88% of Indians feel stressed due to information overload

A staggering 88 per cent of Indians feel that information overload,  driven by factors like round-the-clock information flow,  all-encompassing social media, or too many apps to check each day, continues to contribute to their daily stress levels, as per a survey by Canadian software firm OpenText.

This is marginally less than the findings of a similar survey which OpenText had done in November 2020 and found that 90 per cent of people surveyed had said that information overload was a contributor to their stress levels.

The survey has also found that in 2022, only 52 per cent of Indian employees feel they are equipped with the right digital tools to work at home. This revelation comes at a time when the world is almost two and half years into the new normal with a significant chunk of people working remotely. It is surprising to note that at the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, 70 per cent of Indian employees said they had the required digital paraphernalia.

As per the survey, 2 in 5 people said that they have to use eleven or more accounts, resources, tools and apps on a regular basis as compared just 1 in 5 in 2020, showing an uptick in applications and repositories that people need to access for information. 3 in 5 Indian employees said that on average, they normally spend one or more hours per day searching on company networks or shared systems for specific work files or pieces of information just to do their job. This gives an overview of how information resides in organisations in a siloed state.

Another factor making the lives of professionals difficult is information being scattered across multiple locations. 46 per cent of professionals opine that this hampers their ability to gather the information necessary to do their jobs, thus adding up to their stress levels.  Close to 31 per cent of respondents feel that their colleagues not saving the latest version of documents on shared systems also hindered their ability to do their job, while 35 per cent feel that not knowing where to find the most up-to-date information was also a contributor to stress.

“Unfortunately, poor information management and these kinds of sustained challenges are having negative effect on employees. So much so that 38 per cent feel that it is having an impact on their mental well-being and stress levels. In addition, the same number (38 per cent) indicate it is having a detrimental effect on their performance at work, more than a third (36 per cent) feel it is negatively impacting their overall job satisfaction and 43 per cent say that it is having a direct impact on their work-life balance,” added the survey.

Also Read: Indian apps are finding a global audience on Google Play