Technology? Helping or hurting.

[enota]

It seems like the more technology we implement into our business the more problems and less productivity we have. It seems like there is a problem or issue on a daily basis despite the fact that we "upgrade" our equipment/software, as recommended by the manufacturers.

In the past week we have had our credit card machine go down twice. Our computer is *constantly* having problems (even though it is only 6 months old and is "maintained" judiciously and constantly). Thank goodness for back ups.

Today I discovered that the vital order that we put in yesterday (online of course), did not "go through" and the supplier never received it. Luckily my husband had the foresight to call them to find out if there were any back orders, or we might have never known that it never went through until we began to wonder why we did not receive the ordered products.

Yes, having technology makes it LESS COMPLICATED to keep records of some things, but the frustration of having issues does not make the transition worthwhile in my opinion. Now when there is a problem we are completely paralyzed rather and unable to take control of the situation until the problem is fixed.

Does anyone else experience this? Has anyone here avoided giving into the technology paradigm in an effort to maintain control of how things work at their place of business?

Just wondering if it is everybody or just us.

[Gardenarian]

I work at a library and I spend an awful lot of time fiddling with the printer, re-booting computers that freeze up, helping students figure out stuff on the computers. There is nothing I can do to change this; I worked in libraries before there were computers and there is no question that technology is a huge help. We have access to information we couldn't dream about in the past. Reference questions that may have taken me weeks to answer now take minutes.

It's not that it's less complicated (because it's not) - it's that we can do things that were simply impossible in the past. When systems crash, it's bad - we can not duplicate what we do on the computers any other way.

We are living in a time when technology is changing so rapidly that it is hard for anyone to keep up. There are so many different formats and possibilities in the world of computers. Yes, sometimes I wish I could say "Stop here; let's just stick with CDs and DVDs for a while..." but by then we've already moved onto streaming video and online audio books. (Online books - audio or otherwise - are an especial annoyance. Is it in Overdrive? Do we have the Kindle version? Oy.)

Eventually, we'll start to see the way things are going to be...will the mobile phone/tablet be the computer of choice? Will there be wireless available everywhere, or will every device have cellular service?

I'm convinced it will all shake down and people will look back and think how quaint we are to be spending so much time thinking about technology; in the future it will be seamless and easy and just the way things are. Like our highway system - we don't often stop and wonder how amazing it is that you can drive to anywhere and be able to find your way around. For the first people driving across country, this would be shocking.

Of course, like our highway system, we might sometimes stop and wonder - why did we build all these roads? why did we stop using trains and bicycles and horses? Does everyone need a car? Does everyone need a computer/phone/tablet? What are the downsides to being online all the time?

I can't do much about the tech overload at work (the old "like drinking water from a fire hose") except to keep spouting about the value of books. (Our patrons overwhelmingly prefer books on paper - they would prefer magazines and journals on paper too, but that's no longer possible to maintain.)

I do try to keep it to a minimum at home. I pay my bills with checks and envelopes and stamps. I don't automatically think to computerize something that works just fine on it's own. It's only recently that I started keeping an online calendar, and I print that out monthly anyhow. I need things on paper. I like paper books, paper greeting cards. I like playing scrabble with wooden tiles, and solitaire with actual playing cards.

I think that it is not coincidental that along with the technology revolution there has been a great surge of interest in handcrafts. People need to feel the texture of reality.

[iris lilies]

I agree with one of Gardarian's points--we fuss with technology a lot because it's still pretty damned bad. Sure it does some great things, but it breaks down a lot. That's part of what will some day look antiquated.

[JaneV2.0]

And then there's the useful software that you embrace, use for years and then get a new computer and it goes obsolete and you can't replace it. You're right; we haven't reached techno-Nirvana yet.

[Kestra]

We use a lot of technology at work. I could rant for hours about how it annoys me. But I'll just share one thing that we are told, that is technology related and just drives me insane: "You can't send letters that are longer than one page." (to customers)

Say what?? We have all the technology in the world but because the computer system was designed a particular way, there's absolutely NO way to print and mail a letter longer than one page?! There's no suggestion of a workaround or an improvement to the computer system. It's just told to us like it's a physical law in the universe.

When our entire income rides on making clients happy I can't take being told that we can't do something so basic. Luckily, in my actual job I don't send too many letters, and I can usually confine them to one page. But I'm pretty sure I could find a work around if I had to. What happens is I just avoid giving better customer service because the technology makes it so darn difficult.

