Blackberry Owners Chained to Work

seriouslywtf writes "New survey data suggests that Americans are split over whether Blackberrys are chaining them to work. While people who own Blackberries feel 'more productive', those with Blackberrys are more likely to work longer hours and feel like they have less personal time than those without. A Director of Marketing Strategies who owns a Blackberry pointed out that many employees feel obligated by employers who have handed out the devices. 'While being always on in a social context is a natural for young people, many of those in the 25-54 age group with families and corporate jobs are struggling with work-life blending. There is a need for the mainstream workplace culture to offer ways to counterbalance.'" Is the constantly connected, often mobile nature of the modern workplace a good thing, or not?

Geez... are people really that malleable?

I have a blackberry. I do not have any audio/vibro "you have mail" announcement enabled (nor do I on my desktop computer's email app). When I get home at the end of the day, guess what? I stop looking at it! Wow! What a concept, huh? But wait, what if it's really urgent? Well, then the blackberry makes a ringing noise and I talk to the person on the other end. Translated: If they really want to get hold of me RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE, then they'll call when I don't answer their email.

Re:Geez... are people really that malleable?

"When I get home at the end of the day, guess what? I stop looking at it! Wow! What a concept, huh? "

Exactly...I leave my work behind the second that door hits me on the ass. Granted...these days I'm not doing any work where I'm on call....I like development work more...no one gets quite as pissed if you blow something up like they do if you do it to a prod. payroll box.

:-)

I dunno...some people seem to let their jobs 'define' them. Don't get me wrong, while I'm fortunate to work and earn a healthy living doing things that interest me...it is only, a job. And a job is nothing more to me than a means to earn money to buy and do things that please me, and allow me to take time off to enjoy them.

I hate to keep preaching it...but one way to cut that 'my company owns me and can call me 24/7'...is to get away from being a direct, salaried employee. I love contracting....my motto is "I never work for free".

If they have to PAY you for ever single hour you work...they will think twice on interfering with your free time...

Don't get me wrong, if there is the need for the 12th hour effort, and 110% to get something working for whatever reason...I'm there for the duration...but, I WILL get paid for that time and effort.

But really...I've never understood those that let themselves get so tied to a job. When you leave the job...it is YOUR time...enjoy it and leave them alone until they are paying you for it....

When I leave for the day, or take a vacation, I can guarantee I give not a single thought to work...not on MY time.

Contracting, eh? I can top that.

I work for the state. They pay me even when I'm NOT working. Like now, for instance. ;-)

Re:Geez... are people really that malleable?

Do you also get paid by the ellipsis?

Re:Geez... are people really that malleable?

That is the important differentiation - ensuring people with a critical need to contact you call rather than email. Unfortunately there is a prevailing assumption that if someone is packing a blackberry, an email = an instant notification and they are aware. As soon as you break that preconception, the device becomes a truly useful piece of kit - being called with a critical issue, and the person being able to say "I've just sent you an email with the details" makes life significantly easier.

At a previous job, I had a pro-forma email I'd send out about every 6 months to remind people of the paths of communication, their optimal uses and expected responsiveness. The general gist was email --> IM --> text message --> call --> in person. If you need someone but its not important, start at the left. If it is critical, start at the right. Follow up with slower technologies to keep record of important points or clarify details once engaged. And use your judgement to escalate - the excuse "i IM'ed you about the server room being on fire" doesn't hold water!

Re:Geez... are people really that malleable?

Well, first, I'd rather not be a sysadmin by trade. I'd rather be a director or move towards CTO/CIO, which is why I'm focusing my time on education/networking. By and large, a monkey could do my position (or a senior sysadmin -- or anyone who would write "peer-reviewed papers on the subject). It's the technological equivalent of being an automechanic, and anyone who writes about them would be better served writing about Joe at the local garage (might want to consider a career change, bud).

That said, I get alerts based on very specific events. The issue is that I'm motoring 10, 20-node clusters -- 200 machines with probably in the neighborhood of 2000 "important" pieces of hardware that can fail. Let me clarify what I mean by "monitoring" -- I'm the only one who does it. I'm the one who not only gets the alerts but has to head down to one of four sites to repair the nodes. I'm also in charge of optimizing and occasionally tightening the code that runs them. I'm also in charge of security (the IP on these boxes is worth about 1 billion). In any sanely run company, I would at least have 1 underling, so when a hard drive failed in node 18 of cluster 6, I could push a button and say "Johnny, go ship out a drive to the Canada site". Instead, I have to hop on a plane and remember my passport. Braindead way of doing things? Absolutely. I've argued that many times with management. But budgets are budgets and they'd rather pay one lackey a nice salary then 4 lackeys (one for each site).

