Better Gadgets Mean Harder Work


May 3, 1992|By Joel Achenbach

Q. Why do we have time-saving gadgets like fax machines and personal computers, and yet feel just as rushed and harried as ever?

A. There is chaos and lamentation throughout the Why Things Are empire. It seems that we're always feeling so rushed, despite all our modern technology that's supposed to save us time and effort Q the fax machines, the express overnight mail, the word processing programs on the personal computer, the laserjet printers, the electronic databases, our corporate jet with built-in jacuzzi, and so on.

Where, we ask, does the ''time saved'' go? It seems to disappear. And so we find ourselves strangely nostalgic for inkwells and feather pens, for battered typewriters and carbon paper.

This annoying situation is easily explained. These new systems are not designed to save you time. They are designed to increase your output.

If the distinction confuses you, ask your boss. She didn't buy these gadgets so you could leave work early.

This is a simple phenomenon of industrial engineering. If it becomes possible to do three days' worth of work in a single day, you won't suddenly get two days off; instead, the labor market changes the definition of ''one day's work'' (and it reads, ''What used to take three days'').

Michael Smith, a professor of industrial engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert in the ''human factors'' in engineering, points out that this phenomenon has annoyed and frustrated blue-collar workers throughout the 20th century. Only in recent years has it had a major impact on office workers.

''I feel . . . more time stressed,'' says Smith, ''because I can do so much more.''

Gavriel Salvendy, editor of The Handbook of Industrial Engineering, points out another reason why we're still rushed: That's the American Way. New technology makes us more productive, but as a society we choose to take the financial rewards without changing our basic working life. In Germany, by contrast, the work week now averages only 34 hours, and six weeks vacation a year is normal. But Germans don't have our standard of living, Salvendy says.

''In America the main thing is to excel and climb up the hierarchy,'' Salvendy says. ''In some countries, take France for example, the key issue is to have a good time, to be able to go to nice restaurants.''

We should note, by the way, that some of the ''efficient'' technology of today isn't so efficient after all. Like replacing human switchboard operators with computers. Humans did that job better. Computers are just cheaper.

Is ''call waiting'' so great? Not if you like coherent, uninterrupted conversations. What about answering machines? They become surrogates for ourselves, inanimate liaisons that do as much to separate people as bring them together.

Our advice is to put your instruments aside and . . . well, reach out and touch someone. And not just metaphorically.

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