We live in a world of excess digital stimuli. Just by turning on our computers or phones, we are bombarded with news, information, and activities that are creating a huge screen addiction. This high amount of online hours, especially for those who work remotely, brings many disadvantages to the focus and mental health of brilliant talents, who end up operating in autopilot mode, as if they were zombie professionals.
In this scenario, HR plays a very important role in ensuring that technology is used to our advantage, creating connections and maintaining the quality of life for each of us even at a distance.
The amount of time Brazilians spend connected is shocking. It is more than 90 hours per week immersed in the online universe, according to IBGE data, closely related to the growth of remote work that has made us spend much more time in front of computers performing our tasks. The result of this, on the other hand, is quite negative for our health, increasing cases of anxiety, overload, and, to make matters worse, decreasing real connections in the daily life between teams.
It is increasingly difficult to capture people’s focus, which makes this attention economy something highly scarce and valuable in our society. This is precisely where HR comes in as a guardian of balance between personal and professional life, in naturally hectic environments impacted by technological advances – promoting healthy disconnection practices that address the boundaries that need to be followed in this digital environment.
Whether through workshops, lectures, mentoring, or other activities, HR must educate leaders about these online boundaries, organizing constant conversations about topics such as the importance of not sending work-related messages outside of business hours, scheduling meetings in advance so everyone can prepare, encouraging breaks during work hours, and promoting moments of internal marketing that create actions to discuss topics other than work.
These issues need to be integrated into company policies, not just remain as a “nice speech.” After all, digital platforms are designed to capture our eyes and minds, and when this happens at work, we lose what we most need to generate value for companies: focus.
We cannot create zombie professionals, exhausted in their daily routines due to this excess of information they receive daily and, consequently, unable to produce many qualitative results. They will always be online, but never truly present, making attention the most valuable currency the market can currently have, even a competitive advantage in the face of such a rare asset to be found nowadays.
The human resources department plays an essential role in promoting a much more humanized and close people management. It needs to be a curator of attention, creating actions that foster and improve relationships between teams and filtering out noise that hinders this higher objective. Helping people understand where to put their energy in their work routines more intelligently, improving not only their performance but also their quality of life and balance between professional and personal life.
