Exploding Information Processing Demands at Work

Data, Data, and More Data: Exploding Information Processing Demands at Work

By MK Ward

Tech means big opportunity and money rewarded to some who work in the industry. From the outside, these resources are extremely attractive, but there is a balance and high resources can also mean high demands. We see this in some of the roles at one of Australia’s major telecommunications company.

MC is a customer technology strategist. He starts with the problem and then matches the problem to current technologies to build a system that will create a “full solution” for customers.  The pace of development means MC needs to spend time reading online, in webinars, conferences or other means to stay up to date: “I keep up on things like augmented reality, AI, automation, internet of things, and more” he notes. 

MC‘s job requires a huge amount of information processing. Fortunately MC has high motivation to learn, which means he enjoys the cognitive demands in his job. Beyond passively processing information, a high level of vigilance is required and some degree of proactivity in searching for the new.

“Data explosions in all of these developments also means data security is increasingly important. False positives are an issue, because there’s a dozen threats a minute but then there may be a more malicious and credible threat. Those must be noticed and responded to appropriately.”

Another example comes from M, an account manager in the same company. M manages the accounts for education clients such as universities and the Department of Education. M’s typical day begins with calls at 7am. He works with lots of people on the east coast of Australia, which is two to three hours ahead of time. M tries not to take any meetings before 6:30am. But the emails don’t go away:

 “I’ll typically answer emails for an hour or two and then I’m in or out of meetings or on phone calls all day. I spend 75% of the time on the phone and the rest of the time in meetings or on my way to meetings. I get 300 emails a day.”

D, a Service Delivery Manager in the same company, ensures that technology solutions get delivered to clients. D gets a couple hundred emails a day on average.

In all of these jobs, technology has meant more information to process rather than less, suggesting modern technologies do not always “remove” work as is typically assumed. An example is the large amount of information that is now generated automatically, but still needs to be dealt with:

 “In our world, we have a lot of automation. We have an automated workflow for internal processes, so a fair bit of our emails are automated alerts from the system sharing information about statuses of projects or information about other things that are happening, rather than from another co-worker or other human.”

In the context of all of these information processing demands, it is important to ensure that other demands in work are minimized. This seems not always to be the case. D observes the effect of poor processes on her work load:

 “We’re not doing the job we’re meant to do because we’re putting out fires a lot…We have to spend sometimes 5 hours dealing with the complexities in our own organisation, and taking on tasks that should be done by other internal teams as a result. Sometimes we need to do other teams jobs in order to minimize turnaround time for the customer. It would be fine if we just needed to do what our job says we are meant to do.”

Some demand comes from role conflict, or having conflicting expectations from different people.  Mike observes: “right now my job is split between pre-sales design and post-sales support, but I’m evaluated solely on pre-sales KPIs….I do spend a bit too much time on support and troubleshooting”.

If the amount of data in the world is doubling every two years, as some commentators have argued, information processing demands will become higher than ever in many jobs. Similarly, it will be more important than ever to ensure good processes and clear, compatible work roles.

Beth - The Stereotyped Childcare Educator

So much more than changing nappies

Beth scored her job as 7/10 (with ten being the most fantastic job imaginable).

Beth works in the toddler room of a childcare centre in Perth. We find her in a sandbox made out of an old boat, with three toddlers playing at her feet. Some sand is being tipped over heads (with much amusement to the little ones), but the issue is resolved lovingly and swiftly. Beth deals with the 'sand-on-heads' incident and continues the conversation exactly where she had left it - making it clear to us how much of her job involves multi-tasking. We are impressed.

Beth loves her job and would not change it for any other job in the world. Her fascination and passion in seeing toddlers grow, and developing their skills, is evident from the loving way she describes her role. "It is about seeing all the changes that happen and the development and knowing that you have helped the (kids) to learn these new things.”

Beth recognises her work as "work" and is clear about the physical and psychological exertion it requires. “It is physically and emotionally exhausting. We are all human too and you have your trials and tribulations in your home life, but your problems stay at the door.”  