As it stands right now, I have multiple scripts that weed out largely unnecessary alerts. Node 4 of cluster 2 is at 90% CPU? Don't care. However, there's only so much one can weed out if you're the only admin. I need to know when critical hardware on any of the 200 nodes fail. I need to know when a node or cluster is pinned at 100% for an extended period of time. I need to know when a competitor might be trying to break into one of the boxes. I need to know if it's safe to bring down half a cluster for a code change (which I usually have to write myself). What is your solution when you have 1 admin and about 300 recognized noteworthy events in this type of environment? "Ignore your Blackberry?"

In short, I need to act as a responsible employee, as I have no one else to fall back on to do the same. If that means checking my Blackberry on occasion, so be it. If your response is "Your job sucks," well, I agree. Most do. And I doubt I'll be here much longer.

Bottom line, though, if the alternative is losing cluster time, losing a site, or losing a couple hundred million worth of IP, I'll take a minor inconvenience of checking a blinking light.

P.s. Calling someone a "bad admin" when you know nothing about the environment, workload, etc. is bad form. My statement that you don't seem to be a sysadmin still stands -- you seem more to be a pompous prick.

being always connected to work is terrible

Because for some reason bosses think they have a right to your leisure time, and there are enough weak-willed employees giving in to them already to make you look bad if you don't answer the damn blackberry when you're not at work.

Turn it OFF

I don't care if the company gave them to you or not. When you are ready to be uninterrupted, turn it off... and your cell phone. Esp. on weekend I do not want to be bugged, I check messages once in the afternoon before and after heading out to do "my stuff" for the day. I get chained enough with extra contract work from time-to-time... when it's down time, it's down time. Your corporate assigned blackberries, PDAs, laptops, pages, and other gizmos will not make me respond any faster. (Exception: pager when you are officially to be "on-call" for a very *specified* period of time - except I am rarely on-call ever, but some people are on a regular basis)

I don't want to be that connected

Is the constantly connected, often mobile nature of the modern workplace a good thing, or not?

Not. I'll work late hours, within reason, when whatever project I'm assigned to requires that I do so, but I refuse to be at anyone's beck and call 24/7. (Probably why I'm single, but that's another story).

I plan on going to a bar tonight to have a couple of beers - I'll have a designated driver - would it be a good idea for me to answer a work call or respond to a work email if I've had one too many?

Re:I don't want to be that connected

drunk + root prompt = bad hangover....

productivity

how much of the gains in productivity reported by the federal reserve are due to precisely this; businesses wringing extra, unpaid, work out of their employees.

i let it run out of battery, i forget it, i don't use it. but i'm not climbing the ladder, i'm just sitting here watching the wheels go 'round and 'round.

Re:productivity

how much of the gains in productivity reported by the federal reserve are due to precisely this; businesses wringing extra, unpaid, work out of their employees.

Oh I dunno, probably the inverse of whatever gains in productivity are lost by reading slashdot, digg, and being able to pay bills, talk to friends, and handle emergency issues all from your desk at work?

It's a 2-way street people, don't forget to look the other way. You're liable to get run over.

They make the choice.

My blackberry get's turned off when I get home. IT get's turned on in the morning when I leave for work.

I am in charge of it and I command it. I was asked once by the director of marketing why I did not answer his email he sent sunday at 5am. I said, I have a life outside work and my blackberry is off on weekends and nights.

He gave me a look like I had murdered a bag of puppies and walked back to his office.

It's your choice if you want the device and your job to own you 24/7

Blame Your Job

I have a Blackberry for work, as do many of my peers. Most of them work tons of overtime and feel that their Blackberry runs their lives. But not me. I work efficiently and get everything done within regular working hours and rarely need to deal with my Blackberry at night.

Don't blame the device. Blame your job.

Re:Blame Your Job

In some workplaces if you are able to get things done in normal business hours, that means you don't have enough to do, and you will get more work assigned to you.

It is NOT a good thing

In Freemasonry, the 24-inch gauge (or ruler) is used as an emblem of the 24 hours in the day. We are taught that we are to divide this time in three parts, with 8 being for refreshment and sleep, 8 being for the service of God and our fellow man, and 8 "for our usual vocations" -- that is, our regular job. While we understand the realities of modern life, the model of "8 for sleep, 8 for work, 8 for service" is a good one that keeps proper balance in our lives. The move to more and more work eats away at that balance, and imbalance is the source of most of our ills.

