A message at nine at night
It is 9pm. You are at home. Your phone buzzes. It is a message from your manager.
"Can you look at this quickly?"
Do you answer? Your manager does not say you must. But you wonder what they will think if you do not.
Digital systems did not only change our tools. They changed how people behave at work.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Culture | The usual way people behave and talk in a place. | We say good morning to everyone. |
| Productivity | How much work gets done in a set time. | Ten orders an hour |
| Availability | How often you are ready to answer. | Online from 9am to 5pm |
| Monitoring | Watching or recording what people do. | A log of when staff sign in |
| Remote working | Working away from the office, often at home. | A developer at her kitchen table |
| Hybrid working | Some days in the office and some days at home. | Office on Monday and Tuesday |
| Automation | A machine or program does a job that a person did. | A robot that packs boxes |
| Artificial intelligence | A computer program that does tasks that need human-like thinking. | A chatbot |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Quick check: the 9pm message
Have a go
Quick check: the 9pm message
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
How we talk to each other has changed
Years ago, people talked face to face or by letter. Now we also use email, chat and video calls.
Each way has good points and bad points. A good worker picks the right one for the job.
Three ways to communicate
| Way | Good for | Not so good for |
|---|---|---|
| Face to face | Difficult talks, building trust, seeing how someone feels | People in different towns |
| A written record, long details, people in many time zones | Quick answers. It is easy to read the wrong feeling in the words | |
| Video call | Meetings with people far away, sharing a screen | A poor internet connection. Tired eyes after many calls |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Always on: productivity and availability
Digital tools make work faster. A report that took a day can take an hour. So bosses may expect more work in the same time. This is a higher productivity expectation.
Phones and chat also mean staff can be reached all day. Some people feel they must answer at night. This is an availability expectation.
A healthy workplace
data-callouts.tip.label
A good employer agrees clear hours and says when staff do not need to reply. Resting is part of doing good work.
Watching staff: monitoring
Digital systems record a lot. They can show when you sign in, which websites you visit and where a van is.
Monitoring can protect a business and keep staff safe. But it can feel like being watched all day, and trust may fall.
In the UK, a monitoring record about a named person is personal information. The law on this comes later in the course.