Technology is a double-edged sword

SHARED FROM:
The Star, Monday, 7 October 2013
Reports by P Aruna, Neville Spykerman, and D Kanyakumari
TECHNOLOGY AFFECTS WORK PERFORMANCE AND PERSONAL LIVES
INABILITY TO ‘SWTICH OFF’ CAUSES BURNOUTS

 Technology has changed the way people work in so many ways, including how bosses expect employees to be ‘at work’ all the time.  It has affected both work performance and personal lives.  People are constantly worried about the quality of their work and having to be on their toes for their clients all the time.  Work has become their life.

Employees can be burnout, stressed and ultimately less productive if they are not ‘switched off’ from work and respond to emails and calls outside working hours.  Such workers, who are ‘on call’ almost 24 hours a day, lose their work-life balance and end up becoming distant from their friends and families.

Technology is a double-edged sword.  It allows us to have flexibility in our work.  But it also often seeps into our personal lives where we are reachable at all hours and therefore expected to ‘work’ while on holiday.  It blurs the lines between work and life outside of work.