Don’t blame BlackBerry
Posted Nov 9, 2010 05:22:22 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Technology has changed our work-life balance but new research suggests the change has not necessarily been for the worse.
While we are undoubtedly working more hours thanks to our ability to take work with us away from the office, we’re also more productive than we’ve ever been.
“I think we welcome it (technology) because we have utopian ideals about how easy it’s going to be to control it,” suggests Linda Duxbury with the Sprott School of Business at Ottawa’s Carleton University. “But I think for many people, it’s not that easy.”
Duxbury has conducted two exhaustive surveys on work-life balance, dating back to 1991. It was updated a decade later and she has just received funding for a third report to be conducted next year.
“Technology will be looked at in our new study because it’s a big player on balance,” Duxbury admits.
Previous surveys have found that 73 per cent of managers and 56 per cent of professionals work overtime on BlackBerrys, laptops, cellphones and PDAs.
Managers and professionals use the devices an average of seven hours a week and 55 per cent said they increased their workloads.
Despite those numbers, emerging research also suggests few people feel negatively about the devices.
Only 45 per cent of respondents to Duxbury’s survey said BlackBerrys increased their stress, while 78 per cent said the devices actually increased their productivity.
But that doesn’t mean BlackBerrys are having no impact on the work-life balance.
Duxbury says it largely becomes an issue that is driven by the corporate culture of your particular workplace.
“If you work for an organization that says we don’t expect e-mails, and in fact we frown upon them, between 7-8 at night and 7 in the morning, then you’re going to be doing fine with that thing,” Duxbury insists.
Her survey found that 62 per cent or Blackberry users check them at home, 54 per cent use them in meetings, 42 per cent while commuting, 31 per cent while travelling and 12 per cent use them in restaurants.
Forty-four per cent of us say we use our BlackBerry everywhere.