She explains that the work they do is only possible with a supportive team, one with team members that complement each other. To her, the key is to have a team with colleagues that are open,  communicate well, and helpful. The work can become overwhelming at times and that the best support is a colleague who looks at you and recognises that it is getting too much for you in this moment, makes you aware of it, and helps you find a way out of it. Humour helps a lot as well.

Beth also thinks that the surroundings and the centre in itself (which is physically very beautiful), and the positive way in which the centre is managed, makes her job one of the best she can think of.

But Beth experiences a lack of recognition from others for her job. She reflects about the ways in which some others see her work – "it is not all bouncing babies up and down.. it is a lot more". She describes the conversations she often has with men in particular, and even other people who work in the education sector, who are convinced that she and her colleagues "just change nappies".

Beth says: “A lot of what we do is so much more. It is about child development, psychology, a lot of reporting... And of course, we change nappies, because that is what children at that age need. But there is so much more to what we do. But our work has that stigma of babysitting.”

When we ask Beth what the one thing is that she would like to change about her job, she has to think a little bit but then comes straight out to say:“Oh, I know one thing I would like to change! If the pay was better, this job would be a ten out of ten. I am not a money-driven person, but when you look at the responsibilities that we have on a day-to-day basis – I sometimes scare myself, thinking about what it means to look after someone else’s children.... We are given this wonderful responsibility and we love it.... but we are not paid much.”

We agree with Beth: this job is such an important one, it should be more highly rewarded than it is.

Cafe Owner

It’s not You, It’s Your Job: The Story of How a Female Entrepreneur Created Better Work Design by Starting a Café

Beck scores her job 9/10 (ten being the most enjoyable job you can imagine)

by MK Ward

It’s open, airy and bright as we sit in the modest space that Pearth Organic Kitchen uses to serve the West Leederville neighbourhood. We met with Beck Brown, the owner and founder of Pearth Organic Kitchen which has been open for a little over two years.

“All my earlier jobs forced me to be there from 8:30am to 5pm no matter what. I know that I wasted heaps of time because I used that time to research health rather than sitting there with no work to do.”

Imagine what it’s like to be in a job that isn’t letting you use all your skills, your vision and creativity, keeping you on hold, like a tool on a shelf. This is characteristic of work design with low complexity, skill variety, and autonomy.

That’s how Beck felt, and like so many of us, she thought that it was something wrong with her, not the work itself.

“I thought I was just the type of person who would never be satisfied because I never liked my jobs.”

Over time, her research about health, food tastings at cafes, and obsession with healthy eating, she developed a few recipes, got feedback from friends and considered returning to school to study nutrition. Then she wondered, why go back to school for nutrition when she already knew heaps? Instead she wanted to open a business and serve the products she most wanted to eat and drink, but couldn’t find anywhere else.

So, has Beck created her dream job in the café?

Well, it’s not easy. Part of the recipe for success involves physical, repetitive tasks that need to be done starting early in the morning. Some tasks like setting up the till, writing the menus, tidying and housekeeping are not the most enjoyable but they are necessary to keep the café looking good and operational at all times.

Beck also finds it hard to get employees to make the café a number one priority like she has. Being realistic, she has decided to accept that it may not be the number one priority – and that’s okay, as long as her employees are not slacking and are happy. Still, as the owner, it’s challenging to care so much.

A common consequence of high work engagement in people like Beck, is that there can be spill over from work to life and vice versa. Since becoming a café owner, Beck’ social life has definitely changed:

“Our regular customers are like friends now because I talk to them and see them more so than I do my actual friends. I’m introverted and at the end of the day I have to be alone because in this work I give my energy to other people all day. That affects my social life, forcing me to prioritize outings.”

Social contact all day does not necessarily equate to social support, something the work design literature would describe as a resource. Even contact with beneficiaries (i.e., customers) can be energizing or energy depleting. It depends on the person, that person’s relationship to their work, and the other person or people involved in the social interactions.

