Telephone stress

Humans are social animals and the telephone is a vital tool in helping us to communicate across the globe.  And you can never have too much of a good thing so the invention of the smart phone has brought us nothing but good. 

So runs the mantra but according to researchers at the University of Worcester, smart phones can actually be a cause of anxiety and stress.  That insistent buzz is a call to keep on top of messages and e-mails.  This causes stress which bizarrely is only intensified when there is a quiet spell.  This leads to users obsessively checking their phones, wasting valuable time and increasing stress further.

In fact, 37% of adults and 60% of teenagers who own smart phones have admitted to being addicted to them.  So much so that some users admit to feeling phantom vibrations which make them think that they have received a message and trigger them into checking their phones.  Users then become obsessive and upset when messages stop arriving leading to the Warwick University study author, Richard Balding, commentating that “So many people have smartphones now that the effect they are having on their lives and the amount of time they are spending on them is, to be honest, quite scary.”

Actually, there is nothing new in the telephone being the cause of anxiety and stress, particularly in work situations.  In a way it is our very familiarity with the phone which makes it so hard to use properly.  Businesses expect new staff members to instantly be familiar with the phone and to use it with confidence. 

However there is a world of difference between chatting with friends and conducting a business conversation.  Whilst devices such as virtual switchboards have taken some of the pressure off transferring calls, it is still important that employees are trained in the use of the telephone; as a minimum following the three fold approach of knowing what to say, how to say it and who to refer to in case of difficulty.  Using call recording and storage will help with training making it easy for calls to be revisited and telephone techniques refined.  For smaller businesses, the use of a virtual assistant service can also remove the pressure of answering calls whilst engaged on other tasks.

With stress being one of the primary causes of employee absenteeism it is up to businesses to ensure that the telephone is not one of the trigger points.  So training in telephone techniques should include both the use of the telephone within the office as well as the use of smartphones.  Suggestions such as a ban on out of hours e-mails, smart phone free periods and training people not to check for messages have all been put forward as ways to help to relieve this stress and put the telephone back in its rightful place as a handy communication tool.