The increased reliance on digital working due to Covid-19 and subsequent hybrid work styles has highlighted both the advantages and potential pitfalls of digital workplace technologies. The digital workplace can enable greater worker autonomy and flexibility but may also come with pitfalls such as technostress, information overload and computer anxiety. Such dark side effects have been shown to have adverse potentials for employee health, potentially leading to stress, work-life conflict, burnout and poorer health. While there has been a surge in research in this domain lately, there is still an absence of a cohesive perspective encompassing different fields, technologies, negative effects, and outcomes. There is value in collating and juxtaposing findings and theoretical methodologies. In addition, research in this domain is primarily quantitative in methodology thereby potentially obscuring the lived experiences of workers in the digital workplace. Job-Demands Resources model, which has been extensively adopted in the stress literature, was used as a theoretical foundation. The model includes a health impairment pathway in which prolonged exposure to job demands may lead to stress and burnout. It has been used in the dark side of digital working literature to explore the health impacts of digital working. In this study, 14 workers who use technology daily were recruited via the Prolific platform and interviewed regarding their experiences of the dark side effects (stress, overload, anxiety, Fear of Missing Out and addiction) and any well-being impacts. Questions were also asked about mindfulness and digital workplace confidence as potential personal resources to mitigate negative well-being outcomes. A semi-structured interview format was used in order to allow flexibility in exploring participants’ experiences of the dark side aspects of digital working. Digital workplace technologies are powerful enablers inside modern organizations but also pose threats for employee well-being. Using the Job-Demands Resources model as a theoretical foundation, 14 workers were interviewed regarding their experiences of the digital workplace dark side effects (stress, overload, anxiety, Fear of Missing Out and addiction) and any well-being impacts. Questions were also asked about mindfulness and digital workplace confidence as potential personal resources to mitigate negative well-being outcomes.
Participants for this study (N = 14) were recruited using convenience sampling on the Prolific platform (www.prolific.co) based on certain criteria (UK-based, in full- or part-time work, technology use at work more than once a day). Participation was on a voluntary basis and involved completion of a consent form on Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com) before participating in an interview lasting between 23 and 45 minutes (mean 34 minutes) on Microsoft Teams or phone. Participants were provided with a Participant Information Sheet prior to completing the Interview Consent Statement as well as debrief information following the interview. The survey was approved by the University Research Ethics Committee at the University of Nottingham and interviews were conducted during July 2022. Interview questions probed dark side of digital work experiences such as stress, overload and addiction - as well as mindfulness, digital workplace confidence, and health outcomes.
