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 Coping With Technostress More than ever, people are feeling stressed and overwhelmed at work. Ironically, it is often the very thing that is supposed to make us more productive and save us time and energy that is the source of our stress. I'm talking about the technology revolution that has transformed our experience at work-and not always for the better. We have faxes, email, voice mail, pagers, cell phones, car phones, laptops, palmtops and personal schedulers to juggle and cope with. A recent book called *Technostress* by Michelle Weil, Ph.D. and Larry Rosen, Ph.D.has helped me crystallize my thoughts on this important topic. "Technostress" is their word for the negative feelings such as anger, fear, frustration and overload that we experience in relation to the new technology. The authors do a good job of painting a clear picture of the many ways that technology impinges upon our lives, both at work and at home.To use a personal example, just two or three years ago I wouldn't have considered doing this on-line newsletter. But now it's an important new way of reaching you. Weil and Rosen also offer a number of practical suggestions about how we can maintain our boundaries as well as our need for contact with others through the new technology. For example, they suggest: -Giving specific times on answering machines, voice mail, etc. when you *won't* be available (and updating the information daily, if necessary). For people who telecommute from home, they suggest keeping regular hours rather than working late every night and turning off the beep of the fax after 6 p.m. They also suggest that they go into the office one or two days a week to help them maintain their relationships with the people at the office. And for people who can't keep themselves from checking their faxes, email and pagers all the time, they suggest asking the following questions: -"Do I really need to know now?" With email becoming the second most used form of communication (phone is still the first),the authors make key points about how to use it effectively. They caution never to send email when angry or to use it to resolve performance issues. And because email leaves out important feeling components, it's important to follow up with a phone call especially if the subject is complex or controversial. The authors also have a useful chapter on how to train employees to use new technology. They suggest that you introduce people to the new machines by using their personal interests and hobbies. For example, they show people how to send and receive email from their friends and how to access Web sites on cooking, investing, their favorite TV shows and other topics that interest them. This is a great idea because it makes the training process fun and exciting for each employee. They also emphasize the need for a lot of direct hands-on experience so people can learn for themselves what to do and what *not* to do. There's no way to top or slow down the technology of the future. It's coming whether we like it or not. *Technostress* teaches us how to cope more effectively with the "information age" we live in. Whether you're a technophobe or a technoaddict, you will learn something useful from it. |
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