/karen/

Net working

Saturday, 25 April, 2009

Recently Trevor Cairney blogged some thoughts about internet usage at work and whether it is stealing time from your employer. While I agree with the spirit of what Trevor wrote (that is, that if you are Christian, you should seek to work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men [Col 3:23] and maintain a good work ethic), I felt that Trevor's post simplified the whole topic a little too much, and didn't show enough understanding of how people use the internet and its applications, and how those things can even enhance your work. It seemed quite legalistic in its application. I keep thinking of what Alain de Botton said in his talk at the Opera House last Sunday (were he promoted The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, which I must read some time)—that we have a very poor understanding of how and why people work. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's start first about what we are talking about and what we aren't. With internet usage, we are talking about surfing, Facebooking, Twittering, Skyping, blogging, spending time on forums, instant messaging, playing games and emailing. With unauthorised internet usage at work, we're talking about all internet activity that has nothing to do with work. Please note this has less to do with the particular thing you're doing than why you're doing it. Obviously if you're writing an article about blogging, you need to do your research by reading some blogs; if you're the moderator of a forum, you need to be reading that forum and monitoring what's going on; if your office interacts with clients on Skype or instant messenger, you're going to have to use those applications; if you're promoting a book, a CD or a movie or some such thing, or if having a bit of a higher profile is useful in your industry (like actors, writers and even talent scouts for Marvel comics), social networking applications like Twitter and Facebook are going to be helpful to you. Certain internet activity falls under the category of “authorised” work, and that sort of thing no one can argue with.

It's where you start treading on the grey area between “authorised” (see above) and “unauthorised” (i.e. spending hours and hours on the internet doing things that have nothing to do with work) that it becomes a little tricky. In my opinion, there are certain ways of using the internet that actually boost productivity. Here are five:

1. Use the internet as a brain break: Breaks are good for productivity—particularly when you're stuck. Sometimes it helps to stop what you're doing and do something else for a while, then come back to what you're doing fresh. This falls under the theological category of rest: rest is important because it enables you to function better when you're doing other things. Sure, it's important to rest from your computer—to get up, stretch your legs, maybe go for a walk, and so on. But you don't have to do that every time. What is wrong with taking those five minutes to check Facebook/Twitter, etc.? This study argues that this type of usage helps employees to function better in their jobs.
2. Use the internet as a buffer when you're moving between various tasks: This is related to my last point, but it's slightly different. I think it's fair to say that in most jobs, you're not doing the same thing all day; you usually have a variety of tasks that you move between throughout the course of your work hours. Sometimes it's not easy to move between them—particularly if they are very different. To go back to Alain de Botton, there are some jobs that are more like washing the dishes or gardening: they are made up of discrete tasks and they have achievable goals, thus resulting in greater satisfaction. But there are other jobs that are not as satisfying. Ministry is a prime example: at times, it can be broken down into discrete tasks (e.g. call this person, put this person's details into the database, meet up with this person), but sometimes it can't (e.g. share the gospel with at least one person today, encourage this person in godliness, expand my knowledge of penal substitutionary atonement). Furthermore, not all those tasks are easily achievable. If you've been “washing the dishes” and you move to “doing ministry”, you usually need some sort of transition or down time to get settled. Think of it like high school: the bell rings, you pack up your bag, you walk to the next class, find your desk and unpack your stuff again. Using the internet for five minutes in between tasks fulfils that function and helps ease the transition for you.
3. Use the internet as a motivator: Unfortunately, the nature of work is that it's not all fun and games (Gen 3:17-19). It's often difficult and frustrating and painful. Most of us are not in the privileged position where we enjoy what we do. There may be aspects of our jobs that we enjoy, but there are also other aspects of our jobs that we find very hard. When faced with a difficult or tedious task, sometimes it can help if you hold out the internet as a “carrot on a stick”—that is, say to yourself, “If I finish X, Y and Z, then I can go and play on the internet for a little while”. Of course, a lot of other things can be used as carrots, but why not the internet at work? Alain de Botton says that we're becoming more and more specialised in what we do, which is a good thing as far as capitalism is concerned. However, it means that we tend to lose sight of the big picture and where what we're doing fits into it. If our job is something menial like data entry, it can be hard to find meaning in it because it's only one small part of the greater whole of what the company does. De Botton reckons that a lot of what managers have to do these days is keep their employees motivated and happy so that they will work well for them. It seems to me that acceptable internet usage at work should play a part in that.
4. Use the internet to socialise: People need people. A healthy amount of socialising is an integral part to any workplace; you don't want the sort of environment where people come in, lock themselves in their offices and don't speak to anyone all day. Chances are, it will make them miserable and that, in turn, will affect the quality of their work. In addition, most people don't have jobs that isolate them from the rest of the world; they need to work with other people, and things like socialising and small talk are the lubricant that make certain work transactions easier and more harmonious. (Mind you, if you're freelancing, sometimes it's just you all by yourself with no one to talk to all day. Social networking sites can help you stay in touch with people and they become almost like office banter so that your days seem less isolated.) Work is not just about tasks; it's also about relationships. For certain people and certain types of jobs, it can be helpful for them to use the internet to socialise during break times—keep up with their Facebook friends by reading the news feed or writing on their walls; stay abreast of what's happening in people's lives through Twitter; see what someone else has been thinking about on their blog, and so on. One of the things about the internet is that socialising doesn't have to happen in real time any more (some would say that this is a bad thing but I think it depends on how you look at it). Two people do not have to occupy the same space at the same time to relate; they can communicate across pixels, bits and bytes, and it's still meaningful and useful in relational terms.
5. Use the internet as a focuser: This applies mostly to Twitter and it might just be a psychological thing that only certain people will find helpful. Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?” Of course, not all tweets have to be about that, but that's the starting point. And sometimes, out of the plethora of different things that you need to do—all of which are marked as both “important” and “urgent”—it can be helpful to commit yourself to one by Tweeting, “I am ...”, etc.

