{
  "id": 15878400,
  "title": "The Hidden Upside of Tech Challenges",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/21/the-hidden-upside-of-tech-challenges",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-21T11:00:48.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MIT Sloan",
    "slug": "mit-sloan",
    "url": "https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-hidden-upside-of-tech-challenges/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Employee stress has become a significant issue in modern workplaces, with the costs of technostress estimated to be around $300 billion annually in high-income countries. While few businesses recognize the potential benefits, deliberate use of technology can enhance employee satisfaction and productivity. However, constant adaptation to new digital tools can lead to increased stress, job dissatisfaction, burnout, and turnover rates. Technology, including tools like Zoom and generative AI, can cause mental exhaustion, blur work-life boundaries, and create a perception of being replaced or monitored by managers. Managers play a crucial role in reshaping how employees perceive technology. By distinguishing challenges from hindrances, managers can transform stressors into growth opportunities, encouraging motivation and boosting feelings of achievement. Examples of technology as challenges include enabling a fast pace, requiring a broad set of skills, and granting employees authority previously held by supervisors. However, the simultaneous presence of negative and positive tech stressors can lead to ambivalence, negatively impacting job satisfaction and increasing turnover rates. To balance tech stressors, managers should focus on controlling hindrances while promoting challenges, avoiding ambivalence, and fostering a positive mindset towards technology.",
  "summary": "Alice Mollon/Ikon Images Employee stress is a major social issue both within and outside of our workplaces. As of 2022, stress had increased medical expenses and decreased productivity at an estimated annual cost of up to $300 billion in high-income countries. In the workplace, a proliferation of digital tools and applications, such as Zoom and […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}