The State of Work The alignment paradox 30 “The cost of choice and That half hour of lost pro- App usage is on interdependent tasks to the information overload is that ductivity takes on staggering the rise globally forefront of knowledge work- proportions when looked at ers’ daily routines. This shift people get distracted, people across an entire company. An requires knowledge workers enterprise with 2,500 employ- 76% to engage more with tech- are making more errors because ees working 260 days a year of all knowledge nology as they connect with could lose 325,000 hours of workers surveyed report colleagues to tackle complex productivity annually. using more apps than projects across teams and they’re multitasking, and if they did five years ago time zones. And things aren’t slowing down. Eighty-one percent you’re not giving yourself the of aligned employees report Communication using more apps than they 68% can become did five years ago, and 73% expect that all-consuming time to focus, you are less expect the number of apps number to rise they need to use to increase As the complexity of work good at engaging in creative further. There’s an urgent increases, so does the need need for management to pro- groups and industries report for cross-functional team- vide clear direction and limits using more apps than ever work. And communication problem-solving.” so aligned workers can use before. Seventy-six percent of between teams is hard—and their time more effectively. all respondents reported using even harder for those working more apps than they did five on teams distributed across years ago, and 68% expect multiple offices, time zones Knowledge workers that number to rise. and countries. worldwide are under pressure This makes sense in light of More than half (52%) of current workplace trends, in knowledge workers who Sheena Iyengar, This paradox isn’t limited to which automation is increas- communicate with col- S.T. Lee Professor of aligned workers. Knowledge ingly displacing rote work leagues in several time Business, Columbia workers across all regions, age and pushing more complex, zones find cross-functional Business School © SLACK TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 2019