Is our modern world changing our work communications?

Do you remember when phones were bricks and the most amazing thing you could do was take pictures the size of a postage stamp? It’s hard to believe that era was only 15 years ago. Today, we bet you could even do an entire day’s work just on your phone. If a call comes in, you can answer it. If you get an email, you can reply to it. If you need to look over someone’s sales pitch… you get the idea.

It’s amazing how far it’s come in such a short space of time and it quickly changed the way we work. For both the better and the worse. That feeling of being ‘always on’ is a genuine issue in our modern world – over a quarter of people feel pressured to respond to work communications outside of working hours. When your phone keeps popping off while you’re getting into your takeaway, it’s not so great.

But, on the other side of the coin, it lets people work with some flexibility. And flexibility is something the younger workforce really values. So are technology and modern communication methods holding us back or rocketing us into a better future?

How has technology changed our working lives?

We’re living in a 24/7 world. If you wanted to, you could have Amazon deliver a package to you in just a couple of hours. It’s made us a bit impatient and this definitely leaks into some people’s approach to work.

You might be dealing with international clients who’ll call at odd hours of the day or work with a night owl who does their best work at 11 p.m. The immediacy of communication means that, as soon as a problem rears its head, you can talk to the right people to get it fixed.

Not by email, no no no. Never by email. They might have been the best way to communicate way back when, but now everyone has at least two different email addresses and is familiar with the cluttered inbox filled with spam. You’re lucky if you get a reply in a reasonable time. There’s a reason so many people see it as a productivity killer.

Instead, you can call someone wherever you are, or drop them a WhatsApp message, or send a Slack. It’s real-time communication and people appreciate the ease of access. If anything, we’ve gone back to a world where phone calls are the most popular way to communicate. And if your small company wants to deliver a big company service, you need to be available 24/7. It’s easy to look at that as a bad thing, but the recent COVID-19 crisis has been a wake-up call for a lot of people. If our approach to work communications has changed, why hasn’t our workday?

What does the future hold?

Now everyone has a taste of remote working, we can see how our work doesn’t have to revolve around the 9-5 office. For some people, that might work – it gives them structure and a schedule that helps them be their most productive. But for others, they can fit their work around their lives and not the other way around.

Over 60% of people think the old-school eight-hour workday is becoming obsolete. Some people might choose to split up their workday; do a couple of hours in the morning, take an extended lunch, and work in front of the TV later in the evening. If that works for them, who’s to stop them? Maybe they want a lie-in because their partner was snoring all night – you can’t blame them.

It’s particularly great for smaller businesses as it lets them work in whatever way helps their company the most. And if they can offer that same benefit to their staff then great – 87% of them are more likely to love their job. We’re always hearing news stories about the four-day work week; could this finally become a reality?

Thanks to advances in technology and how it affects our work communications, we don’t have to adhere to the old way of doing things just because. It gives us the freedom to work how we want without affecting our productivity. We’re always within reach and if we aren’t, there are easy ways to make that a reality.

At alldayPA, we help you stay plugged in even when you aren’t. If there’s a call you can’t answer, we’ll be there to pick it up. Get in touch with us today to find out how our call handling service could help you – call us on 0345 056 8888.