1. Digital workplace systems and bureaucracy are a major cause of stress for employees. Surveys show IT systems are the top frustration in offices and a significant source of stress for professions like first responders. 2. Employees must use dozens of separate systems for different tasks that have poor and inconsistent designs. Navigating multiple systems wastes large amounts of employees' time and cognitive resources. 3. Bureaucracy and administrative burdens have grown with digital systems rather than being reduced by them. IT is used to monitor and control employees' work rather than empower them. This undermines productivity, innovation and job satisfaction.

1. Stress& Bureaucracy 2.0
Jonas Söderström • Intrateam 2015 • Copenhagen, Feb 25
The perils of the digital workplace

2. @jonas_blind_hen
#iec15
#bureaucracy2
#stupidsystem

3. Digital funktion och passion
Stockholm • Göteborg • Malmö

5. 1994 –

6. Create new document

7. Photo: Maria Ålbrant

8. Enterprise
software sucks

9. The digital workplace
as a cause
of stress

11. Angry, stressed,
frustrated with IT
3400 2012
M T W T F

12. Biggest source of
frustration in the office?
1. Slow web applications
2. Computer
3. Printer
4. Boss
5. Meetings
1000 2012

13. 0
5
10
15
Insecure 24h work On alert Dangers
26 %
Causing stress
IT Systems
3700 2013

14. from 145 to 313 clicks
With new system
Renew weapons licence
mean 2 hr 52 m
Write 1 report, shoplifting

15. Typical
causes

16. Too many
systems

17. Treserva (social security system)
WebbSotis (old social security system)
Giraff (internal invoicing)
Horisonten (accounting)
Prognosprogram (economy)
Winst (procurement portal)
Rappet (client reports)
Personec (HR reports)
Time Care (work schedule)
Winlas Webb (temps worked hours)
Time Care pool (assigning temps)
Lisa (accident reporting)
Adato (rehabilitation process management)
Offentliga jobb (recruiting)
Telephone self-service system

18. Karolinska University Hospital
Library, Feb. 18
110 employees
117 systems

19. Systems are
different

21. John reports hours worked in two systems:
one uses comma, the other point
1,5 hrs 1.5 hrs

22. What happens if he uses a comma
in the system that wants a point?
1,5 hrs 1,5 hrs

23. System ignores comma and records 15
hours, without any error message.
15 hrs

24. •Put in vacation plans - how often?
•Hard to learn
•”...how did you handle this system, then?”
•Even if each system is used quite seldom …
•… some system is used each month or week.
Used seldom, but ...

25. x-ray delta one/flickr under a cc-license
YOUR
PROJECT

26. The user’s
experience
pchweat/flickrundercc-license

27. Burden
of vigilance

29. stupidsystem.org:
The doctor that rocks the mouse
Photo: Henrik Ahlén

30. Inferior
design

31. 1 2 3 4
Next >>
Basket Shipping Confirm Pay

32. How to pay the invoice?

33. But people
are also
ingenious

34. Photo: Richard Gatarski

35. Photo: Richard Gatarski

36. Not only a
design issue

37. Chores,
not work

38. Process managment
Documentation
”Command and
control”

39. Controls my work
”in an annoying
and unreasonable way”
8000 2012

40. ”... all the software
designed to save us from
administrative
responsibilities turned us
into part- or full-time
administrators”
David Graeber

41. IT
command
&
control
+

42. The effects

43. Cognitive load
on an entirely new scale

44. Sand Hill 2012 Enterprise systems study
17% end user productivity loss
300
”The economic value
of losses outweighs
100% of total IT spend.
Ouch.”

45. How can
this go on?

46. ”...we are
stifled by
administrative
systems”
Professors and teachers
at Uppsala University

47. –1%
+6%+5%
+4%
+3%
+2%
–2%
+1%

50. C Northcote Parkinson

53. Parkinson’s law

57. Bureaucracy 2.0

58. Bureaucracy 1.0 Bureaucracy 2.0

59. Growth of bureaucracy
+6 %

60. ”simplify”

61. We don’t use IT
to simplify anymore.

62. Programming the ENIAC, late 1940ies
We did...

63. Joneal Williams-Daw at the UNIVAC 1, 1953

64. Norc, Columbia University’s Watson Lab, 1954

65. but now ...

66. 145 ➡313 clicks
We use IT to
do new things.
We use IT to
do new things.

