mental load & self serve apps/portals

[purplesequins]

anyone else feeling the strain?

I feel like my brain is about to explode.
energy company
phone companies
children's school
council
work's hr
bank
internet provider
etc...

I feel it's pushing their duties on the customer. adding to my mental load. all those different apps, all those different passwords...

I feel the same about Workday (horrendous HR software).

Our company sacked the HR team and put us on Workday which no one, and I mean no one, can figure out. Hours of employee time gets wasted on simple HR matters.

I am degree educated and sometimes struggle with forms.
or with the right vocabulary the bots need to give the right answer.
and thd fact that reaching a human, on the phone or in person, has been made so incredibly difficult.

Are you a single parent?

I never thought about it like that, but you have a point.

Though personally I hate phones and human contact so I find the technology reduces mental load. So bank, council etc etc all much easier via app/website.

However, it does need functional, working technology. And also a person at the end of a phone for those who can't/won't use the tech.

some of those apps/portals are poorly designed.
and I'm concerned about the 'consent' tick boxes for more complicated matters. especially for mortgage or other financial things that can have grave consequences.

I flipping hate passwords - can never remember what I used. Every time I need to log in to something, unless my phone has automatically remembered the password, I have to change it. And then they won’t let you use what you’ve used before, so you make something else new up, and then can’t remember that either.

Also highly educated professional btw!

I have literally changed one of my passwords to something like ‘In3v3rrememberthisone!’ Because I have to change it every 30 days and I change the ‘one’ at the end to the next number. Drives me MAD

my passwords often include swearwords

These sound like everything I give out about. My job moved to a new crowd for our HR portal, and it's been much better! intelligosoftware.com/employee-self-service/

I feel as though each separate company/institution/bureaucracy is trying to train us in 'their' portal/website/forms but we as human being just cannot manage them all. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone because you've been through the 'wizard' twice already and you know your case is special. But it is so hard to talk to someone.

yes, pebbles exactly that!
it's tough on my brain, keeping all balls up in the air, so to speak.

bonus points for platforms that don't allow screenshotting or printing. especially for important documents.

Add in covid/flu jab permission forms
Lfa testing forms and rigmarole
Covid procedures from rvery company ever- eg arrange an appointment over the phone, then get a text to confirm this the day before or it won’t happen so have to call a second time, then get the inevitable “ how was our service?” Questionnaire by text. Happy with the company but times this by 1000

oh yes, how was our service questions.

usually after you have been on hold for hours and didn't get to the bottom of the issue.

That's exactly what they're doing though. Servicing customers over the phone by live humans is really expensive so they drive traffic to the portal as it saves them a bunch of cash.
Onus is on you, cost in terms of time and effort is on you not them.

That's why phones now allocate a password and save it automatically so it's the phone that's the gatekeeper not the person.

This has been driving me nuts for ages

And everything changes to a different system so often. Hate it. Just managing daily life is like being a secretary.

Just managing daily life is like being a secretary.

very well put.

@Porridgeislife

I feel the same about Workday (horrendous HR software).

Our company sacked the HR team and put us on Workday which no one, and I mean no one, can figure out. Hours of employee time gets wasted on simple HR matters.

You might enjoy this twitter feed -

twitter.com/WSinking

You are not alone. I have had a lot to do with Workday and I am not a fan either. God only knows why everyone in HR departments seems to be so in love with it.

oh god. that twitter is stunning

not workday at my place of work but it's not far off from the comments.