Computers and work: impacts on employment and productivity

Computers and Work -- and decreasing workplace productivity?

The information revolution may be here to stay. But computers can decrease as well as increase productivity at work. How is this possible? Technically, when a virus or a worm attacks a system, an entire office's file system can become incapacitated. Of course, firewalls and anti-virus software can protect against this, but hackers are creating ways to transgress such devices almost as quickly as the software is created. A "virus might attach itself to a program such as a spreadsheet program. Each time the spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs, too, and it has the chance to reproduce (by attaching to other programs) or wreak havoc." (Brain, 2004) or in the case of a worm, "a computer program that has the ability to copy itself from machine to machine," can similarly disable the system."(Brain, 2004) Untrained employees who egregiously open strange emails contribute to the problem of attacks, as they do simply by making mistakes on their own and temporarily slowing down the organizational standard operating procedures of an office.

Socially, computers can create environmental distractions, as employees use the Internet for personal time, essentially creating time theft from their employees. "All the office time spent creating, viewing, or sending romantic or sexual content online" at the office "seems to be cutting into productivity. Among those employees aware of such goings-on, 43% say it reduces the amount of work that gets done." (Wahlgren, 2004) Telecommuting, conversely, can cause the opposite problem -- isolating employees from the input of other individuals, and also the system of rewards that comes from having a manager praise -- or critique one's performance in a personal basis, rather than through emails or online correspondence. The Internet seems to act to decrease social connections on the whole. "13% of heavy Internet users reported spending less time attending events outside the house and 65% of the heavy Internet users reported spending less time watching television." (Nielson, 2004) Thus, the computer revolution is here to stay, but not all of its effects may be salutary in terms of personal life or workplace productivity.