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| No one "gets away from it all" any more |
September 2, 2004 |
By Peter Wolchak
The summer has just drawn to a close; here are some interesting study results that we bet will have you nodding your head.
The study looked at vacations, specifically, what information technology pros pack along with their beach towels and sunscreen.
It found PDAs, cellphones and laptop computers sharing the ride. According to the survey:
85 per cent of respondents remain accessible to co-workers during evenings, weekends and vacations. 76 per cent regularly retrieve messages during off-time. 54 per cent said they sometimes feel “overwhelmed by pervasive communications,” and 93 per cent reported a “negative effect on quality of life.”
Perhaps the most important number here is the 61 per cent of respondents who reported that, because of mobile workplace technology, they work more hours per week. A quarter of all respondents claim two to five hours more per week, while 17 per cent said the addition exceeds five hours.
It is important to note this survey comes from Avaya, a provider of business communications networks and services, and that the company recently launched a business communications consulting practice which offers to help companies better manage processes and infrastructures.
In other words, it is possible the study paints a gloomier picture than reality would merit. However, there is no question that vacations now mean taking it with us, instead of getting away from it all. But this study and others like it often overlook two important factors that should make the work load you carry a little lighter.
The first is the upside of this technology: the fun side. All business gadgets have a fun side, and you can use it to your advantage: entertaining the kids on a rainy day at the cottage with movies on the laptop, passing the time on a long flight by battling medieval armies on a Pocket PC, and staying in touch with that new boyfriend with the BlackBerry your office purchased. Ask any road warrior or telecommuter: it’s a very rare device that doesn’t do double duty on a regular basis. The second issue at play here is pride—the sense of pioneering accomplishment we should all feel. We are a professional group of guinea pigs, the first with access to truly useful mobile technology.
A decade ago, when I first became an editor, a daily pile of faxes flowed into the office and I kept a large backpack handy for those times I needed to bring work home. Today, when I weed through my communications, they’re in the form of e-mail on a small PDA.
And everyone has stories like that, because we’re the transition group, moving from the old days of work in an office to the new days of work anywhere.
We’re the ones who get to figure out the bugs and wrestle with policies and new social conventions. Remember when it was rude to talk on a cellphone in a restaurant?
And if you have to spend some time away from the kids during a family vacation, realize you are sharing with them the new workplace reality. This is what vacations are now, and this is the world they will one day inhabit. It is a new paradigm, and we’re making it work.
So come on, replace some of the whinging with a sense that, as trailblazers, we’re suffering a little fatigue in order to build a better tomorrow.
THANKS, EVERYONE
In our May/June issue we asked readers to fill out a survey so we could get a better handle on what you like about Backbone and what you’d like to see changed. Turn to page 16 for an overview of your answers.
Also, check out page 43 for the first tangible outcome of this process: you said you like the Tek Gadgets section so we’ve expanded it, and you’ll likely see more of it in the future.
We would also like to congratulate Abdallah Abdula of Toronto, the winner of our Pioneer 43-inch plasma TV survey prize, and to thank everyone who took the time to share their thoughts with us.
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