Could gadgets like BlackBerries and cell phones ring up lawsuits?
Wojtek Dabrowski
August 25, 2006 (Reuters) — Keeping employees on electronic leashes such as laptops, BlackBerries and other devices that allow them to be constantly connected to the office could soon lead to lawsuits by those who grow addicted to the technology, a U.S. academic warns.
In a follow-up to an earlier paper on employees’ tech addictions, Gayle Porter, associate professor of management at the Rutgers University School of Business in Camden, N.J., has written a paper that states that workers whose personal lives suffer as a result of tech addictions could turn their sights on their employers.
While I can certainly relate, I think the point that the article makes about people not being able to draw the line between work & home is very important. The author states that people’s lives turn to crap, and they look for someone to blame (typical).
One thing that serving in the military taught me is how to keep things in perspective. The first year I was married, I spent 54 days at home. That sucked ass. I knew then that I was in the wrong job, and that I was going to have to do something about it. There were plenty of officers that’d come before me, and there were certainly going to be tons of them proceeding; keeping that in mind let me realize that the military would survive just fine w/o me.
I’ve carried that same mentality with me into Corporate America, too. When it’s time to be home, people have learned that I’m pretty much not to be bothered. My time is my time. There are occasional exceptions, and I have no problem w/ that, but I’ve seen far too many co-workers spend all of their free time on the job.
MacDork