Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Deskbound work culture stifles productivity
ComputerWeekly: "Britain's deskbound workforce is becoming increasingly uncommunicative and unhealthy with mobile technology an answer to the problem, according to a new study. Performance consulting firm HB Maynard said forcing end-users to get out their chairs and talk to people could lift depression and motivate people to higher levels of productivity."
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4 comments:
I can see that this would be something that day in and day out would be a problem but to be honest some of my favorite homework is that that I can do at the computer. I miss being able to sit down and hang out at my computer but I suppose if I were to have to work every day on one it might loose its fun.
For someone who sits at a desk all day, moving around is all well and good, but it seems unproductive to have the entire office up and walking around to make calls. The only way to find someone would be to call them.
I don't think its surpising in the least to find out that people who are forcecd to sit down at a desk in a cubile under fluorescent lights for 8-12 hours a day for day after day after day after day have low morale, depression and low productivity. I agree with Ryan that sometimes it is nice just to sit down and work at a computer, but one of the things I like about what i do now is that there is a lot of moving around, different atmospheres, different objectives and most of all, social interaction. With the use of e-mail in the office, its rare to actually hear a human voice on the telephone or in person. This lack of interaction in workspaces is obviously having a great effect on workers. Maybe e-mail isn't the best way to communicate.
Imagine, not having to get out of your chair, always looking at a screen and going CRAZY! It makes complete sense that never really interacting with people might make you depressed and eventually unproductive. There was an article a while back that talked about this, but took the opposite side. It said that working continuously on one task meant you were more productive than if you broke things up and worked gradually on tasks over time. This article though doesn't actually say that gradual work is better, but it does suggest that some interuptions and interactions with another medium will help your productivity.
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