Bad Tech Experiences Increase Stress

As more and more aspects of our work lives become reliant on technology, its impact on our productivity, satisfaction at work, and stress levels is increasing. 

Even workers who aren’t desk jockeys know the pain of bad tech experiences. Retail workers face frustration with glitchy cash registers and inventory tracking systems. Healthcare workers navigate numerous problems with electronic charting systems. Even construction workers rely on their phones and tablets to receive important job information.

In 2020, EMOTIV, a bio-informatics and technology company, and Dell used EEG headsets to monitor brain activity in participants using computers to complete simple tasks. The one group had computers that functioned seamlessly, while the other group had computers that experienced common glitches that impeded their ability to complete their tasks. 

On the one hand, the study found that good technology can save employees 23 minutes per hour—that’s 15 hours in a 40-hour week. It also allowed employees to achieve 37 percent more work in a day. 

On the other hand, bad technology decreased employee performance by 30 percent. Younger workers, who are more reliant on technology, were impacted twice as much by bad tech as older workers. 

And the impacts lasted beyond the workday. Workers who had stressful tech experiences took three times longer to relax at the end of the day than those whose tech was seamless. They also reported feeling twice as stressed out during the workday.

Increased stress in turn leads to decreased performance, decreased job satisfaction, and increased health risks. Bottom line? Bad tech can have a serious negative impact on a business and its workers. 

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