Working from home was a dream come true for a lot of employees because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing them to avoid long commutes and wait times. With the coronavirus pandemic receding on all fronts, some have started to wonder if remote work is here to stay. A recent report published by Loom reveals a bit of a mixed perception for remote work communication apps that might hamper the shift to widespread work from home opportunities.
Digital communication tools such as Slack have helped maintain productivity in a vastly changed work environment, but in spite of the fact that this is the case 62% say that it is causing a decline in their mental health. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that these mental health issues are occurring due to miscommunication which is inevitable when relying solely on text based messages.
A shocking 91% of employees had their messages misunderstood, something that reveals that unpredictable nature of these tools. Also, 20% of employees who said that their communication had been misunderstood said that they had been penalized for it, with some even saying that they lost their jobs.
Most employees are trying to mitigate this by overthinking about emails and other forms of communication that they send. While this is reducing the prevalence of miscommunication, it is wasting a lot of time with all things having been considered and taken into account. This time adds up and it is reducing worker productivity.
Hence, it might be time to come up with a new way to manage employees. The constant need of middle to upper management to micromanage each and every thing that an employee does is starting to become obsolete in a remote work environment, and it is actually reducing productivity. Trying to manage remote workers like they are still in an office is clearly not a good way to do things, so something definitely needs to change.
Read next: The best places in the USA to start a family business
Digital communication tools such as Slack have helped maintain productivity in a vastly changed work environment, but in spite of the fact that this is the case 62% say that it is causing a decline in their mental health. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that these mental health issues are occurring due to miscommunication which is inevitable when relying solely on text based messages.
A shocking 91% of employees had their messages misunderstood, something that reveals that unpredictable nature of these tools. Also, 20% of employees who said that their communication had been misunderstood said that they had been penalized for it, with some even saying that they lost their jobs.
Most employees are trying to mitigate this by overthinking about emails and other forms of communication that they send. While this is reducing the prevalence of miscommunication, it is wasting a lot of time with all things having been considered and taken into account. This time adds up and it is reducing worker productivity.
Hence, it might be time to come up with a new way to manage employees. The constant need of middle to upper management to micromanage each and every thing that an employee does is starting to become obsolete in a remote work environment, and it is actually reducing productivity. Trying to manage remote workers like they are still in an office is clearly not a good way to do things, so something definitely needs to change.
Read next: The best places in the USA to start a family business
