Jonathan Freedland recently published a thoughtful Guardian piece on office workers' relationship to mobile data. His key point was that people talk about mobile data devices as liberating, rather than a requirement of work. He also reflects on the loss of _our_ time to reflect on the world. "Paid time off work was a right that had to be fought for and won" he concludes. "Yet now we are giving it away voluntarily, seduced by a neat, shiny little gadget. We need to win back the time and mental space we've lost." See 'As a reformed addict, I can now see the full menace of a BlackBerry habit' Jonathan Freedland, Guardian, August 22, 2007 http://ma.gnolia.com/people/nico_macdonald/bookmarks/kerezosc [Shared bookmark]

Whether someone feels they have to answer an email at 10 o'clock in the evening is ultimately a question of power. If they can choose not to answer until working hours and still experience no repercussions then good. This is a question of organisational power relations not technology. In a market where good employees are in demand bosses will be wary of pushing their staff too hard, and won't expect them to be 'always on'. Power relationships, not technology, shape how people behave, whether it is working at the office during evenings and weekends, or running errands for your boss. It is possible that overall work culture will change and it will become expected that people will be 'on' more of the time. However, this would be an undesirable situation, not least because, as James Burckhardt intimates, the quality of responses will likely decrease. Overall, access to instant and easy-to-use communications has allowed managers to be less reflective and less decisive, and to put off or fragment decision making and planning. This is both demoralising to the organisation and tends to undermine projects.

It is early days in the evolution of the 'always on' working culture - to date the early adopters of Blackberry and similar devices are the executives who have actively sought out these devices and are comfortable with the ensuing responsibilities.  As usage within enterprises becomes more widespread (>25% of employees) the volume of out of hours communication will also increase - how will the wider universe of executives (and their families!) respond to this? As the OFEC report quoted - is there a risk that execs will be judged on speed rather than quality of response?

I am not convinced it is simply a generational issue - yes the younger generation have grown up with technology but until they reach a lifestage where other commitments will compete for their time can we predict how they manage technology?  The Independent ran an interesting story about the 'Blackberry backlash' - although it veers towards sensation in relaying stories of US lawsuits - the user comments on the degree of attachment felt for a Blackberry reveal a level of device-intimacy that I had assumed was restricted to technology used purely for leisure activities (e.g. iPods).

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article1777821.ece

Is this a generational issue?  People coming into the work force now seem much better prepared for an "always on" existence.  I'm not sure that they find this to be as stressful as those for whom technology has intruded into their previous way of working.  I am aware that I am straying into a dangerous area of "sweeping generalisations" but there is a danger that comfort with "always on" leads to less ability to switch off and focus on developing ideas or thinking through issues in detail.

Whislt I agree that there is a danger of never 'coming home from work' when always connected, there are obvioulsy some key benefits for the employee to being able to be 'untethered' from the traditional office. As more and more people use the technology to allow them to do a proportion of their working week in 'home working' mode it means that they can work more on their own terms - even simple stuff like seeing the children when they come home from school. What is probably needed is some education and learning for workers and managers. For the former it is important to mentally 'come home' from work. I work from home a lot but I always (half jokingly) say "I'm home" when I step out of the study at the end of the day - a kind of 'closure'. For managers there needs to be a cultural chnage of measuring by how/when the job gets done and not by how many hours are spent sat at the desk.

 

The switching on, switching off debate is a really interesting issue for employers. While new mobile technology provides businesses and employees with real benefits, increasing the productivity of the workforce by offering much greater flexibility in how and where we work, there are certainly challenges.

There are concerns that if an employee never switches off and takes a break from work, they are not working to their optimum productivity and of course, there are implications, positive as well as negative, for family life. There are issues to overcome in how we get the best out of mobile working and the BCC wants to be at the forefront of efforts to assist our member businesses in getting the best out of it.