Workagolism, Anxiety and Obsession with Computers and Internet

"A weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information
than the average person was likely to come across
in a lifetime in 17th. century England."
Information Anxiety, R.S.Wurman

"On-line service is not as reliable as cocaine or alcohol, but in the contemporary world,
it is a fairly reliable way of shifting consciousness....
Compulsive gamblers are also drawn to the tug of war between mastery and luck.
When this attraction becomes an obsession, the computer
junkie resembles the intemperate gambler....
Unlike stamp collecting or reading, computers are a psycho-stimulant,
and a certain segment of the population can develop
addictive behavior in response to that stimulant."

Dr. Shaffer( Harvard)The Addiction Letter, August, 1995)

Workagolism and work overload can be self-inflicted of externally inflicted.

Workagolism is a typical cause of self-inflicted overload. It is a very typical problem for programmers.
The second is toxic management, especially micromanagement that just increases the volume of useless work meetings, etc to the level when to perform real work you need to stay extra hours.
There are also many environment that are understaffed and overload is inevitable due to the lack of manpower.
Game industry with its cruel deadlines is probably the most stressed IT industry with the acute problem of workagolism and overload.

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Old News ;-)

A letter to a husband with a computer addiction

My Dear Husband,

I am sending you this letter via this BBS communications thing, so that you will be sure to read it. Please forgive the deception, but I thought you should know what has been going on at home since your computer entered our lives TWO YEARS AGO. The children are doing well. Tommy is seven now and is a bright, handsome boy. He has developed quite an interest in the arts. He drew a family portrait for a school project, all the figures were good, and the back of your head is very realistic. You should be very proud of him.

Little Jennifer turned three in September. She looks a lot like you did at that age. She is an attractive child and quite smart. She still remembers that you spent the whole afternoon with us on her birthday. What a grand day for Jenny, despite the fact that it was stormy and the electricity was out.

I am doing well. I went blonde about a year ago, and discovered that it really is more fun! George, I mean, Mr. Wilson, the department head, has taken an interest in my career and has become a good friend to us all.

I discovered that the household chores are much easier since I realized that you didn't mind being vacuumed but that feather dusting made you sneeze. The house is in good shape. I had the living room painted last spring; I'm sure you noticed it. I made sure that the painters cut holes in the drop sheet so you wouldn't be disturbed.

Well, my dear, I must be going. Uncle George--err--Mr. Wilson, I mean, is taking us all on a ski trip and there is packing to do. I have hired a housekeeper to take care of things while we are away, she'll keep things in order, fill your coffee cup and bring your meals to your desk, just the way you like it. I hope you and the computer will have a lovely time while we are gone. Tommy, Jenny and I will think of you often. Try to remember us while your disks are booting.

Love,
Your Wife

What Constitutes an Addiction

Computer addicts tend to lose all sense of time when they are on-line. They are drawn so deeply into the world of bytes and bits that they do not notice entire days passing by. They forget to eat, sleep, go to school, and even care for their children. They shirk responsibilities, slack off at work, and miss appointments because they are unable to pull themselves away. The virtual world and the real world are competing for their attention, and the virtual world often wins.

Anxiety Disorders Education Program

The Anxiety Disorders Education Program is a national education campaign developed by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to increase awareness among the public and health care professionals that anxiety disorders are real medical illnesses that can be effectively diagnosed and treated. More than 19 million Americans suffer from anxiety disorders, which include panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias and generalized anxiety disorder. They suffer from symptoms that are chronic, unremitting and usually grow progressively worse if left untreated. Tormented by panic attacks, irrational thoughts and fears, compulsive behaviors or rituals, flashbacks, nightmares, or countless frightening physical symptoms, people with anxiety disorders are heavy utilizers of emergency rooms and other medical services. Their work, family and social lives are disrupted, and some even become housebound. Many of them have co-occuring disorders such as depression, alcohol or drug abuse, or other mental disorders. Because of widespread lack of understanding and the stigma associated with these disorders, many people with anxiety disorders are not diagnosed and are not receiving treatments that have been proven effective through research.

