Values and E-fficiency
Email, texting and tweeing are wonderful devices, but only if they amplify our humanity. Unfortunately, that's not always the case, as when I heard the story of someone who applied for a job and was notified by email that she did not get it. Had her application been one of thousands submitted electronically and so dealt with the same way, I might have understood. But she was first interviewed on the phone, then brought at some expense for a personal interview and even further, as a finalist, brought back for a two-day behavioral assessment and second round of in-person interviews. In short, she had forged a personal connection with the selection team and, she thought, they with her. Why, then, the “you didn’t get it” email?
Perhaps this was just an efficient way for the selection committee to handle the matter. Perhaps it enabled them to send a difficult message without confronting her personally – where they might be asked “why didn’t you select me?” Needless to say she was disappointed at not getting the job – but even more disappointed at the way she was told.
By way of contrast, some years ago my then-teenage granddaughter decided to break up with her boyfriend. They had been dating for months, but it seemed time to move on. Familiar with the use of texting by friends to deal with break-ups, she didn’t hesitate not to send the message this way. She did text him – but to ask if they could meet. When they did, she gently explained that she wanted to end their relationship - and why. This was clearly not an efficient way to handle the matter. But I like to think that the young man left not just disappointed but with a measure of understanding and continued respect for her.
Texts, tweets, and emails are ubiquitous. But as technology, they are value-neutral. The values they reflect come from us. Efficiency is one of those values, but it should be weighed against others, such as compassion, sensitivity, respect, and trust, to name just a few. In the case of the disappointed job seeker, it drove out the others. In the case of my granddaughter, it got ignored for the others.
The promise of such technology is its ability to connect us. The danger is that we become disconnected from each other, from our ethical values, and from our impact on the people and the communities in which we live. There is no shortage of help on how to get value from using the technology, whether through a manual, salesperson, online help function or a friend. But there is a shortage of help on how to infuse technology with human values and caring emotions. My granddaughter got that help at home. If the people who used email to say "you didn't get the job" learned sensitivity and compassion at home, they forgot both when they got to work – or became part of a workplace culture that taught them to value efficiency more.
In the 2009 film, Up in the Air, Anna Kendrick plays a young woman who hits on a great way to help her firm, which is in the business of firing people for clients who do not want to do it themselves. Instead of the time and expense of traveling to do it in person, she suggests the use of computer conferencing. Sit down in front of a Web-cam in your office and fire someone a thousand miles away sitting in front of a Web-cam in their office. Forced to go on the road to see the real (as opposed to the virtual) world by George Clooney, a master at in-person firing, she eventually abandons her idea (and the firm itself) and decides to take a job counseling people who have been fired. She just cannot let efficiency trump emotional connection and the needs of people whose lives and self-respect have been damaged by firms who have placed financial success over human dignity. As the movie ends, we’re left wondering whether she is a lone iconoclast in a world driven by the bottom line or whether there is a way to balance technology with tenderness. There is, if we are not so driven by efficiency that we don’t take the time to find it.
Photo Credit: las-initially
