Ticked at Tech: Your Responses

About a month ago, we asked readers a simple question: "How often are you ticked at technology?"

Originally, we'd hoped to publish some kind of unscientifically derived percentage based on the answers. But on reconsideration, we're fearful that any number we print will get picked up somewhere and ultimately taken as accurate, rather than a simple guess based on the opinions of B&G readers.

Instead, we decided to just share a good handful of the most typical responses:

• "I'd say that 10 percent of my day involves technology frustration. Much of it has to do with slow equipment, unreliable programs, slow internet connection issues and the like. We need to clone Steve Jobs!"

• "Almost every day; I'll say 98 percent."

• "Five to ten percent of almost every day because I am in the past 60 age group but still busily working in a senior management job in County Government. Often the frustration also involves poor performance by tech staff who do not understand customer service principles!"

• "If the network is not down, the server bumps you out of everything so it can upgrade. The system is running as slow as molasses because it's scanning for viruses. Then the computer freezes. Don't even get me started with my new fancy phone! Day in and day out. I'd say 20-25 percent of my office staff's day is spent this way. A real love/hate relationship!"

• "I get ticked off at technology for a total of about 20 minutes per day."

• "Ticked off to some extent every day by seemingly unnecessary complexity in accomplishing a task. I am especially ticked off in those instances when it becomes necessary to change a smoothly working process due to software changes or software updates. It seems at times like a lot of unnecessary work just to stay in the same place."

• "Frequently frustrated. I have often experienced that offices will upgrade their system without regard to how it will work with or for everyone else but it enables them to say look what we have done!"

• "I hate the new fancy phones, constantly changing computer programs that don't match with what you used to do in long hand."

• "I would like a 'normal' phone ... you make & receive calls, if you're not there, it just rings."

In fairness, there were a handful of respondents who wanted to make it clear that they thought the tradeoffs between any frustrations and the benefits of technology were more than worthwhile. As one reader wrote, "Zero - I can do more with the available technology than I ever thought possible when I started my career! I am not frustrated with the technology but with my skill or lack thereof in being on top of the game in using it. From smoke signals to nanoseconds in one lifetime."

One midwestern state manager of child support enforcement went even further: "I'm frankly a lot more ticked at my lack of technology," she wrote, citing a desire for workforce management software, easy access to remote agents and call recording capability.