Here are some related thoughts and points:

• We struggle with the temptation to be distracted in different ways. Some people are more self-controlled in their internet usage than others. Some people feel the need to install programs like SelfControl and Freedom so that they can get stuff done; some don't. It seems to me that any workplace policy regarding internet usage should maintain some degree of flexibility for people in both camps.
• We have different capabilities when it comes to computers and the internet. There are the technocrats and the Luddites, and the spectrum of users in between. Some people are extremely skilled in the way they use computers (e.g. they type fast, they use shortcut keys, they program their own macros for common tasks). Some aren't (e.g. they type with two fingers, they use the mouse for everything, they don't even know what macros are). Of course, the differences in speed are also reflected in people's work habits: put two people to work on the same task and one will usually be faster than the other because they're better organised or they're more familiar with the program or they've done it a million times before, etc. My point is for some people, checking Facebook will take them 20 minutes; for others, it will take them five. This leads me to my next point ...
• We tend to use social media in different ways. Some people use Facebook to play games and socialise with other people. Some people use it to share links and post messages on other people's walls. The former are going to be spending more time on Facebook than the latter. If you're an employer, it's probably worth looking into the different ways your employees are making use of things like blogs, Facebook, Twitter and instant messenger. It may then become apparent that certain activities are unhelpful and should be banned, whereas others are fine in moderation because they contribute to your employee's productivity.
• Social media and internet applications are different, and the way we use them is different. This relates to my previous point. Certain aspects of Facebook require 100% of your attention; certain aspects don't. Twitter is a bit more of an ambient awareness tool and you don't have to pay much attention to it. Email requires 100% of your attention whenever you engage with it. (Oh yes, I already blogged about that.) This means that certain forms of internet activity are more intrusive and distracting than others, and engaging in them may not fit the five ways of using internet to boost productivity that I mentioned earlier.
• Our jobs are different. This might seem bleedingly obvious, but it's worth spelling out. To return to the washing dishes versus doing ministry model, washing dishes-type jobs can be contained within the 9-5 structure of a work day; doing ministry-type jobs cannot. For example, when you need to write an article, you can clock up the hours doing research (reading books, talking to people, writing notes) and, to a certain extent, you can clock up the hours it takes for you to produce the words, but you can't really clock up the experiences you have gone through throughout the rest of your life that have led you to the point of writing the thing, the thoughts you think when you're on the loo or in the shower or talking to someone else, and thoughts you have when you're not thinking about what you're writing. Alain de Botton is right: we do not understand enough about how people work. Work is not always quantifiable by a timesheet and sometimes it's not even quantifiable by its end product. Robbing your employer of time may be the wrong way to look at it.

One last point: If you do find that you're losing your motivation to work, maybe it's worth examining the reasons behind your lack of motivation. Is it trouble with your colleagues or problems with your boss? Is it convoluted and difficult procedures, or unrealistic expectations of what your role involves? Are you then using the internet as a means of escape from these problems? Perhaps it's better to resolve some of those problems so that your working life is happier and healthier. Or perhaps it's time you started looking for a new job ...

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