The Hidden Cost: Section 3

What it costs

What the hidden workload takes from people, organisations, and the sector.

“How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Sections 1 and 2 set out what this work is and why it exists. This section is about what it costs, and who carries that cost.

The costs of hidden digital work are not evenly distributed, and they do not stand still. They accumulate in people, in project plans, in institutional risk, and they are pushing capable people to seriously consider leaving their jobs.

To understand what the impact of this work really is I’m looking through those layers in order, going from what it takes from people personally, to what it does to the work and organisations, to the impact it’s having on the sector.

We’ll explore questions like…

  • What does this take from people?

    Exhaustion and self-blame.

  • What does it do to the work and the organisation?

    Delays, dropped plans, the interruption tax, and margins that are thinner than they look.

  • Who holds it together, and what happens if they leave?

    Sixty-two percent have considered leaving – and the knowledge leaves with them.

  • What does it cost the sector? What about AI?

    Talent leaving culture, optimistic pictures for funders, and AI as an amplifier.