DG DISPATCH - ECNP Generalized Anxiety Disorder Has Worst Impact On Quality Of Life

Brain Lock Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior A Four-Step Self-Treatment Method to Change Your Brain Chemistry

A reader from America , July 2, 1999 Excellent! A DYI approach to OCD and related disorders. A friend gave me this book and it is excellent. If you have OCD or even a related disorder it gives you a practical approach to learning to deal with and outsmart your disorder.

Take me, frinstance, while I do not have any checking compulsions, I have suffered from anxiety disorder and occasionally intrusive, disturbing thoughts for a number of years. (Other than that I am your regular guy, you wouldn't know I had a disorder if you saw me). This book gives you a 4-step method of "reframing" OCD in a way that makes it manageable. Ultimately, the authors say, by using their method you can "retrain your brain" and actually alter your brain chemistry in a positive direction and thus reduce the original symptoms to something liveable.

Buy it (or have a friend give it to you...) :-)

Stop Obsessing! How to Overcome Your Obsessions and Compulsions

The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing The Experience and Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

A reader from Santa Fe, NM , July 16, 1998 A good description of the problem and some solutions This book contains well-written descriptions of obsessive-compulsive disorder -- it's informative, clear, and a pleasure to read. And for those of us who either suffer from these disorders or are close to someone who does, it's an eye-opener: you are NOT the only person who's ever had to deal with this problem, and there IS hope for curing it! For all these reasons, I highly recommend the book. Two cautions, however: (1) The book gave a good description of the ways of treating OCD as of the date it was written. Since then, however, there have been many new developments, so, if you're specifically interested in treatments, you'll need to look up some more recent books and articles. (2) "Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder" (OCPD) is a related but different condition, and it's possible that someone who exhibits similar symptoms but doesn't have full-blown OCD suffers from this instead. (My mother has never gone in for compulsive hand-washing, but she's rigid, intolerant, controlling, and a pack rat on a truly monumental scale. That's OCPD.) The treatments for the two conditions differ -- drugs are more helpful for OCD than OCPD, for example. As with any mental condition, it's absolutely necessary to have a thorough professional diagnosis; don't just march into your doctor's office demanding Prozac, or stock up on St. John's Wort at your local herbalist's.

Social Anxiety Disorder

E-mail

E-mail avalanche even buries CEOs By Del Jones, USA TODAY

In the three seconds it takes to read this sentence, more than a half-million e-mails will land in in-boxes. By 2005, nearly that many will land each second.

The e-mail avalanche knows no rank. "I don't think the secretary of Commerce, when he hired me, wanted me spending all my time surfing through it," says National Weather Service director Jack Kelly.

But increasingly, that's what's happening. 7-Eleven CEO Jim Keyes burns three to four hours of his day on 200 e-mails and is such a heavy user that if a top field executive or licensee were to phone him, he might not recognize the voice.

Bruce Rohde, CEO of ConAgra Foods, found out how quickly a single click can touch off an e-mail tsunami when he sent a global e-mail to all employees, as far away as Turkey and Holland, with a note aimed at alleviating anxiety over anthrax. Back came 1,000 responses, mostly notes of thanks, which kept him busy at home for the next three or four evenings.

But if CEOs like these, with the resources of a modern corporation behind them, are drowning, is there any hope for those of us in the deep end of the e-mail pool?

Under the theory that CEOs are among the most time-pressed, USA TODAY interviewed more than three dozen top executives to find out how they are coping with the steep rise in e-mail — and how they fight back.

From what they said, some answering via e-mail, it's clear that CEOs are still weighing the pros and cons of the rapidly increasing volume of electronic mail. While they welcome its efficiency, most chief executives told USA TODAY, they curse its inefficiency.