BTW, if you're wondering where "family" is in that model, we tend to our families in the 8 we reserve for service. Service to our families is the source of our strength.

Balance is very good

I worked once for a company where the engineering culture expected that you'd do all-nighters around product release time. I never did and I expect I was way more productive.

I did **once** go in at 4 am with a batch of freshly baked muffins. People were walking about like zombies or lying around on their desks waiting for a build or test to complete. Hollow shells. Come approx 9 am they all went home completely stuffed and slept until about 3pm when they came back to work still half-zonked to work another overnighter of almost zero productivity. In the mean time, I did a normal 9-5 and achieved quite a bit. I then biked home at a civilised hour and played with the kids etc. Came back the next morning fresh and ready to engage!

It is well understood and documented that you often solve problems while doing something other than sitting in front of a computer. Take a dump, have a shower, go fishing.... You need the balance to be a productive worker.

Like any tool, it's all in ho0w you use it...

If you allow your Blackberry or whatever PDA/Smartphone you have to become nothing more than an extended leash, then yes, that is what is going to happen. Myself, I'm the sole IT guy for a small business. I've recently picked one of these up to reduce the time I have to spend in the office - or, more precisely, the time I have to spend coming in to fix whatever blew up. I'm hoping to reduce the times I have to make the half-hour drive into work just to spend an hour or less in the office and drive a half-hour back home.

Freedom, Thy Name Is Blackberry

I find my BB very freeing. I have had many leisurely morning cups of coffees on my way to work, secure in the knowledge that nobody is looking for me and that no emergencies have arisen. Same on weekends. My *job* chains me sometimes. The Blackberry simply puts me on a (much) longer leash. My options are either wait by the computer for an email, or go about my day with my Blackberry by my side. I can tell you which I prefer. Now, before a thousand people feel the need to point it out, I recognize that there is a problem with my job here. But as a corporate attorney, it's a problem I volunteered for. I knew when I took this job that I was going to be dealing with people who need (or at least think they need) answers yesterday. However, they pay me well for the usage of my time and at least, so far, I'm happy with the trade off. But the Blackberry? Best extension cord ever.

Are They Really More Productive?

Do these people just feel more productive, maybe because they're using a "business machine" like the Blackberry? Productivity measurements are standard metrics of US workers for at least a century. Have these Blackberry users actually increased their productivity since before they got the Blackberry? Compared to any increase gained by their coworkers who didn't get a Blackberry? Compared to coworkers with a Blackberry who don't feel any more productive?

Workers whose productivity doesn't increase even when they get expensive technology investments like a Blackberry aren't reliable people to ask whether they're more productive. Working longer hours isn't productivity: often it's a decrease, leaving more to get done in longer time, when fatigue, resentment and just arbitrary final cutoff times decrease productivity.

If they're less productive, and feel more productive, then they'll want more pay, though they produce less, and cost more in IT costs. How about a real answer to this question, instead of mumbo jumbo about how Blackberries "feel"?

Blend? Ummm... no.

I think the basic problem is the phrase "work/life blend". I'm sorry, work is work, life is life. The two are mutually exclusive. Work pays me for a normal workday 5 days a week, and reasonable emergencies and after-hours work considering I'm salaried. I don't see employers offering unlimited paid time off so people can meet the demands of life, I fail to see why they should expect me to take unlimited uncompensated time away from my life to meet the demands of work. That, after all, is what most of the people using the "work/life blend" phrase mean: how does the employee juggle his schedule to accommodate what the employer wants. I have a simple answer: I juggle it based on how much my employer's willing to pay for my time.

And that's not an empty position. I've left two employers in my life over this. Oddly, in both cases I ended up getting more money and significantly reducing my workload as a result. I'm not afraid of doing the same again. Fortunately at my current job that's not something I'm having to deal with.

Many workers misled

There are a lot of people who voluntarily take on lots of unpaid overtime. They sincerely believe that this will get them ahead, put them lower on layoff lists, get them higher raises, etc.

I'm a staunch 40-hour guy, and have yet to be laid off from this particular job, for 5 years now, where there are a lot of people like that. I suppose if I'd worked 70 or 80 hours a week, I might be making a few percent more, though. If you work that out per hour, I'd be way better off doing a side job with that time. Oh, there's stock options, though; I shit you not, when this employer got bought a while back, I stood to gain $4000 before taxes from my 4.5 years' worth of stock options. I'm sure that would have been good incentive to work 50% more.

