MGT 522
Week 4 Discussion #1
Read Taking Sides - Issue 11 - pp. 168-187 and answer the following questions: * How does information overload rob an employee’s quality of work/life? * What do you see as the advantages of working in a 24/7 virtual environment? * What are some alternate perspectives that HRM professionals may pursue to reduce the problems of information overload?

Issue 11 deals with the increased dependence on laptops, cell phones, and PDA’s. This has become a serious problem in the workplace due to employees being distracted from work. With the rise of tablets and PDAs and the universal presence of mobile devices in meeting rooms and offices, it’s natural for managers to wonder where this trend is taking American employees.
The information overload robs an employee’s quality of life because they are stuck on their laptops, cell phones or PDA’s. By being so consumed by technology they are not getting the work that needs to be done, done. Therefore, employee’s falling behind in the work place increases low performance and it becomes a problem for the HRM. “On average, Intel executives receive 300 emails a day, and Microsoft workers need 24 minutes to return to work after each e-mail interruption” (Rao, P. 2013, p. 171). This is an incredible stat, as it possible shows that once employees have read an email they tend to check social media, such as twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Thus taking them twenty-four minutes to get back to work. If an employee reads three e-mails periodically during the day, that’s a full hour gone out of the day that the employees has not worked. I also feel that because of the information overload, employees are not producing their best work because they are too distracted by all the technology around. Although, in some cases technology is a commodity and having the most up-to-date news could be vital for your