"Sure, it was time consuming," Rohde says about the response to his worldwide e-mail, but he adds that he welcomed hearing from employees who would typically be too intimidated to contact him. "People put CEOs on pedestals that shouldn't exist."

But Rohde says he is also "bombarded" by unwelcome e-mail, such as the one suggesting ConAgra grow genetically altered cactus as camel food. "I get scams. I get lots of citations from the Bible. I get extortions."

Still, e-mail lubricates communication across time zones and borders and with thousands at once. Charles Holliday, chief executive at DuPont, says overseas e-mail has helped him avoid international phone tag with customers and suppliers.

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, gives his e-mail address to fans, who tell him if there's bubble gum on the seats.

Translation software lets licensees in Japan send 7-Eleven's Keyes e-mail that he can readily understand. It has become so mission critical that some CEOs wonder whether their companies would grind to a halt without it.

Rising tide of e-mail

But the volume and time requirement threaten to engulf many chief executives. When asked for comment for this article, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy dashed off the following e-mail.

Listen to him panting:

"I get hundreds a day, I review them all, answer many, forward many for response, hate the junk, I type really fast, ignore perfect grammer and typin, getting more over time, but can read e-mail from any browser, have T1's into my homes and read all that is left from the day before I go to sleep after the boys go down and get up before they do to read what came in while sleeping."

At the end, McNealy hastily included a dig at nemesis Microsoft: "I HATE attachments, MSFT docs are the WORST! I send them back. Send me ascii. Hope this helps. Scott."

Everyone wants the chief executive's attention — and that is usually easier to get via e-mail than by mail or phone.

But sending an e-mail to the chief executive is no guarantee of success. "I don't read them, because you just get stacks and stacks of them," says Burger King CEO John Dasburg.

Raj Jaswa, CEO of software maker Selectica, deletes 80% of his e-mail without reading it. He suggests a strategy for getting through the CEO's e-mail clutter or anyone's clutter:

Get the message across in the first two sentences.

Get the name of the company or CEO you're approaching up high so that it's clear that the e-mail is not part of a mass mailing.

Don't copy the e-mail to anyone else — again, to make it personal.
And he adds this hook:

Put the crucial point in a postscript (P.S.). Those always get read.

Addicted to e-mail

While some CEOs fight back with their delete key, most have decided to err on the side of e-mail addiction. "I am neurotic," e-mailed Bob Zollars, CEO of Web-based health care company Neoforma, who says he can't leave his office if he has unread e-mail.

Many CEOs say they often check their e-mail late at night or early in the morning, making those prime times to correspond in real time.

The huge volume of mail, though, has many chief executives finally turning e-mail over to administrative assistants for screening, just as they long ago turned over snail mail and phone calls.

But that doesn't work for everyone. Bob Longo, CEO of Carnegie Learning, and John Chang, CEO of SeeUthere Technologies, are among those who believe e-mail is too sensitive for eyes other than their own.

"If you want honest opinions, read your own e-mail," Chang says.

Even Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, who spends several hours a day with the average 175 e-mails he receives and the 60 he sends, has no one culling for obvious garbage.

More tethered to e-mail

Rather than delegate e-mail, many CEOs are growing increasingly tied to it, not only in the office but anywhere and everywhere, through the use of wireless technology.

Their tool of choice is the BlackBerry, a wireless device that displays e-mail remotely at the same time it lands at their desks. Its nickname is the "CrackBerry" because of its addictive qualities.

"You know those pregnant pauses you have on elevators? That's a great time to pull out a BlackBerry and get some work done," says Raul Fernandez, CEO of Dimension Data North America and part owner of the Washington sports teams Capitals, Wizards and Mystics.

Dell carries a BlackBerry to check e-mail away from his desk and delegate as needed. 7-Eleven's Keyes uses his BlackBerry at traffic lights, employing fine-tuned "thumb" proficiency to respond on a tiny keyboard.