I'm not worried about layoffs. My job will go to India when it goes to India. There won't be anything I (or anyone else, right on down from the CEO of the company) can do to prevent or delay it, so why bust my ass trying?

My BB's mail config broke over a year ago

I never got it fixed

To quote Nelson - "Ha ha!"

many employees feel obligated by employers who have handed out the devices

With whom does the fault rest here? The employers, or the idiots who make themselves available 24/7 at the whim of their workplace?

People, do us all a favor, and stop putting up with this bullshit. Just say no. If enough of us do it, "on call" will go back to a paid status (yes, "back" - Companies used to pay damned good money to have trained monkeys available at 3am).

It really disgusts me that people often tell me they need to actually "go away" on their vacations, or they'll get called in to work. Hello, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Stand up for yourselves! "Sorry, Dave, that third margarita looks damned good right now, so I'll talk to you when my vacation ends, on Monday morning. Beach? No, sitting in my living room, five minutes' drive from you. Buh-Bye."

As for whether or not you can "get away" with that - Yes, you most certainly can. Just do it right from day one, rather than giving in a bit at first to make yourself look more useful. Deluding your employer just sets you up for unhappyness later - Let them know right where you stand on such issues. A decent employer will even respect you for it.

Not to say I wouldn't honestly help out my coworkers, if convenient for me... I have gone in at bizarre hours to deal with emergencies - And damn well comp'ed the time the next day. But I do that at my pleasure, not as a condition of employment.

If responding off-hours became a requirement of the job, we'd have a problem, and they would need to find someone else for the position. And no, paying me more would not count as an option, because I work to live, not live to work, end of discussion.

Change the labor laws

If every manager had to pay an hour of overtime for every question he asked by blackberry, text, or cell, after office hours, there would be no problem! Most would figure out real quick what is really important and what can wait until tomarrow. I don't care if the answer takes 10 seconds, they have to pay an hour.

Discipline

So prior to the days of blackberries, they couldn't reach you by another on-demand interactive medium, say, ummmmm, I dunno, maybe, errr, the *telephone*??? There is nothing inherent in the technology that creates the social obligations. It's solely the discipline involved in using the technology.

Having greater enabling technologies for when you need responsiveness isn't a bad thing. Not realizing that there are limits, and applying them appropriately, *can* be a bad thing. (It's similar to the whole wonderful Unix flexiblity thing; it gives you the mechanism, *not* the policy. Yes, you can hang yourself with C pointers, Perl syntax, Unix cryptiveness; but policy and discipline can prevent all of that)

Correlation Is Not Causation

While people who own Blackberries feel 'more productive', those with Blackberrys are more likely to work longer hours and feel like they have less personal time than those without.

People who work harder on their careers at the expense of personal time tend to progress further than those who take an easier path and put personal time first.

Blackberries [at least initially] were a tool for managers and the most critical infrastructure staff as most companies wouldn't pay many hundreds to buy the hardware plus the service costs for the average employee to check email on the toilet.

So, one explanation is that people who were already obsessive about their careers and already obsessively shackled themselves to work anyway are the ones who gained Blackberries to simply maintain an existing destructive behavior.

Whilst it's easy to assume that Blackberries allow working out of hours and people are forced to work longer hours because they get a Blackberry, another explanation is that people get Blackberries because they're the kind of people looking to work longer hours (or at least stay obsessively aware of things which equates to the same thing).

It's easy to make the assumption that, because there's a correlation between A and B, there is the causation that A must clearly lead to B. It's just as possible that B actually leads to A. If B is a bad thing, we need to be careful not to assume A is thus the cause of a bad thing and therefore just as bad if not worse - it may just be that A is simply yet another symptom of the bad thing (B) itself.

It's kind of like saying, "People who stay in bed all day are much more likely to have the flu." The easy assumption to make there is that beds somehow lead to the flu. Easy. But totally wrong.

Work for free Jan 1 - Feb 23

UK figures show that, on average, employees put in an amount of unpaid time over the period of a year that is equivalent to working for free up until Feb 23. That date every year is "Work your proper hours day" when employees are encouraged to do just that. Trade unions usually also take the opportunity to nag employers to stop taking advantage.

http://www.worksmart.org.uk/workyourproperhoursday / [worksmart.org.uk]