9 out of 10 office workers suffer technology stress in meetings

A new survey of office workers in the UK shows that a majority suffer stress in meetings when struggling with tasks like sharing screens and finding the right cables in order to give presentations.

The study by visualization specialist Barco finds that for 93 percent, this meeting stress has serious knock-on effect on every aspect of their work. Presentations were of a poorer quality, time was wasted, deadlines were missed, and for 12 percent, it even resulted in lost promotions and lost business.

People's heart rates reached 179bpm when struggling with technology during a meeting, compared to resting heart rates of around 60-100 bpm -- a clear indicator of stress. The research also shows that over half of UK business people are regularly forced to take time away from their work to grapple with meeting room technology.

In trying to deal with tech problems, staff are wasting significant amounts of their time. 60 percent try to fix problems themselves, 49 percent call IT or tech support, 30 percent give up on the tech and go to their plan B. 15 percent even postpone meetings until technology problems can be fixed. The vast majority (90 percent) pre-prepare for technology failures: preparing handouts as alternatives to tech, or coordinating with IT in advance, and 44 percent even do a tech rehearsal.

Lieven Bertier, Head of Product Management at Barco's ClickShare division says, "Investing in meeting room technology which works at the click of a button will significantly help in reducing complexity and stress from office workers lives. When office staff can share screens more easily and collaborate more easily, businesses benefit by becoming more efficient. Having a more productive and efficient business has a positive outcome for businesses growth, and the bottom line".

You can find out more about the report's findings on the Barco blog.

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