Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again?

There are some good things about working in an office: constant supplies of tea and coffee, gossip with co-workers and paper clips in every color. But one of the best things has to be that when something goes wrong with our computer, there’s an in-house IT helpdesk to sort out the problem.

Working from home has been a whole different ball game; this time, we’re on our own. And that applies to the tech we use for work, too. Video wiki, software and media company Ezvid Wiki surveyed 4,020 workers across the nation, which revealed that 53 percent of Arizona employees working remotely during the pandemic say their work is regularly disrupted by technology problems. And workers in The Grand Canyon State spend, on average, 1.6 hours per week trying to figure out the problem (and probably just turning things off and back on again).

These issues seem to affect some workers more than others. To find out how each state compares, check out the interactive map for “Working from Home” frustrations in the site’s “surveys” section. 

Nationwide, 37 percent of employees working remotely say they’ve had to cut video conference calls short because someone on the call had poor internet connection. Almost one in 10 employees with poor internet admit they have tried to guess a neighbor’s Wi-Fi password and piggyback on their service without asking. And, understandably, nearly two-thirds of all employees working remotely think their employer should be paying for their internet costs.

“While some employees may enjoy the benefits of working from home, there is no denying that tech issues can make or break your productivity during the day,” says Caroline Eliasson from  Ezvid Wiki. “If you find yourself struggling consistently, it could be worth checking to see if your company offers virtual tech support for employees who are working from home, as well as double checking your software and features are up to date.”