FOMO

The term FOMO (“Fear of Missing Out”) was coined to describe the recent technological phenomenon where people experience compulsive tendencies to check or stay engaged in social media, smart phones and other tech devices for fear of missing out on potential interactions.  The trouble, however, is that FOMO actually creates environments where people miss out on their real life because they become distracted or consumed.

While FOMO is meant to describe the unhealthy dependency people have on technology, I believe that FOMO has oozed into other arenas, namely the business world.  I call it FOMO in HR.  As a Human Resources professional, I think a great disservice is being created in the working world.  Employees are almost frantically checking emails, texts, and voicemails because they do not want to miss anything or do not want to let anyone down.  As a result, we have created a work culture where people expect almost instantaneous responses to messages.  You didn’t check your texts?  Who cares that you are on vacation.  You didn’t listen to your voicemail after business hours?  Who cares that your daughter has a piano recital.  You didn’t go through all your emails over the weekend?  Who cares that you have a honey-do list you want to complete.  Or, what about the employee who doesn’t look at their computer all day because they are actually working?  What a novel concept!

Because of FOMO, we are creating environments where people aren’t truly plugged into any world.  Purgatory, perhaps.  And, I am the worst offender.  In a prior career, I was able to work some of my hours from home and some of my hours from the office.  The result, however, is that I was really “on-call” ALL the time.  Hindsight has shown me that I need to take responsibility for not establishing healthy boundaries.  Because heaven forbid that someone couldn’t reach me to put out an HR crisis.  After all, I am the only person in the whole entire universe qualified to handle employment issues (sarcasm).  I can now see that this was a business form of narcissism veiled by my projection of being a good employee for my company.

The problem with FOMO is that you condition those around to believe that they will get an immediate response to anything they present to you…because people believe that past behavior predicts future performance.  Now, my struggle is when I decide to set my cell phone down for the day.  People are stunned when they don’t hear from me right away.  I am having to reestablish my identity with technology.  Technology is a beautiful tool, but it can also be a dreadful curse.  I am learning that technology and social media can survive a day without me.  Shocking!

FOMO.  The fear of missing out.  My FOMO now is understanding that if I keep my eyes glued on technology I WILL miss out…but I will miss out on the things in life that really matter.

Changepoints:

We might have created FOMO in our personal or working lives, because:

• We don’t truly know how we want to spend our time.
• We don’t know how to establish boundaries with people around us.
• We don’t have well-defined goals or passions we are trying to pursue.
• We don’t want to lose our jobs, statuses, relationships, etc.
• How can you re-engage with the real-life relationships in your world?
• What boundaries can you establish for yourself to know when/how to turn-off any distractions?

 Let’s start reconnecting with the present world around us.
 

outSIGHTin, LLC: Creating awareness as a changepoint for improved organizational results.