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Gadget Addiction or Work Intrusion?
Yesterday the NY Times ran a story about the worry in Silicon Valley of addiction to gadgets, and how it might affect stress levels and people's ability to focus. But today an article in the Atlantic takes issue with "gadget addiction," and instead highlights how workplace concerns are intruding more and more on employee's private lives, suggesting that the inability to put down your smartphone is merely a symptom, rather than a disease.
"To elide that one of the reasons we spend so many hours in front of our screens is that we have to misses the key point about our relationship with modern technology. The upper middle class (i.e. the NYT reader) is working more hours and having to stay more connected to work than ever before. This is a problem with the way we approach labor, not our devices. Our devices enabled employers to make their employees work 24/7, but it is our strange American political and cultural systems that have allowed them to do so. And worse, when Richtel blames the gadgets themselves, he channels the anxiety and anger that people feel about 24/7 work into a different and defanged fear over their gadgets. The only possible answer becomes, 'Put your gadget down,' not 'Organize politically and in civil society to change our collective relationship to work.'"
And the stress is killing me!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"Our devices enabled employers to make their employees work 24/7, but it is our strange American political and cultural systems that have allowed them to do so."
Or you could just say 'No'. So long as people are willing (if not eager) to be tied to work 24/7, companies will be happy to allow them to be.
My relationship to work is individual, not collective. Mind your own business.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
Someone else, and there's a good chance they'll get that next promotion. It's a cost/benefit analysis.
An Internet news addiction is far, far worse. I would be interested to know how many million person-hours of lost work productivity are spent on the Web per year.
"To elide that one of the reasons...."
And the winner for most superfluous use of the word "elide" goes to...
... and by "do that," I mean let their employer take control of their personal lives? WTF is wrong with them?
I'm a corporate whore for 40 hours a week, and not a second more. They want more of my time, they're paying my outrageous consulting rate, just like everybody else.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I am 'willing' to not get downsized in the next set of sweeps
I am 'willing' to keep my income from stagnating
I am 'willing' to not seem less competitive than other workers
of course you could replace 'willing' with 'scared shitless', 'being strong-armed' or 'having a gun held to my head' and it would describe the situation all the same
What is truly shocking is the long-term loss of effectiveness of unions and/or their complete lack of influence in hi-tech 'salary' jobs. Sure, you can poo poo Unions, their largess in the '70s even their (apparently) corrupt leadership, but it is high time that Americans came to realize the positive benefits of Union membership and the need to maintain leverage against corporate leadership that seems willing to work us to death and feed our remains back to the rest of the workers (for the sake of shareholder value dammit)
Yeah, I'm willing, yeah I'm tired, yeah it gives me a sad chuckle to read about the rosy projections from the 1950's about 20 hour workweeks and the benefits of automation
Wherever You Go, There You Are
I used to have a cell phone, when my son was in daycare and then K-8.
But since then I just don't do it.
I do have an iPad2, but it's wireless. So that people can't bug me, unless I want them to.
I will probably get the iPhone5, but probably won't answer any work calls or texts. And will turn it off when I'm doing something.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Is alcoholism a disease independent of alcohol? I speak as one who had to pull the plug earlier today to get some work done. I was much more productive before the Internet, RSS feeds, and my smart phone. And the kids. I need to unplug them too.
So yes, it is the strange American political and cultural systems that persuade people that they are free where everywhere they are in chains. The USA has, since WW2, steadily become less egalitarian and more like Imperial Rome, with a small corrupt political class (= the Senators) in hock to a larger rich banking and commercial class (= the Knights) and a large population with only the semblance of political power. It's because the greed of the rich ultimately exceeds prudence; they don't know when to stop because, as Talib points out, they only compare themselves to their neighbours. It is easily possible to be happy on $60 000 a year and miserable on $600 000.
Gadgets are not the problem; they may partly be a symptom because time-poor people do not have the time to develop outside interests and so focus attention on shiny things that they can get instantly.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I work too damn hard on the projects I manage to let any harm come to them in the time I am off work. If my email dings, I check it because it could be useful information to ensuring the success of those projects. And if I can do something quickly from home that will save me a headache in the morning it is worth it. I also don't want to walk into a business place surprised by whatever is going to hit me when I walk in.
I'm salaried, and paid to get projects done. They get done and done well. I also find plenty of leisure time, and on more than one occasion have left work early or come in late for whatever personal reason demanded it. It's never been a problem - as long as the projects are completed on time and on budget.
I own a cell phone, but decline to tell my office the number.
We're apes using tools. Using (and making) tools is to us as flying is to birds. Of course you'd need to be an idiot to allow yourself being exploited by your employer.
Apart from that this must be a bit US-specific. There's a certain Protestant work ethic that isn't there in this way in most other places. My employer has my email and my mobile phone number, and he knows he can call me at any time when there is an emergency, but this happens maybe once a year. I'm indeed very happy that the internet and a smartphone (or whatever) allows me then to act from where I am. Much better than going there actually. Especially when I'm on vacation. And he knows very well that he won't get out more of me if he'd start to pester me daily or so. Working 24/7? For someone else? For what kind of money? I really can't believe it.
"The upper middle class (i.e. the NYT reader)"
So I don't read the NYT, does that make me part of the 1%?
Upper middle class, what complete and total crap.
