network latency

There are many factors that affect network access by users on servers. It could be your speed of the NIC card and your connection to the hub or switch; and then finally the servers' speed connection on the switch (or worse on hubs). In real-world scenario, there is no such thing as "perfect-networking", and things are bound to lag behind or in your case very slow saving file to the network.

Are you a 'wireless network user'? If so, it could also be due to the setup and infrastructure of yourwireless networking.

Specific for your MS Word, try not to enable "Allow background saves" and lengthen the time on "Save Autorecover info every".

If condition persists, the ultimate action is to talk to your network administrator and let him know the situation....