Technology has reduced downtime at work – research is now focusing on the long-term impacts of technology
“For researchers examining the world of work, recent years have seen dramatic changes,” says Professor Taru Feldt from the Department of Psychology, Ģֱ.
Working life has become more hectic, intense and efficient. Technologies have developed rapidly, entailing substantial impacts on working conditions – for both wellbeing and motivation at work, which are key topics in Feldt’s research.
“Technology has enabled the external rationalisation of work,” Feldt says. “At the same time, it has reduced the amount of so-called downtime at work, those moments of rest which are important for thinking and recovery.”
Feldt reminds us that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, workplaces took a significant digital leap within the span of a few weeks. This leap has been quickly followed by AI, the impacts of which are now being studied by researchers of occupational and organisational psychology.
Working life conditions are changing rapidly, and it is important that researchers also anticipate what we have ahead. Changes must be continuously followed and readily reacted to.”
Now researchers are interested in technostress and its effects.
What is technostress all about in working life and what are its effects on occupational psychology?
“It has to do with how warm a handshake there is between the work and worker,” Feldt says. “What kind of personal experience employees have with technology, that is, how well they feel they can meet the challenges technology brings. If there is a mismatch, it can, in the worst case scenario, lead to long-standing stress.”
Feldt further says that the psychological mechanisms of technostress are similar to those of work stress.
New data is emerging about the long-term impacts of technology
There is already evidence about the impacts of the accelerating pace and rationalisation of working life. The change is broadly visible in a range of fields, including health care and teaching work. The intensification of working life has increased employees’ stress while decreasing their wellbeing at work.
Research evidence is now being sought on technology’s long-term impacts.
In the SUSDIGI research project started at the beginning of this year, the focus is on digitalisation, AI and sustainable careers. The research subjects are higher education graduates from different fields.
How is digitalisation linked to sustainable careers? How is the way in which we adapt to changes at work being transformed?
“When we talk about sustainable careers, we mean those careers where, on the one hand, employees can impact their working environment and, on the other, the environment provides opportunities for adjusting to change,” Feldt says. “These factors create favourable conditions for a worker’s health, performance and life satisfaction.”
Data collection is now completed, and more than 1,800 people answered the survey. The study will continue as a follow-up with the same respondents and investigate the impacts of free-time experiences. The study is part of Katariina Lehtiniemi’s doctoral dissertation to be completed next year.
Researchers feel technostress, and many struggle with the proliferation of apps
Taru Feldt started to study the accelerating pace of working life in 2017.
“At that time we started to consider, with colleagues like Professor Saija Mauno, where working life is heading. We reflected on how life is becoming increasingly regimented and discussed the intensification of work as a result of digitalisation and robotisation. We got interested in how these are, in turn, impacting wellbeing at work.”
Feldt says she has felt technostress herself, and stress management is a common topic at lunch and during coffee breaks. Many people feel they are struggling with digital applications and have too little time for their core tasks. Learning new technology is time consuming – and it must be often done on one’s own, Feldt says.
When it comes to technology, we are still at the adapting stage in society,” Feldt says.
And how about AI, how can it influence an employee’s experience of technostress?
“How do individuals feel their personal professional competence is changing along with AI? How much of my self and my deep thinking is left in this work? Is AI reducing my professional self-esteem?”
Multitasking has changed the nature of what it means to be busy
Perspectives on workload have changed over the years. In the 1980s, researchers explored what caused stress in employees, and in the 1990s resources were included in the scope of study.
Feldt explains that being busy at work has long been an established topic in occupational and organisational psychology research. What has changed, however, is the nature of being busy. The experience of being busy is now related to the intensification of work and the pressure to do many things simultaneously. Unpredictable, fragmentary tasks have become a part of many people’s job descriptions.
Earlier, being busy at work was associated with a concrete awareness of what should be accomplished and could be better anticipated. Now, technology has supercharged multitasking, the pressure to do many things simultaneously, and it has also strengthened the feeling of always being available."
For an employee, this is challenging, not to mention harmful.
“A person cannot divide themselves cognitively across multiple places at the same time,” Feldt says. “If a job lacks those small moments of downtime, psychophysiological recovery is jeopardized and our workload grows,” Feldt summarises.
People suffer from technostress in their free time as well
The usage of technology and the workload it creates are also being studied in fields other than occupational psychology. Professor of information systems Markus Salo and his research group investigate the positive and negative consequences of technological use, along with the management of adverse impacts.
They are not looking at working hours only, but also at free time.
