with Our Personal Time
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Time Bandits page 5 of 5 | |||||
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How Work Sneaks Away with Our Personal Time |
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Jennifer Vogel & Robin Marks | |||
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When you have a computer screen
facing you at home, it's tempting to check your e-mail after dinner. Many
folks take a cell phone or pager along on an evening out "just in case."
Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future, remarks, "We have this quest for the anytime, anyplace office. The problem is, if you are not careful, the anytime, anyplace office can become the every time, everyplace office where you can't escape your e-mail and your phone and you become slaves to them." And slaves we are. Not only to the technologies, but to the feeling of importance they give us. Having 100 messages waiting for us when we get in at 8:00am is an ego boost: We're in demand in a world where job security is slipping away. People are eager to consume these technologies, perhaps to reassure themselves and their bosses that they're the hardest worker, the most accessible, and the one most deserving of job security when the next round of layoffs comes round. But hey, it doesn't have to be that way. Some employees are staging mini-revolts against the work/home blend and taking their personal time back. Turning off the pager is a popular choice, as is "accidentally" letting the batteries run down in the cell phone. You can also do things to manage the flow of information landing at your doorstep: Choose one form of communication -- phone, fax, email -- and ask people to contact you using only that technology. Check your messages less frequently, don't check them from home, and remind yourself that you don't need to answer right away, just because someone contacted you. |
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