I've had the opposite experience. Gadgets have allowed me to have more contact with friends and family. I'm able to work from home some days during the week, and take short breaks to help with homework, or fix a broken toy. I have conversations with friends all over the country and keep up with what they are doing. People I otherwise would have lost touch with. I travel a lot, so I get to take my library with me, so I read more. I can keep up with my favorite sports teams easier, and regardless of location. Sure, I'm interactive with work 24/7 and put in my hours, but I'm also interactive with my family and friends 24/7 and have more quality time with them. I'm old enough to remember the days you had to physically be present to work or to relax. Showing up to work on time, watching the clock to see when you can go home, getting in the car to drive in and solve problems at three in the morning. Having your team sit in the same block of cubes because you needed to be physically close, taking time off to meet with a teacher, or pay a bill, or do banking. Gadgets mean I see my family more, spend less time on useless chores, work more productively and have a better life. Stop whining.
I doubt I'll be on my deathbed, wishing I'd put in a few more hours tuning a database or attending a meeting.
Don't come for me yet, Lord, I just need to rebuild these indexes to match the fetch queue!
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When I'm stuck on call... I'm only on call from 8AM to 8PM. If it is outside of those hours, the phone is off. I'm not a big fan of this 24/7/365 shit and I choose employers where I work 9-5:30.
If you wish, you can choose any number of jobs'/careers where you won't be expected to stay in touch via cellphone or email 24 hours/7 days. It's not like it's impossible to stay gainfully employed in America today without a "constant on" situation via gadgets you carry around.
What's really happened, in many cases, is that people saw the advantages and accepted the down-sides, but turned around and complained about those down-sides at every opportunity. (You know... the good old "I want to have my cake and eat it too!" thing.)
For example, in my own situation, I work as a systems/network administrator. At some point in time, I asked if the company would supply me with an iPhone because in the past, I already carried one that I bought and paid for each month on a personal plan. Obviously, the trade-off here was the understanding that with it, I'd now be more able to quickly respond to emails or calls, or even text messages. Instead of me carrying around a phone that was basically "off limits" to other employees, my number was now listed in the company directories.
It's a pretty good trade, in my opinion. Yes, my boss may call once in a while on a weekend asking if I can help walk him through a computer problem at home (and in those cases, I may or may not take any given call and it's really not anything he takes issue with when I don't). But I've always been responsible for keeping the computer equipment and network up as part of my job, so honestly, I'd rather get a quick phone call when something's down than find out after I get in the office during my "regular hours" and I've got 20 people complaining about it instead of one person. Meanwhile, I save a lot of money on cellular service and can still use the phone for all my personal things (within reason, obviously - but I do have unlimited data on it).
And sure, society is, by and large, more "connected" with mobile devices than ever before. But it's ridiculous, IMO, to call it a "disease". Again, we CHOOSE this lifestyle and many of us pay extra to keep it. Unlike my parents who used to pretty much cross out 1-2 hours of each day of their lives watching TV news or reading the morning paper to keep informed, I just get the news flashes, piecemeal, from my mobile devices as they happen -- and can actively (not passively like TV) select the news I want to read more about.
This little meme is gathering a lot of momentum; I read an article in Time along the same lines last night.
A. If you work smart, you don't have to work long. It is actually important to say no to working 24/7, because you can't work long AND smart AND hard. Workign smart trumps it all. Good systems don't need long hours because they are stable. Good project plans adapt and require little of the usual rush at the last moment.
B. Connectedness through gadgets is a good thing, and there is no reason to be obligated to maintain this connectedness beyond what you desire.
The converse of "work" intruding on "personal time" via our gadgets is "life" intruding on "work time" via those same gadgets. How many people check their facebook accounts, read slashdot, respond to emails/IMs/texts from friends/family, etc while at work? So we might as a general rule not really be working many, if any, more hours, we're just blurring the transition between work and non-work. Whether this is welcomed as flexibility or despised for allowing employers to take advantage is really up to individual perspective.
Welcome to the new slave labour
I'm about ready to chuck it in where I work. For over 20 years the only OT I ever did was when I was On Site, doing an installation. I've carried a company phone for most of that time, but never ever answered it on my time. Then bang, restructure, new managers and a third of the engineers retrenched. I put my hand up, but was told I'm too valuable. Funny, it's not reflected in my pay.
This year, I've only been home 6 weekends and when I do get home I have to answer Customer callouts. The argument is that we don't have anyone else to do the support. I'm a system design engineer, not a support engineer. Wife's pissed and so am I.
They say that because of my grade, it's expected that I should work an extra 20 hours unpaid OT per week. The argument is that we're professionals. WTF. I though my grade reflected my experience, not how much free time they could wring out of me. I don't see Lawyers of consulting professionals do free time (except pro-bono).
Now they're promoting "Yes Men" Engineering Managers, who aren't even qualified Engineer or Scientists. And why? because they have the right attitude...
What they don't see is that all the experienced staff are leaving in droves to go work for consultancies. Looks like I'm next on that exodus.
Yeah, I don't like the work intrusion into my personal life all that much either, but like many others here, I'm salaried and it's a requirement of my job to be available. On the flip side, the only phone I have is my employer-provided iPhone, and as such it functions as much as a personal phone as it does a work phone and at no cost to me. A big part of it too, for me, is that because of the expectations outside "normal" work hours, my boss is quite flexible with other things that come up during the normal work day (picking up m son from school, leaving early if I need to for family things, etc.). So I can't complain. Well, I could, but the benefits outweigh the costs.
Most regular people don't need to, and probably shouldn't be connected 24/7. Some people (I include myself) do need to be connected all of the time, but most people don't. They just like the toys, and pretending that they're important/busy enough that they need to be able to communicate with people all the time.
I don't respond to AC's.
You should not have to answer that phone 24/7/365
"employee's private lives"? One employee can have more than one private life?