Almost half of Australian professionals are feeling demoralised from a data overload that threatens both work practices and output, potentially leading to ‘information rage,' according to a glubal study by workflow solutions specialist LexisNexis.

The survey of 1,700 white collar workers found that, 49% of professionals report feeling dejected and frustrated at being unable to manage all the information that comes their way at work and said that if the amount of information they receive continues to increase, over half (51%) would soon reach a ‘breaking point’ where they can’t handle any more.

The report also found that, of the countries surveyed (Australia, the United States, China, South Africa, United Kingdom), Australian workers are the most likely to admit that the amount of information they have to manage for their jobs has increased in the past five years (92%), with two-thirds (65%) saying the amount of information increased significantly. Compared to the other markets surveyed, Australians spend more time receiving and managing information (54%) than actually using that information (46%).

Marc K. Peter, Director of Technology and Business Development at LexisNexis Pacific, said while it was widely accepted the amount of information Australians deal with is increasing, this recent survey indicates the inundation of information is taking a heavy psychological toll on Australian workers.

“Australian workers are finding that the Information Age is causing ‘information rage’,” said Mr. Peter. “We see ‘information rage’ as being driven by three things: a surfeit of information, the lack of relevance of the majority of that information, and the inability of organisational systems to deal with the information well,” said Mr. Peter.

The research also found:
> 50% of Australian professionals say that on average, only about half of the information that comes their way every day at work is actually important to them getting their job done.
> In Australia, only 40% of email received is important to getting a worker’s job done – the lowest of any country polled.
> 88% of Australian workers wish they could spend less time organising, and more time using, the information that comes their way.
> Although nearly all Australian workers (97%) believe that they are effective at prioritising the information that comes their way at work to access the most valuable materials, 70% admit that the quality of their work suffers at times because they can’t sort through the information that they need fast enough.
> 58% of Australian workers have disagreements among colleagues about the right way to organise information at least once in an average week, and 48% have delivered incomplete documents, email or other communications because they could not find the necessary information in time.
> Only one in five (22%) Australian professionals responded that their company has offered training in information management in the past two years, despite 60% wanting their companies to do so.

“As a nation, we are seeing the increasing need to manage and process more and more information in our day to day working lives, and this requirement is adding to not only to the personal stress of our workers but is also impacting on both the quality and quantity of the work created”, continued Mr. Peter.

“From the figures, we can assume Australians are effectively spending less than two-and-a-half days a week actually doing their job and the rest of the time trawling through e-mails and other information, over half of which do not have direct relevance to their day-to-day priorities.”

“Australian professionals are resorting to publicly available tools to cope with the increasing demands of this influx of information, yet still they continue to edge toward breaking point. However, Australian organisations should see an opportunity here. Businesses that take the initiative and provide their workers with the right technology, tools and training stand to gain a significant competitive edge.”

The multi-national survey was conducted by WorldOne among 1,700 white collar workers across five countries: Australia, China, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States. The study was fielded from June 2010 - July 2010.

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