Key takeaways
- “Slow tech” is digital friction: laggy devices, slow apps, unstable Wi-Fi, and inconsistent updates that quietly drain payroll and morale.
- The problem usually isn’t one computer… it’s lack of a lifecycle plan.
- The fix is not a big scary overhaul. It’s a scheduled refresh rhythm so upgrades stop feeling like emergencies.
What “slow tech” means
Slow tech is technology that technically still works, but creates constant friction: slow logins, laggy apps, unreliable networks, and outdated systems with no scheduled plan for updating or replacing them.
This is where many businesses slide into “fine for now”… until it isn’t.
The cost of digital friction
You might think keeping an old computer for “one more year” is saving money. The data usually says the opposite.
One
2025 digital employee experience (DEX) report found employees are interrupted multiple times per month by tech problems and updates. Using a conservative assumption that each interruption takes ~15 minutes to resolve, that can translate to
about 1.6 hours of lost productivity per employee per month.
The math (example)
Let’s say you have
10 employees at an average wage of
$30/hour.
- 1.6 hours/month × 12 months =
19.2 hours/year per employee
- 19.2 hours × 10 employees =
192 hours/year
- 192 hours × $30/hour =
$5,760/year in paid time lost to friction
And that’s just the visible part: waiting, rebooting, retrying, calling “the tech person.”
The reality behind the number
The invisible cost is often bigger:
- mistakes
- delayed client responses
- staff frustration
Why owners are afraid to upgrade
If the math is clear, why do so many owners hesitate?
In our experience supporting small businesses around Grand Rapids and West Michigan, it usually comes down to fear of disruption.
There’s a belief that “updating” means “breaking.”
What we hear from owners
- “What if the new software doesn’t work with our old printer?”
- “What if the migration takes three days and we can’t bill clients?”
- “It’s slow, but at least we know how it works.”
This mindset creates technical debt. And just like financial debt, it accumulates interest.
Windows 10 is the easy example
Windows 10 support ended October 14, 2025. Devices may still run, but the environment becomes harder to protect and maintain over time.
The “boiling frog” syndrome
Slow tech doesn’t happen overnight. It happens gradually. Your team gets used to it. They stop complaining because they assume, “This is just how it is.”
But here’s what’s happening quietly:
Morale drops
High performers hate being held back by bad tools. In a competitive hiring market, they don’t stay where everything is slow and clunky.
Security gaps widen
Older systems and outdated software are harder to keep patched and protected. And security issues are consistently cited as a leading cause of downtime in industry reporting.
Customer experience suffers
When your front desk says, “Sorry, my computer is slow,” your client hears: “We don’t have our act together.”
The “Digital Friction” self-audit: 10 questions to ask your team
Most business owners assume their tech is fine because nobody is actively complaining. But remember: silence doesn’t mean satisfaction… it often means resignation. Your team has likely stopped reporting the small glitches because they don’t want to be seen as “complainers.”
To find the truth, you have to ask specific questions. Don’t just ask, “Is the computer working?” (They’ll say yes.)
Instead, send out this
anonymous 10-question survey to your staff next week. The answers might surprise you.
1. When you turn your computer on in the morning, how long until you can actually start typing?
What this reveals: If the answer is consistently more than ~60 seconds, you may be dealing with aging hardware, bloated startup processes, or outdated scripts. In 2026, most business-class machines should feel close to instant.
2. How many times a week do you restart your computer to make a glitch go away?
What this reveals: Frequent reboots can point to software conflicts, memory issues, or devices running at the edge of their capacity.
3. Is there any specific task (opening a large PDF, saving a file, running reports) that makes you feel like you have time to go get a coffee?
What this reveals: You’ll uncover exact bottlenecks. Often insufficient RAM, storage performance issues, or slow network access to shared files.
4. Do you use any personal devices or apps to do your work because the company version is too difficult or too slow?
What this reveals: This is
Shadow IT. It’s also a security problem. If your team is using personal email or unsanctioned tools to get work done, you’ve got risk and data sprawl.
5. Does the internet speed slow down at specific times of day?
What this reveals: This often points to bandwidth or scheduling problems (ex: backups or sync jobs running during business hours, guest Wi-Fi congestion, or aging network equipment).
6. How often does your VPN or remote connection drop when you work from home?
What this reveals: Remote stability matters here especially in West Michigan winters when weather and schedules force more remote work. Frequent drops may signal firewall/VPN limitations, licensing issues, or unstable configuration.
7. If you could wave a magic wand and fix ONE annoying thing about your computer, what would it be?
What this reveals: The golden nugget. This question almost always uncovers the real silent killer, like a line-of-business app that freezes every time someone prints.
8. Do you spend time searching for files because you can’t remember where they’re saved?
What this reveals: This is typically data governance, not hardware. If the folder structure is chaos, you’re paying staff to hunt instead of work.
9. Do you know who to call if your email looks suspicious, or do you just delete it and hope for the best?
What this reveals: A security training gap. If your team doesn’t have a clear “help button,” they’re guessing and guessing leads to breaches.
10. On a scale of 1–10, does your technology make you feel efficient (10) or frustrated (1)?
What this reveals: The “Net Promoter Score” of your IT. If your average is a 5 or 6, productivity and retention are already being impacted.
**Interpretation for owners**
If you get more than 3 red-flag answers, you don’t just have a computer problem… you likely have a profitability leak.
A user waiting just 5 minutes a day loses ~20 hours per year. Multiply that by 10 employees and you’ve essentially paid for five workweeks of staring at a loading screen.
The fix: a lifecycle schedule (not a surprise bill)
The healthiest businesses we support don’t treat IT updates as surprise events. They treat them like planned operational maintenance.
Recommended lifecycle replacement schedule
- Workstations: Replace every 3 - 4 years
(Rotate ~25% of devices each year so there’s never a massive capex hit.)
- Servers / network gear: Replace every 5 - 6 years
(Firewalls, switches, Wi-Fi… the stuff that causes “random issues” when it’s aging.)
- Software + licenses: Audit annually
(So you’re not paying for tools no one uses… or using tools that no longer fits the job.)
Why a schedule works
When you have a schedule, you remove the emotion. You stop asking, “Can we squeeze another month out of this laptop?” and start asking:
“Is this tool helping us run the business?”
