Has Technology Created a New Breed of Slacker?

Ah, technology.

It is supposed to make our life easier.

And enable us to get more done in less time.

However, look around your corporate environment.

Is technology allowing your employees to work smarter, better or more efficiently?

Or rather, has it enabled a new generation of slackers?

Technology: Time Saver or Waster?

Technology can be very powerful.

It permits us to work from anywhere. It allows us to respond instantly to questions. And to collaborate in ways never before possible.

But, the dark side of all this mobile, email, text, cell phone enabled workplace is that has also enabled a new level of slacking.

What? You mean people are using technology for unproductive uses?

Here are just a few ways that technology has negatively impacted the workplace:

– People updating their Facebook all day long.

– People “working” from home and other remote locations.

– Playing games on the job.

– People who appear busy by shuffling their work virtually.

Here is one of my favorite FedEx commercials that sums up these thoughts perfectly…

Meet the New Slackers

“Technology has allowed us to be productive in new ways, but it has also enabled a new generation of workplace slackers and pretend workers.”

Here are some of the new cast of corporate slackers you may encounter:

• The New Paper Pusher – The modern Paper Pusher has evolved to be an email pusher. They shuffle their work by responding, forwarding, and basically hiding behind their emails. Yet, they do very little actual work.
• The Spammer – The Spammer is slightly different. They use a deluge of emails to tell everyone how busy they are. They figure the more emails they send, the more important and busy they appear. They are usually the quickest to respond to mass emails and love to send status reports to increase the perception of their busyness.
• The Smartphone Ghost – The Smartphone Ghost is hard to find. In fact, they are good at the “disappearing act.” However, they use their cellphone to pretend they are working from anywhere. Home. Vacation. Wherever. By checking their email from their smartphone once in a while, they ensure that others still think they are working.
• The Cellphone Multi-Tasker – This individual is always on their cellphone or laptop. They aren’t paying attention during meetings because they are working on other things. Tapping out emails and such. With tablets, it has gotten even worse as people assume that tablets are less intrusive than a laptop on the table.
• The Facebooker – As you can guess, the Facebooker is always on Facebook. They spend the entire day sending updates and reading others’ walls. I worked with an individual who had Facebook as the default site in their browser.
• The Conference Call Bandit – The Conference Call Bandit dials into conference calls and then doesn’t participate. They appear to be attending, but then “mute” themselves so they can do other things. Some are blatant enough to “call it in from down the hall.“
• The Outlook Outlaw – This person schedules meetings to procrastinate and avoid taking action. (For a better method of holding meetings, see Al Pittampalli’s book.) They steal other people’s time one meeting at a time.
• The Google Plagiarist – Google is an amazing tool. But, what happens when people start stealing others’ work and presenting it as their own? It doesn’t just happen in academia. It happens more often than you think in the corporate world.
• The Work from Home Slacker – This Slacker claims they are working from home, but in reality are not doing jack. I am in favor of the remote workplace, and a flexible work schedule, but this individual ruins it for everyone else.

Is Technology Driving Productivity?

Is technology enabling your workplace? Or destroying it?

Does it enable productivity or allow workers to slack off in new ways?

Of course, let’s not let the few ruin it for those that are actually working hard.

Does technology drive productivity at your company or does it allow workers to slack?