[iris lilies]

We use a lot of technology at work. I could rant for hours about how it annoys me. But I'll just share one thing that we are told, that is technology related and just drives me insane: "You can't send letters that are longer than one page." (to customers)

Say what?? We have all the technology in the world but because the computer system was designed a particular way, there's absolutely NO way to print and mail a letter longer than one page?! There's no suggestion of a workaround or an improvement to the computer system. It's just told to us like it's a physical law in the universe.

When our entire income rides on making clients happy I can't take being told that we can't do something so basic. Luckily, in my actual job I don't send too many letters, and I can usually confine them to one page. But I'm pretty sure I could find a work around if I had to. What happens is I just avoid giving better customer service because the technology makes it so darn difficult.

Perfectly ridiculous!

Well, there is the technology and then there are the bozos who design it. Our new employee time-records software allowed users to exit without saving changes, there was no pop-up message to say "Hey you, do you really want to exit without saving your changes?"

Isn't that pretty much human factors software design 101?
It was fixed at a later upgrade.

But I still have an employee whose vacation balance is wrong and they've nto been able to correct it after 8 months. Simply ridiculous.

[iris lilies]

... But I'm pretty sure I could find a work around if I had to. What happens is I just avoid giving better customer service because the technology makes it so darn difficult.

Your workaround is to buy an old typewriter at a garage sale, bringing it in, set it to the side on your desk, and say it's there for those time when you need to type a letter that's more than one page.

[iris lilies]

On the tv show The Middle this week they showed my life.

The parents went to a high-tech house to house sit for the weekend, a little getaway for them. There was a huge, lovely television in the beautiful, comfortable living room, but they were confronted with 5 different devices to turn on the equipment. The couldn't read the home owner's instructions. No tv watching for them!

They then decided to have dinner and tried to open a bottle of wine, but the electric wine opener stymied them. Then they couldn't warm up the dinner because the microwave oven was too complex.

This is EXACTLY my week last week when I was babysitting my friend's house. Now I've been there enough times to know the basics of the tv systems, but when one of them gets off track in some kind of loop, I can't get it back on track, and one did. And then her big tv which is very nice--the audio lags behind the video. Ummm, what is the point of spending $5,000 for a tv that acts that way?

When DH and I retire we are going to get some of these toys, but now, I don't have time or interest in messing with them. I have enough technology at work that I have to figure out.

[catherine]

On the tv show The Middle this week they showed my life.

The parents went to a high-tech house to house sit for the weekend, a little getaway for them. There was a huge, lovely television in the beautiful, comfortable living room, but they were confronted with 5 different devices to turn on the equipment. The couldn't read the home owner's instructions. No tv watching for them!

They then decided to have dinner and tried to open a bottle of wine, but the electric wine opener stymied them. Then they couldn't warm up the dinner because the microwave oven was too complex.

This is EXACTLY my week last week when I was babysitting my friend's house. Now I've been there enough times to know the basics of the tv systems, but when one of them gets off track in some kind of loop, I can't get it back on track, and one did. And then her big tv which is very nice--the audio lags behind the video. Ummm, what is the point of spending $5,000 for a tv that acts that way?

When DH and I retire we are going to get some of these toys, but now, I don't have time or interest in messing with them. I have enough technology at work that I have to figure out.

Funny!!! We've gotten to the stage where if we want to do something relatively complicated technology-speaking we wait for our kids to pop by. I've always prided myself on my ability to stay at least ON the wave, if not in front of it, for a woman my age, but I think I'm just going to have to be happy paddling behind at this point.

But your story reminds me of a reverse situation: We have never been ones to get on the bandwagon with new stuff. We CHOSE a black and white TV when we married in 1978 because we didn't want to spend extra for a color one.

So you can image, in the 90s, one of my kids' friends was over and he asked to use the phone to call his mother. I said, "Sure, it's in the kitchen." So he disappears and a long while later (during which time I didn't hear him speaking at all), he came out and started to leave the house. "Did you get your mom?" I asked him. "No," he said, "I couldn't figure out how to use your phone." (We still had a rotary phone in the 90s.)

[JaneV2.0]

I thought briefly about getting a tablet, but that would lead to setting up the router I've had sitting in a box for at least six months. I have techno-fatigue.