The world of work has been dealing with the implications of continually emerging and evernew IT since the 1990s, most notably on the effects on people and their behaviours, their performance at work, and their cognitive and emotional reactions.

While technology has been used to replace manual, repetitive tasks since the Industrial Revolution, the past 30 years has brought spikes of change unlike anything seen before. The 1990s and 2000s saw some levels of resistance to the introduction of the IT-based workplace, an anxiety as many routines and people’s jobs were replaced. This was followed by a period of stress as the demands from new technology poured into people’s working lives: email overload, faster turnaround times, higher expectations, the need for constantly updated skills and knowledge.

More recently, the ‘dark side’ of IT use is seen more in terms of the addictive nature of smartphones and tablets. Employees have come to gain reassurance, stimulation and sense of purpose from streams of new messages, information, surprises, mixing work with personal interests. Social media has opened up further sluices of content and access to networks, some which may be useful and important, others not. Ultimately we struggle to switch off from the digital world, leading to technostress, poor performance and poor health. The full implications of living a digitally augmented working life –and what it means for concentration, communication skills and other behaviours –are still being unpacked.

In response to concerns about employee wellbeing, some organisations have taken drastic action. Mexican travel comparison website El Mejor Trator has banned the use of email and instant messaging. An English local authority has introduced a ‘tech creche’ for employees to drop off their devices to give them a break. Daimler AG has a system that deletes all emails sent to employees while they are on holiday. Other organisations have introduced a 4pm ‘shut-off’ for work-related digital communications, or brought in ‘digital detox’ consultants to deliver packages of measures.

Personal Protection

However , these sorts of one-size-fits-all solutions are unlikely to work for organisations made up of very different people with very different lives and attitudes. Some managers have the time, and would prefer , to clear their email inbox late at night. That shouldn’t mean this is seen as the rule for everyone. A clash between technology preferences can break down communication between teammates and increase misunderstanding, conflict, and stress. Managers need to understand and appreciate their co-workers’ choices, particularly when they are working on the same teams and projects. Employees have a job to do and should have the freedom to make use of the available technology in ways that work for them. Organisations therefore have a duty of care when it comes to making their people aware of the dark side issues associated with IT , and need to provide options. At the same time, employees need to take personal responsibility and work things out for themselves.

By emphasising work-home life balance –and the inevitable tension this includes –managers and Human Resources policies are ignoring the possibilities of the blending of the two. Instead, employees should also be encouraged to think of managing this conflict in terms of combinations that might benefit them. It may well be that the use of technology that enables a continuous flow of meaningful tasks – and they might be work-related or they might not –is more beneficial for some people’s well-being and productivity than this kind of rigid divide.

Organisations should help create a climate that encourages employees to really understand the IT they use at work. Mastery of IT is often best achieved by giving employees the resources to “mess around” and experiment with the devices and applications. Users need to learn in less formal and more enriching ways, outside the structured and often limited training model that most companies resort to. In general that means managers being more IT savvy in order to be able to understand what's effective use for them, and what's a distraction.

My study of how to tackle the dark side of IT has included an investigation of how people themselves can develop their own coping mechanisms. I’ve spoken with groups of office workers, from senior executives to office administrators, whose routines are typically occupied with the use of everyday office IT packages and email. Based on those conversations I offer a different perspective to taking on the dark side of organisational IT use, one that focuses on what employees themselves can do.

Four ways to find balance

1. Develop a positive IT outlook

A positive mental orientation about IT helps to reinterpret stressful IT situations in an optimistic and constructive light. For instance, a respondent interpreted constant interruptions from IT as a way to help colleagues: “Sometimes it is a nuisance when you get pinged, but if you think about it in a good way, it is because people are actually approaching you for more new information because they think you can help them.”

2. Build IT use skills

IT is not going away. So learn and get better at using IT. One respondent said that she did not find IT interruptive because she had learned to use different applications simultaneously and manage her screen space accordingly. She learned to work with different applications so that she could be in and out of everything.

3. It's okay to vent your anger

By expressing their frustration, employees can reduce the distress and unpleasantness they feel from using IT. They can also mentally shut out of the stressful situation by focussing on other activities and not on the stress causing IT. For example, one senior executive mentioned: “Sometimes I get frustrated if I, for example, cannot find how to change the line spacing. So I swear at the screen and eventually work out what to do.”

4. Create boundaries

This can include for example, using the different applications to take breaks. If for instance you have been doing something requiring intense concentration for a while, take a break from it and check email, to clear your mind. Another strategy is to demarcate specific times for specific tasks and turn off the technology during that time. A respondent said: “So for example if I had a particular task that I needed to do by a set date I will turn off my technology. I will turn off my instant messaging, I will turn off my email. And so I’m not influenced by it because a great weakness for me is as soon as I see something I feel I need to respond to it and my attention gets distracted.”

Monideepa Tarafdar is a Professor of Information Systems at Lancaster University Management School and a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School’s Center for Information Systems Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The research reported in this article was supported by the Leverhulme Trust, conducted while she was a Leverhulme Research Fellow during 2017-2018. m.tarafdar@lancaster.ac.uk