MONTREAL — Michael Carey admits he was a bit surprised by the initial reaction of employees at Berkshire Operations Management Ltd. after he gave some of them a new 22-inch widescreen computer monitor to test.
"At first, people got freaked out at how huge the screen was and said it was way too big," says Mr. Carey, manager of technical services at Berkshire, a financial firm in Burlington, Ont. That didn't last. "Once they used it for even a day, if I tried to take it away they'd be chopping my hands off."
Encouraged by the response, Mr. Carey ordered 60 additional widescreen monitors for employees who are using a new application that requires a bigger viewing surface. Now he's bracing for a different reaction: the ire of the remaining three-quarters of the company who will be left out.
"It's a perk for those who get one, but a downer for those who don't," he says.
Driven by research that suggests a bigger screen can increase productivity, companies are replacing standard 17- and 19-inch monitors and ushering in an era of widescreen viewing in the office. But many companies are not prepared to give everyone a shot at the big screen all at once. The result is that, like a company BlackBerry, a runway-thin, highway-wide monitor has become an office status symbol - and have-not workers are feeling green with screen envy.
The latest research to push the wider-is-better message came in a University of Utah study released two weeks ago. The study was funded, but not controlled, by NEC, a monitor manufacturer. Study participants were timed as they toggled between documents in programs such as Word and Excel.
Researchers found that upgrading a worker from an 18-inch to a 24-inch screen reduced the time it took to complete a task from eight hours to 5 ½hours. They estimated a company can save $8,600 per employee based on a $32,500 annual salary, even after factoring in the cost of the new monitor and increased electricity use.
A 2003 study by Microsoft researchers came to similar conclusions, as did a 2005 report by Pfeiffer Consulting. The Pfeiffer study upgraded people to a gigantic 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display and concluded that the resulting productivity gains could lead to a return on investment of "several thousand dollars per year."
But the Utah study went a step further by also gathering feedback about how a bigger screen made participants feel. In today's workplace, apparently, you are what you use.
"It made them feel like they had accomplished more," says Elizabeth Wolff, a research analyst with NEC. "In addition to having productivity gains, a larger screen also has a positive spin on how people feel and their satisfaction at work as well."
Such findings are easy on the eyes of monitor manufacturers, who have been trying for years to make wider screens the office standard. The corporate market for big-screen setups used to be restricted to those in industries such as design, but interest is growing, according to David Henderson, the national brand manager of consumer products at Dell Canada.
Over the past six months "we've had a lot more requests and calls about widescreens and larger screens in the office," he says.
By that standard, Montreal technology company Radialpoint is ahead of the curve. Two years ago, employees returned to work after the Christmas break to find a new 24-inch widescreen monitor on every desk.
"The original idea for the monitors was to help productivity and make the work environment a little better," says Geoffrey Bainbridge, the company's vice-president of human resources. "Then we had the idea of surprising them with the monitors when they came back [from holiday]."
To employees, it amounted to a late Christmas bonus. (A former employee of the company, I visited the offices shortly after the monitors had arrived and witnessed the giddiness first-hand.)
At Berkshire, Mr. Carey hopes to appease the have-nots soon: He's decided that any new monitor purchases will be for 22-inch screens, so eventually everyone will be upgraded.
Meanwhile, some companies are moving to the next level of screen envy: multiple monitors. U.S.-based search engine Mahalo.com equips employees with at least two 24-inch monitors, according to a blog post by CEO Jason Calacanis. He's even encouraging workers to try a three-screen set-up of a 30-inch monitor flanked by two 24-inch "wing men."
"It's so clear that three monitors makes people über-productive," he wrote.
Mr. Bainbridge says a few Radialpoint employees already have multiple monitors.
"There are a couple of people in product marketing that have two screens on their desk," he says.
"I don't know what they do with them."
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