Problems with Workplace Smartphones

January 5th, 2012Wellness, Work Place Health0 comments

Smartphones have become a part of workplace life. With massive capacity, smartphones can do much more than answer the phone for us. With Smartphones, however, our work does not always get left behind when we go home. At work, the thrill of leisure activities on the smartphone makes it more difficult to achieve expected productivity.

Smartphones are perfect for those frequent downtimes. You can play a computer game or read the Wall Street Journal while waiting in an office for an appointment or while waiting to catch a flight. They keep your mind occupied and keep you connected to your office.

One problem is, in fact, that you might be too connected to your office. With office work on your Smartphone and access to any number of other employees at any time, it is easy to become overloaded and forget what real downtime really is.

For employers, there are advantages. There are applications that automatically putting a person’s work hours that can be documented for the workplace. It also seems to increase company loyalty and participation. For all these things, having each of your employees own a Smartphone can be helpful. E-mails between employees and with supervisors can make office work more efficient.

Having a Smartphone can adversely affect a person’s home life. For example, a father might check the score of his son’s football game on the Smartphone rather than really attending the game. Checking their child’s school grades can be parent’s excuse for not attending parent-teacher conferences.

Smartphones can be a baseboard for Facebook—an application that encourages communication between people in ways that discourage really live communication between people. Too much Facebook contact at the workplace is bad for productivity and discourages employee to employee communication and contact.

Experts believe that Smartphones encourage overworking in those who have a problem with overworking in the first place. Work becomes something a person can’t switch off and doesn’t have to switch off if the Smartphone can be at their side twenty four hours per day. Such people are expected to (and do) answer their emails instantly, as quickly as if they were actually on the phone together. Overworking, through the use of Smartphones, becomes normal behavior and, after awhile, the employee is expected to work extra hours and the days of the forty hour work week disappear.

Working eventually offers no downtime whatsoever and the employee can’t recover from work sufficiently—not even on the weekends. Work becomes wherever you happen to be and whenever you want to turn on the phone.

Employers need to keep a better handle on the use of the employee Smartphone, monitor their use and make sure they are being used properly.

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