The Wrong Kind of Upgrade: Why Workplace Tech Hits Manual Staff Harder
Published on 09/26/2026 at 17:11 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Employees whose jobs are mainly physical take roughly 20% more sick days per year once digital tools arrive on the job — a gap that researchers say has little to do with the technology itself and everything to do with how it is introduced.
That finding comes from a joint study by the ifo Institute, the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the University of Konstanz. Office and knowledge workers showed no measurable decline in wellbeing linked to digitalisation, the researchers found. Among those in physically demanding roles, the picture was reversed: worse health and about a fifth more days lost to illness annually.
Technostress, and who it lands on
The team points to "technostress" as a key driver. It tends to surface when staff lack the skills and experience needed to work with newly deployed systems.
Desk-based professionals often arrive with prior exposure to digital tools and tend to experience them as a relief rather than a burden. In craft and industrial settings, by contrast, the switchover frequently leaves workers overwhelmed. Across knowledge-intensive and office occupations, the study could not identify a comparable negative effect on wellbeing.
Training beats pay rises
The research also sketches out what employers can do about it. Targeted digital training and supportive management measurably soften the health consequences of digitalisation. Money alone does not: higher wages, according to the analysis, do not appear to cushion the strain.
For managers, the practical takeaway is that new technology on the shop floor has to be paired with training programmes and attentive supervision if absence rates are to be kept down.
What the data covers — and what it doesn't
The study draws on representative surveys and official social insurance records spanning 2011 to 2019. Health status during that period was captured partly through self-assessment on a scale from 0 to 10.
The authors are explicit about the limits of their conclusions. The results cannot be transferred directly to newer technologies such as generative or agentic artificial intelligence. Because the observation window closes before the recent breakthroughs in those areas, the effects identified relate chiefly to more traditional forms of digitalising business processes and workplaces.
