Yahoo Finance Revealed: The most hated office tasks in the country
When it comes to mundane tasks in the workplace, there is one that Australians dislike above all others: keeping on top of their inbox.
According to a study commissioned by Automation Anywhere, office workers spend nearly three hours a day on manual, repetitive tasks that aren’t core to their job – and their most hated task is managing email traffic.
The second-most despised office task is filing digital documents, like spreadsheets, and images or PDFs, and then data entry.
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And these tasks are having an effect on work-life balance: nearly half (46 per cent) of those surveyed said simple digital admin tasks were making them leave the office late.
Additionally, more than half of Australians (53 per cent) say digital admin is getting in the way of their actual job, and that their productivity is taking a big hit (63 per cent).
According to Adrian Jones, executive vice president (Asia Pacific and Japan) of Automation Anywhere, computers initially lightened the load for workers – but that this came with consequences.
“With digitalisation comes digital administration, and Australian office workers are reporting that their productivity and happiness are impaired by the necessary digital administration tasks they have to complete each day,” he said.
Australia’s most hated office tasks
Managing email traffic (25%)
Filing digital documents (e.g. spreadsheets, images, pdfs) into the correct digital folder (21%)
Data entry (20%)
Who should fix the problem?
When it comes to lightening the administrative load, whose responsibility is it: the worker or the employer?
Unsurprisingly, three-in-four office workers want their bosses to automate boring, manual business processes.
And nearly half (44 per cent) of Australians would actually leave their jobs if the admin burden became too much.
“Our new research shows, both in Australia and across the globe, that office workers want to be liberated from tiresome, repetitive digital administration tasks,” said Jones, adding that automating cumbersome processes will allow workers to be more creative and productive.