“Technology-induced stress is a common phenomenon in our free time as well, where the use of social media, for example, may contribute to sleep and concentration difficulties as well as place pressures on our personal identity and public image,” says Salo, who is working in the Faculty of Information Technology at the Ģֱ.
Salo points out that today’s technology users often fail to notice that each time a piece of technology is used, it also takes something away from the user, such as a moment of attention, time or other effort.
Although an individual moment of attention or time does not seem harmful by itself, numerous repeated moments can pile up and consume a considerable share of the user’s resources. This can overly burden the user.”
Salo recommends that we should examine our personal workload not only in individual situations, but also from a larger perspective.
“Along with individual situations, I would hope people pay more attention to their larger relationship to technology: what role technology has in their lives more generally, what it brings and what it takes,” Salo describes.
The need for self-regulation is highlighted in our free time
Markus Salo states that stress and workload management call for monitoring one’s personal usage of technology, standards for good use practices, the motivation to make changes, and the willpower to stick to the changes.
The need for self-regulation is highlighted especially when using leisure-time technologies that often appeal to natural human needs to obtain information, act in communities, and have enjoyable experiences.
In his , Antti Hämäläinen (main photo on right) studied ways of managing technostress. He urges people to monitor their own use of technologies and arrange technology-free moments in their daily lives.
“We have become used to always having technology at hand,” Hämäläinen says. “Now, we get bored with even the smallest empty moments and grab a smartphone when there is nothing else to do. However, our brains would also need some stimuli-free moments.”
According to Hämäläinen, in our own technology use we should pay attention to how it takes time or energy from other things we would like to do.
“Many people may look to wind down after a long workday by browsing social media,” Hämäläinen says.
This can be counterproductive, however, and increase everyday stress if, for example, a planned outdoor activity gets skipped because a person is on their phone.”
If technology seems to take up too much time or energy in your daily life, Hämäläinen recommends open discussion with family and friends. Talking helps figure out the causes of personal stress, and agreements on, for example, technology-free moments help in making changes in your daily life.
The causes of technostress are known –
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Common reasons
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Identified strategies
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| Unreliability Technology does not function as expected in everyday life. |
Distraction Avoid stress-inducing devices by engaging in other activities. |
| Information overload The flood of information, communication, and social interaction is overwhelming. |
Disconnecting from devices Set specific times during the day when you do not use technology. |
| Pressure from comparison Social media comparing can create pressure. |
Reflect on your use Consider whether your device use is reasonable and necessary. |
| Fear of missing out (FOMO) The urge to check messages or updates due to fear of being left out. |
Social support Discuss problems related to technostress with close ones. |
| Availability pressure Devices create pressure to always be available to others. |
Technical support Seek help with using technology or resolving technology-related issues. |
| Technology-saturated life Routines and daily life are structured around excessive device use. |
Emotional expression Relieve stress by talking about it. |
| Privacy issues Feeling a lack of privacy or control over personal information. |
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*Research has identified other technostress creators and strategies for coping with technostress. The topics in the table are listed in alphabetical order. The coping strategies are not tied to a specific cause of technostress Source: Antti Hämäläinen / Faculty of Information Technology, Ģֱ |
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The introduction of AI has an impact on our thinking, reasoning and ideation skills
The latest development of digitalisation, the introduction of AI, has been investigated in different fields at the Ģֱ already for a decade.
AI-based technologies and robots make many things much easier. Technologies already produce creative content, but at the same time they change or erode people’s own skills of thinking, reasoning and ideation.
“For example, the already existing applications based on language models can serve as really effective tools and teaching aids at school or in working life, but at the same time shifting the tasks to AI can yield seemingly good results but without learning or gaining any insight. Actual doing and deep thinking may be skipped,” Markus Salo says.
He emphasises that the user’s attitude and curiosity are decisive.
There is a need for a critical approach as well because the reliability of AI-produced contents can be difficult to ensure. With an appropriate attitude, some people may benefit enormously from AI technologies in their learning and work."
Salo notes that new technologies have redefined human life and work earlier as well.
“As, for example, the more advanced robots that are currently gaining ground at the workplace become increasingly autonomous and more active operators with human-like features, they will change the roles, competence requirements, relationships, and power of employees. These important themes offer plenty to explore.”
The research project of Feldt’s team was funded by the Research Council of Finland and EWIDE profiling area. The research projects of Salo’s group are funded by the Research Council of Finland, the Foundation for Economic Education, and the Emil Aaltonen Foundation.