I’m intrigued by Beck’s reflections on whether she’s doing enough. This is the core of the stress in her work, and this is the flipside of caring about what you make and trying to maintain a quality café experience.

“Sometimes I still wonder why they chose us rather than the guys down the street.”

Although this work is certainly demanding than her earlier jobs in marketing, it’s clear that Beck loves her work.

“I’m proud of the people who work here and the things we make. My work feels satisfying, especially at the end of a busy day when I feel a certain sense of accomplishment. “

Bad work designs of earlier jobs helped Beck along this path of work. Beck now knows that if you’re unhappy with your work, chances are there’s something wrong with the work design, not you.

A little more...

Feedback from friends & family when starting a business

“Go for it!” said her friends and partner.

“That sounds really risky. You know most businesses fail. Cafes are really difficult to make successful. Are you sure?” said her family, with good intentions.

Yes, she was sure and once she convinced them with her business model, over the years of prepping for launch and growing the business thereafter, her family has supported the business with investment money, time washing dishes, and employment (Beck’s sister manages the store). “A previous chef whom I met at the gym helped me figure out how to build out the kitchen. It was right person, right time. It’s funny, the more people you tell you want to do something, the more people can offer their assistance. It’s important to actually talk about what you want to do because then the right people will listen.”

Feedback of all sorts, except one.

Feedback comes to Beck about her employees from online customer reviews, word of mouth customer referrals, seeing reluctant meat-eating customers leave very pleasantly surprised. Beck compliments her staff immediately when they do something well, and provides private feedback about how to improve where needed. Weekly one-on-one meetings give her a chance to have more in-depth feedback for employees. But something’s missing here, something that’s missing in most businesses. There is very little feedback directly from employees to Beck. She doesn’t hear constructive compliments from her employees when she does something well, or criticism when she needs to improve something. Discomfort with upward feedback is a common and persistent issue across many organizations.

Skill variety to mantain high customer service

The shared goal of maintaining high customer service has changed the work in a few ways. It means that people have to notice when customer service may drop, ready to take over when others are busy making food or coffee, leaving no one to take orders at the till. This changes the work design to include more skill variety because talking to a customer involves different skills from making a short mac. This also means role ambiguity, where you, the employee must be aware of what’s happening and know when to step in. Trying to outline what people need to do during the day was really hard at first for Beck. Employees often ask, “What should my priority be? Should I be clearing tables or doing dishes?” This is an example of role ambiguity, wherein there’s uncertainty about what you versus other people are responsible for doing at work. Autonomy and flexible work roles tend to create role ambiguity, but that ambiguity can get resolved through experience and learning on the job. It’s something that they gauge over time to see the different areas to move between during the day. Although it is difficult at times for people to get employees to embrace role sharing in the café, Beck has remained steady in giving her employees the autonomy they’re not used to enjoying.

“I really trust my staff, and chefs I’ve hired have commented on that. I don’t know how to be a chef, so why would I try to tell you how to do your job?”

Behind the Scenes

Despite the mid-afternoon “lull” there are people eating at a few tables, and several with their coffee of choice, filling up 75% of the seating area. The window wall is folded back to create an indoor/outdoor space separated by a standing bar where you can look outside, or in to the back of the kitchen because there are virtually no walls inside the café. The place is hip, and has service that’s friendly, not fake. There’s an authenticity you can sense in the materials, space, place and people. In architecture, they call it “truth in materials” to use real wood rather than composite made to appear to be wood.

The founder and owner of Pearth Organic Café has glasses with clear frames, blonde hair, and a presence that give you a sense that she’s present, friendly, and grounded. Customers, who’ve had limited interactions with her, will frequently will say things like, “My friend started this café on Cambridge Street.” Although this seems odd, in a weird way, it makes sense.

Beck gets at least one request per day from people asking for a job at the café because they like the vibe of the place. We can’t confirm a perfect work design for such a café, but if people want to work somewhere, then the work design is probably better than the crap jobs Beck experienced in the past.