CanadaOne Twitter CanadaOne Linkedin CanadaOne Facebook CanadaONe RSS

Biz-Briefs

Workers turn to flirting as technology malfunctions in the office

By Julie King |

It's no surprise that when technology breaks employees feel stressed. A recent survey by Toshiba Canada found that 40 per cent of Canadians cited malfunctioning technology as their top office complaint.

And as the device size shrinks, stress seems to rise.

Tablet users were much more likely to report being stressed at work (86 per cent) compared to laptop (68 per cent) and desktop (57 per cent) users. They were also three times as likely to yell at their colleagues when stressed at work.

"It is not surprising that 62 per cent of Canadians find work stressful.  What is surprising is the number of respondents who attribute their stress to workplace technology," said Melissa Moore, Social Media and Communications Manager at Toshiba of Canada. "Technology should make your life easier."

The "Cupid Connection"

Much less expected were findings that almost a third of coworkers use flirting to reduce office stress and 11 per cent of men have used broken technology as an excuse to flirt with a colleague.

If you are a tablet user, your chance of having an office romance rises dramatically.

Twenty seven per cent of tablet users reported that they had engaged in an office romance, which was almost twice as high as the national average of 15 per cent.

Yet there may be more than just the device type behind this pattern. The majority of tablet users are between the ages of 18 to 24, with the remainder divided pretty evenly amongst other age groups.

Technology breakdowns impact productivity, deadlines

When technology fails, work is negatively impacted.

Just over half of respondents (52 per cent) said that technology breakdowns take away from their other work responsibilities.

A quarter of employees have missed a deadline because of a technology malfunction and 57 per cent believe that their boss would accept a breakdown as a valid excuse for the missed deadline.



If you enjoyed this article, be sure to visit CanadaOne's article knowledge base for more informative articles.

Canadian, Eh!

For over 15 years CanadaOne has helped Canadian businesses start-up and grow. All of the content on our site is created to help busineses get Canadian answers!

Featured Member

MemberZone. Get in the zone! Join Today!

CanadaOne Recommends

Bullies in the Boardroom: Covering the Legal Bases

Should I Start My Own Company?

Conversations with Entrepreneurs: Billy Blanks

Avoiding Legal Perils: Critical Insights into Canadian Franchise Law

Starting a Business: Choosing a Year-End

More

Article Tags