Disclaimer. In no way is this article meant to condone the use of drugs, illegal or otherwise. Nor is this a campaign to state an opinion as to whether drugs that are currently illegal be made legal.

Businesses compete in a number of ways and one of the most important is customer service. Because today there is so much competition, your customer service has to be beyond excellent. Needless to say, some businesses are better at this than others. One example of this is the dark side. No I’m not talking about Darth Vader, but rather the dark net.

According to a Ted Talk eloquently delivered by Jamie Bartlett, Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, a leading UK think tank, the dark net is going mainstream with its own brand of customer service. For those unfamiliar with the dark net, visitors to this realm may surf through sites for pirated books, activists and their causes, whistle blowers, illegal porn, and drugs. The business of illegal drugs is the focus of Mr. Bartlett’s Ted Talk.

Mr. Bartlett tells us that when one searches for illegal drugs on the dark net, one finds web pages of high quality with well-done images of products with detailed descriptions. The descriptions appear to include even how the product is made, thus alluding to its quality and purity – a major concern of drug users.

In the January/February issue of HR Magazine, Josh Bersin with Deloitte, makes nine predictions of “what’s in store for HR in 2015.”   This is part three of a series of articles looking at each of these predictions.

In a recent study, Deloitte states; “…we identified a new human capital issue:…the overwhelmed employee.” Seriously? New? This is not just a tune Sam plays over and over, it’s a choral extravaganza. As one who has sat on both sides of the desk as an employee and being in HR for a number of years, this issue is anything but new. The report goes on to state that organizations are not ready to deal with this issue.

Employers cannot afford to “not be ready to address this issue.” Overwhelmed employees interact with your customers every day. Customers are just like employees, they leave because one person was rude to them. Stress breeds rudeness. While the overwhelmed tune has not changed, the words to that tune or the reasons for employees being overwhelmed has changed over the years.

For example, being overwhelmed used to come from a lack of technology. Now technology is being blamed as one of the contributing factors to stress. According to Deloitte, technology has imbedded changes in recruiting, education, training, analytics, and the way we work. Other contributors are the multi-generational workforce, trying to meet both capitalistic needs and community contributions, and artificial intelligence. Hmmm, mine’s been kinda’ artificial for a while now. OK, moving on… In addition let’s not forget “big data” – don’t get me started. The fact that we can now communicate with ease 24/7/365 only adds to the stress. Indeed employees in some organizations think it a “badge of honor” that a recipient finds their email was answered at 3:35 in the A M. Such activities only lead to burnout. So what can be done about this chorus of employees singing we are overwhelmed?