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Why so many of us suffer with work FOBO – fear of being offline

 7 months ago
source link: https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/careers/fear-of-being-offline/862676
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Careers

Why so many of us suffer from work FOBO – fear of being offline

By Amy Beecham

19 hours ago

3 min read

Are you nervous about taking breaks from work without announcing what you’re doing? You might be suffering from FOBO – fear of being offline.

It feels like an understatement to say that the way we work has changed drastically over the past five years. Terms like quiet quitting and chronoworking are now firmly in our vocabulary, our career development feels increasingly stagnated and we’re dealing with more workplace stress than ever before.

But another big difference I’ve noticed is a growing tendency for people to announce their whereabouts for every part of the day, from coffee breaks to stepping away from their desks – particularly when working from home. Just a quick scan through the Stylist intranet proves my theory. “Making tea, be back in five,” one co-worker’s Slack status reads, accompanied by a cup emoji. “In deep work mode,” says another, warning the rest of us not to reach out unless it’s really urgent. 

The term FOBO – fear of being offline – is commonly used to describe the anxiety and panic some people experience when they aren’t able to access the internet. But in a work context, it plays out differently. Instead, it’s about the desire to prove that we’re being productive almost all the time, and providing ‘valid’ reasons for the moments when we aren’t. Because heaven forbid we miss a Teams call because we’ve stepped away to answer the door.

Even in the most flexible of companies, it’s fast becoming common practice to make a public announcement every time you get up to stretch your legs or pop out for a dentist appointment.

And even though the sentiment – making your colleagues aware of your daily schedule and when they’ll be able to reach you – can be helpful, FOBO is also taking its toll on our workplace wellbeing. 

Why do so many of us suffer from FOBO?

According to career coach Emily Button-Lynham, it’s a behaviour that started during the pandemic and hasn’t slowed down. “During Covid, the boundaries between work and home became really blurred and we got used to being available at all hours, so when we returned to the office our employers expected the same levels of work,” she tells Stylist.

Return-to-office mandates prove that presenteeism is still alive and kicking, and online we’ve turned to corporate virtue signalling to justify how and when we take a break.  Walking the dog, travelling into the office or taking a phone call? You’d better declare it.

But as Button-Lynham insists, this lack of trust is far from a healthy approach. “As long as we are doing the work required and putting the effort in, there is no reason that we need to be updating our employers on everything we are doing,” she says. “If employers are expecting that level of updates then I would question the culture and whether they are truly putting people first.”

Walking the dog or taking a call? You’d better declare it

Feeling the FOBO? Here’s how to handle it

According to Button-Lynham, the first step is to assess where the pressure is coming from. Is it an internal narrative or something being placed upon you by a manager?

If there is external pressure to always be available, she suggests facilitating a conversation around how you can best keep your manager updated. Is that having a weekly 1-2-1 and going through what you are working on, or checking in via message every few days? “Focusing more on the output and value of the work you are doing while reducing any communication gaps should mean that you both feel happier about what you’re doing and when,” she says.

If the pressure is internal and driven by your own insecurities, Button-Lynham says it’s worth exploring where this stems from. “Has there always been this feeling of needing to be online and fully contactable? If not, when did it start?” she asks. “Practise taking (guilt-free) breaks and stepping away from work throughout the day and consider setting better boundaries around out-of-hours contact.”

Ultimately, your boss should trust you – and you should trust yourself – to get on with the task at hand. If they don’t, there’s a very important conversation about micromanaging that may need to be had in order to create a happier working environment for all involved.

Images: Getty


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