68. Electronic Health
Records:
”created the need for
another person”

69. Digital systems means
new possibilities ...
... for bureaucrats,
too.

70. VALUEI suggest, IT systems are often really not about this.

71. POWERIt’s about power for (middle) management.

73. does NOT set
concrete goals for
new business system
85 %
ComputerSweden 2010

74. 40 %
abandonedf.ex. Chaos studies, Standish Group

75. ”No clear reason or idea
behind the IT system”
8000 2012

76. Digitalization
affords bureacracy.

77. What
to do?

78. What you need
to consider

79. See the whole
picture

80. Cognitive load is real.
You’re responsible.

81. Demand ”consumer-
grade usability”

82. © Jan Gulliksen, Bengt Göransson and Åsa Cajander
15 years

83. But it’s not just
about the interface.

84. Are you really
empowering users?

85. Empowerment
Trust
Self-organizing
Freedom
Control
Distrust
vs

86. Fight
bureaucracy
... even when it’s wrapped in IT.

87. is like trying to get
the toothpaste back
into the tube
Fighting bureacracy

88. Find real
business
impacts... not ”functions”!

89. JeremyToeman/Flickr
If nobody is
using it, it
doesn’t matter
how many
smart functions
it boasts.
Value – positive impact –
from IT is created in use

90. JeremyToeman/Flickr

91. How?

92. Technology, the organization
and content of work shall be
designed so that the employee
is not subjected to physical or
mental stress that can lead to
illness or accidents.
Swedish Work Environment Act, Chapter 2, § 1.
(Norwegian law is similar)

93. The work environment shall be
satisfactory in view of the
social and technological
developments in society.
Swedish Work Environment Act, Chapter 2, § 1.
(Norwegian law is similar)

94. The employee shall be given
the opportunity to participate
in shaping their own work
situation and in change and
development relating to his
own work.
Swedish Work Environment Act, Chapter 2, § 1.
(Norwegian law is similar)

95. The employee shall be given
the opportunity to participate
in shaping their own work
situation and in change and
development relating to his
own work.
Swedish Work Environment Act, Chapter 2, § 1.
(Norwegian law is similar)
USER-CENTERED
DESIGN:
IT’S THE LAW

96. Planer om indretning eller
ændring af lokaler, tekniske
anlæg og hjælpemidler m.v.
skal forelægges Arbejdstilsynet
til udtalelse eller godkendelse,
før de bringes til udførelse.
Arbejdsmiljøloven, Kapitel 6, § 44

97. The whole team
should observe
users.
Photo: Richard Gatarski

98. Call to action

99. Fight stress
Fight bureacracy
Empower and
delight users
Go out and:

100. in Swedish
Book
in Norwegian

101. https://intranatverk.se/kunskap/peak-it-nar-it-slutar-
leverera-varde/
More about the business side
Presentation and video (in Swedish)

102. Thank you!Mail:
jonas.soderstrom@inuse.se
Twitter:
@Jonas_Blind_Hen
Site:
stupidsystem.org
inuse.se
Slideshare:
Jonas_inUse

104. Further reading 1
David Boyle:
The Human
Element
Gary Hamel:
What matters
now
John Seddon:
Freedom from
Command &
Control

105. Further reading 2
Gojko Adzic:
Impactmapping
impactmapping.org
Henrik Kniberg:
How we got rid of time reports
– a story of waste elimination
http://bit.ly/1m7424d

106. Sources & links
”A Busy Doctor’s Right Hand, Ever Ready to Type”
NY Times, Jan. 12, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/health/a-busy-
doctors-right-hand-ever-ready-to-type.html
26% of first responders stressed by IT systems
Arnetz, 2012: ”Det här är inte vilket yrke som helst!”
Reviewed in Swedish here: http://javlaskitsystem.se/
2014/08/it-system-stressar-blaljuspersonalen-mer-an-
faror-och-obekvama-arbetstider/

107. 17% end user productivity loss:
2012 IT Adoption Insight Survey Reveals Disturbing
Level of Enterprise Productivity Loss (March 5, 2012)
http://sandhill.com/article/2012-it-adoption-insight-
survey-reveals-disturbing-level-of-enterprise-
productivity-loss/
David Graeber on administration
”Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit”
The Baffler, March 2012
http://thebaffler.com/past/of_flying_cars
Sources & links