One in seven office workers are suffering technology fatigue and dream of a return to the age of the typewriter, a survey has found.
The survey by the UK’s leading serviced office broker, officebroker.com found 15% of workers struggled to keep up with technology driven changes in the workplace.
The study also revealed that the analogue age is still very much alive in Britain’s offices with almost three quarters of workers stating they could not cope without pen and paper.
The poll identified that whilst 85% of people wanted to keep the office luxuries of the digital age, 73% would struggle to get through the working day without a handy piece of A4.
Our reliance on the internet and emails as well as the time and cost effectiveness of modern technology are thought to be the reasons why only 14% of us wanted to return to the ‘typewriter age’.
Although, it is believed that the temperamental nature of computers and the fear of data being lost in cyber-space remain the key factor for us clinging to the simple pen and paper.
However, traditional office tools are not the only casualty of the digital age, relatively modern equipment is falling by the wayside as well.
The poll showed that the two office items the majority of employees could do without were the humble pencil sharpener (60%) and the fax machine (51%).
A spokesman from officebroker.com said: “I am not surprised that such a large majority of people wanted to work in the 21st Century, in fact our dependency on technology is astonishing. We all know how frustrating it is when our internet fails or our emails go down — everything seems to just grind to a halt.”
He added: “I can never see pen and paper going out of fashion, however I was shocked to see that the majority of people could do without the fax machine, an item which only 20 years ago was an office essential.
“Looking to the future, the next office item I predict to go the way of the Dodo will be the diary. While only 33% of people currently see them as obsolete, with the advances in portable devices such as tablet computers and smart phones, I expect this number to rise sharply.”
