My Top Tips for Avoiding Collaboration Overload
Yes, collaboration overload is a thing and it’s severely impacting our productivity.
Collaboration overload is a relatively new phenomenon that’s become more prevalent in the era of remote work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s defined as:
“the point where individuals spend so much time assisting their colleagues or engaging in collaborative activities that they are not left with enough time to complete their tasks.” — NTask
Publications like Harvard Business Review and McKinsey are saying it’s sinking productivity and leading to increased stress levels and burnout in employees.
Anyone that has a desk job is probably already thinking about all the collaboration tools they use from day to day:
- Microsoft Teams
- Slack
- Webex
- Zoom
While email has been around for a while, video conferencing and instant messaging apps have increased in popularity over the last decade as a way to make collaboration easier amongst employees in different geo-locations.
Then, when the pandemic happened, it became the only way to keep in touch with colleagues we used to…