Welcome to Worksheet, a newsletter about how people are working smarter in these turbulent times.
Every week, this newsletter will share analysis on the state of work by S. Mitra Kalita, a veteran media executive, author, and journalist.
In this week’s edition, Kalita digs into the communication overload that has come to define the workplace circa 2021.
It’s time to stop sending Zoom links via text message. Please?
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we’d like to lower-case zoom out a bit and examine how far we’ve come on communication in the pandemic workplace.
Before COVID-19, the average knowledge worker in the U.S. used 10 apps at least 25 times per workday, according to a study by Asana, which helps teams track and organize their work. Now, with a record number of Americans working from home, the number of apps has ballooned to 13, checked at least 30 times a day.
“We’re overwhelmed,” said Joshua Zerkel, head of global engagement marketing at Asana. “We need to put the team and people back in the driver’s seat so we’re not at the mercy of the tool. Because the world is increasingly chaotic, everyone is looking for any way to retain some modicum of control.”