Social media increases the work/life blur

Last week’s blog received the comment that there is more than one elephant in the work room.

The first being that most people use a proportion of work time for non-work activities – the second elephant being that companies are using social media to promote their business while hoping/enforcing that employees don’t waste work hours on it (thank you to Fleur Brown for posting!)

Another article on this website last week suggested rather strict implementations of social media and IT infrastructure policies as well as making the line between work and “life” a lot more distinct. The reaction to this story was quite strong and negative.

Work as a social function

Companies are now pouring resources into social media, using it as a promotional engagement tool and we are being reminded once again that work is a social activity.

You cannot work in isolation from people. Once you gain employment you are part of a new web of people whose actions, thoughts and behaviours are part of a cause-and-effect relationship that affects everything you do.

Businesses are now using social media as a form of promotion and connecting with customers and again it’s emphasised that working life is social!

Customers are people and need to be treated on a social level rather than at a cold, transactional level. So, like email the organisation should be working towards ensuring the tools are used correctly rather than imposing a ban on social media sites.

The blur

The line between work and business is blurring more than ever before.

There was once a time when people could leave the office and their work behind, forget about it until the following day when they arrived at work refreshed and ready to put on their work hat.

That is no longer the case. We finish work, make calls on the way home, answer a few emails before dinner and if we’re lucky we will sit down for an hour or two in the evening before doing it all again the next day.

Our home life has been increasingly invaded by work and it isn’t all that surprising that our life is invading our work in the opposite direction.

Instead of calling up a few friends at night or even spending time with them we tend to be doing a little bit of catch-up work.

The next day if we can slip in an unobtrusive email or Facebook message to some friends we do.

That blur can have a range of undesirable outcomes.

It may seem like we’re forever refining and improving our ability to multi-task and to perform all our life roles at all times – people who do that for extended periods often report a form of malaise – a sameness that occurs from lack of distinction between times where they need to be “on” and focused on work and times whent they can be “off” and focusing on fun and rejuvenation.

Although the work/life blur is an understandable, two-way phenomenon it’s up to individuals to make sure they are aware of the subversive effects it can have on overall wellbeing. It’s important to have some clear down time, some dedicated social time and as your employers will attest, focused work time!

Modern life demands a crossover but balance must be maintained.

Levels of communication

In terms of how fulfilling a conversation is a face-to-face conversation is ideal.

You get to read the other person’s body language, facial expressions, tone and the content of their words but as you move through different forms of media those sources of information peel back.

Skype calls and virtual teleconference calls provide a reduced face-to-face interaction and a phone conversation removes the ability to read facial expressions and body language but you still get to read vocal intonation as an indicator of meaning.

Take it one step further to the electronically typed word and it is the lowest level of communication available to us.

Efficient contact – you choose the time of receipt

Email and social media are very quick ways to trade information and you can choose the timing of your response. You can also more readily consider/edit your response in the written form versus face-to-face or verbal.

A Facebook page gives you instant updates on what all your friends are doing, LinkedIn gives you conversation updates on whatever topics you’ve decided are interesting and Twitter is an endless newsfeed for everything.

Electronic-based forms of communication are on the rise in the workplace in part because they aren’t as visible or noticeable to those that work nearby.

A boss will quickly exert some corrective action if someone is seen to be spending too much time chatting near the water cooler or using the phone excessively when there’s work to be done.

But if that person is typing away busily at the computer managers need to be clear about what is being done in the way of agreed work and what is not acceptable and deal with it.

Don’t let the issue fester. If you think employees are spending too much time talk them about it. 

Social media and email are addictive but lack the full range of cues outside of semantic content, so we can’t help but feel slightly under-fulfilled with every electronic conversation.

If you find yourself spending an inordinate amount of time on social media and engrossed in an endless chain of emails then perhaps it’s time to turn around and have a casual chat to some of the real-life humans that you work with.

Eve Ash is the creator of 500+videos, assessment tools and books to help people become more skilled and productive at work.