I remember when I got my first smartphone.
My employer provided me with a Blackberry and I was pretty excited. I could check my email, cruise the web and text message with ease. No more was I bound to the limitations of The Simple Cellphone.
After showing it to my Pastor during a morning coffee meeting, he said:
They gave that to you, so you’ll work more hours for them.
What!?! Really!?!
Really.
It’s true.
Although I used my smartphone for plenty of personal stuff, I did work a lot more — after hours, before hours — all hours of the day and night.
How about you?
Does your work, if it be business or ministry, demand more of your attention than it should?
Has your smartphone opened a portal into your life that shouldn’t be open?
I can understand this being the case for Pastors. Like a shepherd caring for their sheep, they have to be ready to tend to the flock at any given moment, but most of us are not in this position.
Recently, Brazil approved a new piece of legislation that qualifies employees to qualify for overtime when answering work emails.
It says that company emails to workers are equivalent to orders given directly to the employee. Labour attorneys told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper this makes it possible for workers answering emails after hours to ask for overtime pay.
This issue has come up in the United States as well. In May, Chicago policeman Jeffrey Allen filed a class-action suit against the city, asking for unpaid overtime compensation.
What I find most curious about all of this, is that we’ve all chose to do this. Your work can’t force you to keep up with work emails when you’re not there.
Of course, if they are, laws like the one passed in Brazil could become a trend, elsewhere.
What do you think?
[via The Star | Image via Stephan Geyer]
This post applies to those who choose to be part of the corporate system.
This does not apply to self-employed, entrepreneurs, late-night tech/developers, etc.
For them, work never ends. There is no 9-5.
You’re right and I agree (even if it’s healthy to “turn-it-off” at times). I should have outlined and addressed that, too. Thanks for pointing this out!
you may be right, but as a self employed person I still keep “business” hours with my email/phone, I don’t want any client thinking they will hear from me outside of their 9-5.
You really balanced this out, Jared. Well said (like usual).
Same here. I do my upmost to run 9-5. There’s the very odd exception such as me in the UK and people on the west coast of the USA – not a lot of overlap in both our 9-5s!
I know what you mean, James! It’s nine hours difference between here and the West coast.
I used to but not so much these days. Somewhere, I got it in my head that doing a lot of personal stuff during working hours is a type of theft. If true, then I reasoned that the reverse must also be true.
Having kids helped; I figure that if I was too busy to answer that tug on my pant leg, I was too busy. Most of those with whom I work understand why I protect that time.
Good stuff.
I work for a church in Social Media and Media Operations. I work pretty much whenever. I have my “normal” office hours where I do various things, but some of my weekly hours are considered “flexible.” My church understands that I work on various social media sites, respond to requests, guest, members, and various other things all hours of the day.
Without my iPhone I couldn’t do my job as effectively.
Very true. Another exception. As long as those hours are flexible and there’s an understanding, that’s really cool. The problem is when people put in their 40-50hrs per week AND deal with work emails at the dinner table.
Just last night I came home and found that I had left my phone at work. It was the best night I’ve had in weeks. I read a novel for 2 hours straight. I read a blog somewhere today that suggested that everyone intentionally take a phone Sabbath. Pick a day and turn it off. Sound interesting.
AWESOME!
Personally, going from a corporate environment, to a startup, back to corporate, one thing I really enjoy is not getting work emails at night. At the startup as a developer, I would get notified anytime someone committed some code. It wasn’t too bad at first, but really sucked once we had 30+ developers. Its great only having my personal email on my iPhone is glorious.
30+! That could get crazy.
Someone once told me that their boss said, “For a simple $80 (or so) a month I can have all of my employees work 24/7 , 365 days out of the year for me, not just 8-5 M-F…”
With that, I could understand the need for potential overtime for taking work emails/calls etc…
True story.
