In recent years its become much easier for people to work on the move no matter what their location. This was brought home to me when I was in Dublin recently and I received a text message from a client. With relative ease I was able to connect to a wifi network, logon to his system and make changes all without impacting upon the purpose of my overseas visit.
The Internet has opened up a world in which people expect an immediate response. This is obviously a good thing because it means that things advance quicker but it also means people are less tolerant to delay.
Before the advent of e-mail communication it was common place for a worker to send a memo via internal or external post, which might take a day or two to arrive – naturally the response may also take a day or two meaning that a relatively simple communication could span over a week or more. In today’s Internet world that interaction could be completed within minutes arguably making employees time much more productive.
It also means that people expect response within a much quicker timescale. If I send an e-mail and haven’t received a response within 24 hours I usually start to think about chasing the receipient. If its a known person I often chase if I haven’t heard back within a few hours. Does this mean that technology is making us more impatient as a society? Or are we becoming more efficient?
Regardless of your standpoint I personally believe its important now and again for us all to take stock and to become incommunicado. Switch off your iPhone / iPad, don’t respond to e-mails for a few days – nothing is ever so important that it can’t wait … Or is it?
To my mind switching off is the only way to take time out and truly recharge your batteries. If like me you’ve been known to wake up in the middle of the night and answer an e-mail or two while in bed I believe this is particularly important – does anyone else find themselves rarely switching work off? Answering e-mails on the couch? On holiday? Assuming the answer is yes I guess the key question is what long term effect that is going to have on our mental capacity. Can work become a drug like addiction?
