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Technology has evolved but working styles haven’t

Over a quarter of Brits are offered flexible working hours to suit more varied lifestyles, so why are generation Y still tied to their desks?

Even with the advances of modern day technology and employers acknowledging that people need more flexibility in their working hours, nearly half of workers (46%) in the UK are still spending a full working day, five days a week at their office desk. This could be because 58% of people admit that they don’t know how to use their smart device to its full potential, which is a surprising figure given that a third (30%) of people agree that their smart device is essential to their jobs.

Microsoft Lumia’s results show that although a third of people say smartphones can make them more efficient, it appears this is socially rather than in their work life as 46% of people say their social life is now more organised thanks to apps on their phones. Comparably only 1 in 5 of us use our smart phones for work purposes, despite 37% of people admitting that they are aware that their phone has the capability to edit both Word and Excel documents. With the average train commute being around an hour per day, people could use this as time in the ‘office’ by answering emails and editing documents meaning they could leave that little bit earlier each day. To help make flexible working true for generation Y, the new Microsoft Lumia 640 will come with free Office 365 and 1TB of secure cloud storage, meaning we can work anywhere, not just our desks.

Nikki Moore, technology expert, presenter and author of GirlGeekChic.com comments on the results, “As technology evolves and smartphones get better, maximising productivity and managing your own work life balance has never been easier. I still find it quite surprising though that people don’t use their smartphones to a greater extent. Personally, my smartphone is my lifeline and the most efficient way to keep up with my blog, check my emails and social media. As a lover of all things tech, I’m always on the lookout for the next best thing that can increase my productivity and output.”

Nikki has shared some of her top tips for designing a lifestyle fitting to the 21st century with the new Lumia 640 that retails at only £170 and offers everything you’d expect from a high end device:

• Why stay late in the office finishing off a budget sheet? With a third of the population (33%) commuting for an hour to and from work, this is the perfect time to catch up on emails or edit a Word or Excel document so you’re ahead of your deadline
• I waste a lot of time searching for a USB stick, then checking multiple times that it has saved and panicking that when I arrive it won’t be there. Saving your documents to OneDrive is an efficient way to cut all of that out.
• With my work life and family life it’s great to share our forever growing to-do lists on OneNote to keep on top of household chores, my phone always reminds me about birthdays and events that I have coming up
• I have my phone set up to quiet hours, so when I get home for family time, only the urgent calls and emails come through. That way I don’t get distracted when I’m enjoying time with my children.

Adam Johnson, Marketing Director for Microsoft’s Mobile Devices Group in the UK & Ireland said, “At Microsoft we want to empower people to achieve more of what they want to do. We think this can be done by working smarter and getting more done on the move; so that when you get home, you can find time for yourself, your friends and your family. What we’re trying to do with the Lumia 640 is enable everyone to live like this, not just the people that can spend £500 on a phone… This smart device comes with Office 365 and 1 terabyte of Cloud storage for free, all for around £170 or £17/month.”

Notes to editor:

This survey was conducted with 2,000 people across the United Kingdom, in April 2015.

Byline: The survey was commissioned by Microsoft Lumia to celebrate the sales start of the Lumia 640, available in all mobile phone provider stores across the UK, and only for £170.

For further information, contact:

Georgia Mitchell Georgia.mitchell@cohnwolfe.com (020 733 15374)

RRP of the Lumia 640: £170

Stockists: All major retailers across the UK

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Carly Banes .