Indeed, the exploding use of wireless e-mail devices is behind the coming swell of more e-mail. According to BWCS Consulting, 75% of corporate e-mail subscribers will be transmitting via wireless devices by 2006.

Instant messages as e-mail

A few CEOs, looking for ways to stay in touch despite the e-mail onslaught, are so cutting edge that they're moving into the world of 12-year-olds. Tom Pincince, the 38-year-old CEO of Brix Networks, uses AOL Instant Messenger to "chat" in real time with his "buddy list" of about 50 high-ranking employees, investors and key customers.

Buddy lists are becoming to e-mail what cell phones are to land lines: Only the most important get the number, or in this case, the AOL screen name. "It's five to 10 times as productive as e-mail," Pincince says.

Consultants predict that the only things that will slow the growth of e-mail are instant messaging and Web-based virtual private networks, or VPNs, where company communications are recorded in one place. The goal of VPNs is to eliminate the need to search six months' worth of e-mail to find information and to ensure that no employees get left out of the loop.

Priorities needed

If e-mail is to survive as an efficient tool, Microsoft and others will have to be increasingly industrious in finding new ways to screen and prioritize e-mail, Authoria's Tod Loofbourrow says.

But even if volume triples by 2005, so be it, Chang says. "I think e-mail is replacing other forms of communication. I don't receive paper mail from anyone except at Christmastime. E-mail is going up, but the overall time communicating is not going up."

There's no such thing as overcommunication, Keyes says — a theory that will soon be severely tested.

Unless, of course, CEOs take a tip from George Johnson, CEO of software maker Cosmi, who has taken perhaps the boldest step of all to hold back the e-mail deluge: He doesn't have a computer at work or at home.

Humor

[Jan 15, 1999 ] Man Crashes Car As 50 Pagers Ring At Once -- pretty funny

KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukraine businessman who bought a pager for each member of his staff as a New Year gift was so alarmed when all 50 of them went off at the same time that he drove his car into a lamp post, a newspaper said Thursday.

The unnamed businessman was returning from the pager shop when the accident happened, the Fakty daily reported. ''With no more than 100 meters to go to the office, the 50 pagers on the back seat suddenly burst out screeching. The businessman's fright was such that he simply let go of the steering wheel and the car ploughed into a lamp post.''

After he had assessed the damage to the car, the businessman turned his attention to the message on the 50 pagers. It read: ''Congratulations on a successful purchase!''

Etc

ABCNEWS.com A Closer Look at Information Overload

Billington warns there’s a difference between information — the stuff made so abundant by digital technology, and knowledge — the insight we get when we’ve had a chance to sort through things and figure them out. Psychologist Robert Butterworth says we need mental “content filters,” like the filters many people use on e-mail programs, in order to sift through all the information thrown at us every day.
“There comes a point where you have to decide which information to look at and which information to overlook,” Butterworth says.
Perhaps the best solution to all this is the simplest one: turn off the computer, close the book, and think about what you’ve seen, heard and read.

Reducing information overload A comparative study of hypertext systems

How to deal with Information Overload on the Internet The intelligent agent concept

The Clever Project -- IBM project

The tremendous growth in the price-performance of networking and storage has fueled the explosive growth of the web. The amount of information easily accessible from the desktop has dramatically increased by several orders of magnitude in the last few years, and shows no signs of abating. Users of the web are being confronted with the consequent information overload problem. It can be exceedingly difficult to locate resources that are both high-quality and relevant to their information needs. Traditional automated methods for locating information are easily overwhelmed by low-quality and unrelated content. Thus, the second generation of search engines will have to have effective methods for focusing on the most authoritative among these documents. The rich structure implicit in the hyperlinks among Web documents offers a simple, and effective, means to deal with many of these problems. The CLEVER search engine incorporates several algorithms that make use of hyperlink structure for discovering high-quality information on the Web.

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Last modified: February 28, 2008

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