Anxietylack of disconnection and loss of attention due to continuously reply to messages. These are some of the effects that being constantly subjected to the tension of receiving messages in a group of people causes. WhatsApp work, both during working hours and outside of it, so the use of this tool should be regulated at least by a protocol.
This is what clinical psychologist MarÃa Pilar Berzosa, professor at the International University of Rioja (UNIR), which has explained how many professionals suffer “pollution” by this instant messaging system that can help at work, but can also have adverse effects if it is not used correctly.
This specific tool, articulated around groups, “speeds up communication” between workers in a company, “but as in everything, when there is no balance and it is overused becomes negative“. “When a group is created for something specific over time, nothing happens,” explains this specialist, “but all the groups generated for something that are going to be maintained can create problems and, in the case of work, it is where we can see more pressure to respond, to attend at all times.”
Thus, “not only do we stop paying attention to work for some work, which is paradoxical,” but, “if limits are not set, that situation continues when leaving the company“. Therefore, he believes that within the rules that already exist to facilitate the digital disconnection of workers, protocols for the use of that specific application, which is the most widespread in work groups, must be created “in which it is established at what time can be used and when you have to be connected.
A task in which he believes that companies’ occupational risk prevention representatives should be involved, because “in the end we are talking about a question of mental health and occupational health.” For example, “those protocols must be established that, if someone is in a meeting, You should not be obliged to answer all the messages, because even that situation can harm the company itself, even if we believe that it is just a quick thing,” Berzosa details.
look at the other person
Although he insists that a tool like this provides advantages, he emphasizes that psychologically, applied to work, it has many derivatives, “because it is never the same than to look another person in the face.” That is why he recommends not only the establish work use standards of WhatsApp, but not to abuse it and “favor face-to-face meetings, so that people look each other in the eyes” and, “if it is not possible because several workers are in different places, encourage videoconferences.”
“He stress is the disease that has increased the most in the 21st century and work stress is increasing,” stressed this specialist, who emphasizes that “trying to focus on several things in parallel triggers this problem” and is something that this tool encourages. Some tips to avoid it, in addition to establish a protocol with clear rules, are “leave the cell phone outside of meetings” and “establish a deadline to be connected to a company group.”
“We should make technology work for our benefit, not to increase our addictions and our anxiety, which is what we are in now,” laments Berzosa, who assumes that “the capitalist world in which we are it sets us a negative pace of life for many things.”
That is why he believes that “there will be those who believe that regulating the use of this application is nonsense”, but “it is the same thing that happened decades ago with the regulations on ergonomics or visual healthfor example”, and “now these issues are within occupational health prevention”.
Furthermore, “we are talking about the most widespread application in the world of work,” but “there are more and more companies that force workers to install other applications so that they can be there all the time. pending of them“says this specialist, who investigates the concept of “technoference”, which addresses how technological devices affect everyday life. “There are already studies of the effects that technology has technology in couple or family relationships“, but “we must also shed light on what happens in companies,” concludes Berzosa.
