Is Portable Technology Giving You More Freedom From Your Job?

When cell phones became available, it seemed that they would fill a need for instant communication--any time, any place--that would help people be more efficient and thus save time. In addition, family members would be able to connect more quickly with each other especially in emergencies.

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Then E-mail became a mainstream method of business communication. Marvelous. Now telephones wouldn't ring off the hook, messages would not have to be stored and retrieved as verbal communications, which took time.

Instead, information would be clear and concise and could be retrieved and answered any time, any where; again the promise of more freedom.

With E-mail, internet and cell phones, was it really necessary for workers to be restrained to the office? Maybe shorter work days would ensue. Perhaps parents could collect their children from school and be contacted at home via either of these methods. But no. Simply because there are...

...the laptops

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...PDAs

...the Blackberry;

...iPhones/SmartPhones;

...pagers. 

The world has changed. This truth came about as more workers were able to take their jobs anywhere with them. The travel from home to work and back again was no longer a barrier for actually doing the work.

Telecommunication was quickly making itself an integral part of conducting business. With cell phones and email distance, time and travel were no longer barriers to conducting business effectively.

For some, this meant that coming to the office every day was an option - not a requirement.

Mothers and fathers found new freedom to take care of their children while still collecting the paycheck they needed to support them. Work could be done at home, at the park, at the grocery store, at night...

Unfortunately, this ability to work anywhere has become a nuisance instead of a luxury for many individuals. The fact that they are able to do business any time, anywhere, means that they actually are doing business all the time.

What happens with these individuals is they find that rather than freeing up time, these devices seem to follow them wherever they go (simply because these people feel compelled to takes the tools with them) so they can't get far enough away from work to really put the devices away for any long periods of time. Some of these people quite often take the laptop on vacation with them.

And emergencies do not stop the phone from ringing or the email from piling up.  And because it's easy to access, some individuals think there's no excuse for dealing with whatever matter that comes up.  So for some of them the convenience has become a ball and chain--creating longer work hours and constant stress.

For these individuals it's imperative that they commit themselves to guidelines such as turning off the phone, not accessing email as frequently, limiting how often they go online, check the pagers. Sticking to these rules and telling other work mates your new practices should go a long way to regaining some time for you to download.

Remember: You're supposed to be assisted by these devices--not allowing them to take over your life. 

So it's in the best interest of your health and the well-being of your family if you kept the use of the cell phones and all these portable electronics at a minimum, especially when you're supposed to be on vacation.