Blackberry Time = Overtime?
If you carry a BlackBerry or other smartphone, chances are you’ve checked or responded to an email at a time outside of your usual working hours. Sometimes it’s just a quick yes or no response confirming an appointment or action, while at others it can seem like writing a novel with your thumbs, and leave you reaching for the icepack (or cold beverage of choice) to help relax your aching joints.
Either way, this does intrude upon your personal time, and as such some feel that they should be compensated for it.
Now, this brings up an interesting argument. Sure, if we’re putting in measurable time on emails after hours, perhaps we should be paid for that time. Especially if this is something that happens on a frequent basis, and can be backed up by the timestamps on emails.
However, there is a potential downside as well.
“Linda Duxbury, associate professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, said adding BlackBerry usage to contract negotiations is a mistake that could result in people working longer hours.
“‘That legitimizes inappropriate behaviours,’ she said. ‘Right now, it’s just the culture that pressures you to do it, or your boss, or sometimes your own personality. But what if it becomes a job responsibility to be available 24/7? This is taking everything that we’ve been talking about in terms of work-life balance and turning it on its head.’”
Aye, there’s the rub. If for some reason we’re checking and responding to email on our own time now, that’s one thing. But if we’re then expecting to be paid for it, we’re basically trading our personal time for 24/7 availability, and this can remove the option of whether we’re available or not.
I’ll admit, I’ve got my company issued BlackBerry, and there are times I’ll respond to emails outside of work hours. But I usually choose to keep it off for most evenings and weekends, and only check in periodically.
If my choice comes down to writing the occasional email on personal time or being available 24/7 for an extra few hundred dollars a year, I know which way I’ll decide.
But that is my situation, and perhaps yours is different. What do you think? Should out of hours BlackBerry usage be integrated into employment contracts? Should we be paid for it? If so, what should we realistically be giving up in return?
Posted on April 30th, 2008 under General • Tags: balance, blackberry, choice. • 
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June 5th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Personally… being a Gen Y’er, I want to make myself available as much as possible right now. I’ll put in extra hours, take calls late at night, whatever it takes…
But I figure that if I’m going to put in long hours and be available 24/7, there’s no better time to do it. I may as well do it now before I have a family and kids.
And since I’d like to go into small business sometime (I’m in Corporate America right now), I’m kind of looking at this like training…
Because with small business, you can still have balance… but you’ve got to be on call all the time.
Love the post! It’s a great topic.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Thanks for the comment Andy, interesting way of looking at it, using going above and beyond in the corporate world as training for your own business. I know people have looked at the skills they can gain, but I don’t know how many look at the lifestyle choices and the like.
And while I agree with your point on putting the long hours in now, I’ll also reiterate the point I’ve made in other posts, that in some cases, that can be a slippery slope. If we say we’ll do X until Y happens, sometimes X continues even after Y has come and gone.
Cheers!