person has another job to do, is in a meeting or even in the toilet. Our demands have often become inhumane and stress levels have risen inexorably.  

Addictive behaviour

In August a study by Ofcom revealed the extent to which many people are now showing signs of addiction to their smartphones.

The ILM survey predicts how the world of work may evolve. A visit to most offices and businesses these days will reveal a preponderance of people staring at computer screens – in many cases playing solitaire or on Facebook. In the future they may be wearing semi-transparent visors!

The ILM’s future predictions for our workspaces include the increased use of artificial intelligence, visors and 3D immersion (semi-transparent visors), miniaturisation and the convergence of the virtual and physical worlds (so called “augmented reality”).

It looks like we can expect even more sources of stress. Unless some human evolution (some innate calmness and wisdom in making appropriate demands) can accompany the technological evolution, then high stress levels are here to stay. 

Perhaps some of that 3D immersion can be devoted to some relaxation and creative activities otherwise we may just all go a bit mad!

3D immersion, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, Blackberry, business, email, future work trends, Institute of Leadership and Management, management, mobile phones, Smartphones, technology, work, workplace stress Business Finance & Law, Health, Science & Technology