Mobile Working Experiences
The realities of remote working
Wednesday 13 June 2007, 9:28 AM
What matters more - speed or quality of response?
When these emails come from a senior level there seems to be a virtual race to respond, in some cases I have heard colleagues talk of entire conversations being held over email between 8pm on a Sunday evening and 8am on Monday morning - inevitably excluding those people sensible enough to switch off their BBs.
So what matters more - the speed of response or the quality and deliberation of the content of that response? The answer would seem obvious, yet with the pressure to make decisions quickly I fear that important opinions may not be consulted because of the apparent urgency of a business decision.
The excellent Economist article mentioned in another posting on this blog claims that the issue is not Blackberrys invading private life but the reverse, private communications invading the workplace. I think the issue is more about the general blurring of private and workplace boundaries - for some the use of a Blackberry puts them in control of their work-life balance, for others it seems to be the employer in control.
Are we happy with this blurring of work-life boundaries? who benefits most from this evolution?
PreviousComments on this post
I think peer pressure is just as valid a concern amongst supposedly sensible adults as it is among teenagers. Personal time is personal time, and workphones should be powered off until work time starts again! And, crucially, there has to be consensus on this among colleagues.
The debate over work/life balance and the way in which push-email etc affects workers is very much worth having. It's almost like a question of whether this new technology should be used for good or evil. Not that push-email is exactly the same as splitting the atom, but you get the idea...
Spot-on! Anyone working in a large company will seem the parallels between corporate and playground politics. The logical consensus about reasonable email practice has to be policy driven in my opinion, otherwise people will push what is acceptable. I know a couple of people who work for US corporates and they regularly email and conference call at highly anti-social hours. They claim they are in control, not the technology.
I am not sure manufacturers are entirely up to speed on this topic, is it my lack of user knowledge or is it deliberately difficult to switch off the email function on the latest BB and Treo devices?
