November 19, 2010 at 6:33 am
I find I'm more productive without a phone at all. I usually close outlook completely and take the phone of the hook when I have work to do. The Constant pop-up and noise are too distracting. If I'm working on one thing that's broken then I don't need to know about it from from 5 other people.
When I'm done a task and "come up for air" I'll check outlook and voice mail to see if any thing caught fire. Not having outlook open also has a hidden side benefit. It annoys co-workers who send non-work related jokes then come to see if you found it funny.
November 19, 2010 at 6:43 am
kit80 (11/19/2010)
What is interesting is that people seem unable to stop using them once theyy have them. Many meetings are effective shambles as it's apparently OK to be dealing with business/pleasure on mobile devices instead of fulfilling the purpose of being at the meeting. I wouldn't be surprised to see policies relating to time and place usage.
In our organization, it's mandatory to turn off such devices in a meeting.
November 19, 2010 at 6:44 am
As long as the mobile device i'm using has an rdp client, there isn't much of anything i couldn't handle remotely. That being said management is either completely ignorant of the potential security issues, or overly concerned.
November 19, 2010 at 7:03 am
"...if there is a chance that you can see a good portion of your administration, monitoring, or even daily work done from some device that isn't a full size laptop?"
At this time it's not very likely for me. There's just way too much scrolling involved for me to get a "good portion" of my work done. And when I'm away from my desk it's usually to focus my attention on something other than my daily work so trying to knock things off my to-do list would be a misuse of that time for me and others with whom I'm meeting.
As far as the work-life balance goes: I work to live, I do NOT live to work. 😉
November 19, 2010 at 7:23 am
I used pagers and cell phones for many years and I hated them all the way along. I just got so tired of my personal time being interrupted by calls like; "My printer is out of paper, what do I do?" (yes, I did once get such a call...)
Five years ago I got rid of all small devices save for my cell phone which I only turn on at very sparing times, and then I rarely answer unless its one of my kids, or my admin assistant. I cannot tell you how wonderful life can be when you wean yourself off these devices from hell. I actually can separate my work life from my personal life now, with ease....
...but more, I pity those who remain bound to these interruption devices. First off, you are working ALL the time. Second, people who get "wowed" about being able to do things they don't need to be doing at that moment always make me very suspicious. They likely need to either get a life, or sort out priorities. Worse still, I cannot stand people who yak away, or type away in public places like elevators, lobbies, airports and the like. What is the point of being in 'another place' via a device, when life is going by you right in front of you - but you miss it.
Lastly, I worry about one thing people say I am nuts to worry about... The long term effects. I recently read an article that pointed out that virtually every cell phone comes with a warning to hold the device at least one inch from your head - after all, it is a microwave receiving device - and yet no one pays any attention to that. I think back to 1963 when my school building was lined with asbestos - back then, the stuff was considered a miracle. Now, we know it kills people. We have NO data on the long term effects of cell phone use. Maybe its nothing, but as well, maybe a couple decades from now we will find that people who chronically use these devices are in fact, simply frying their brains slowly.
Once again, technology for the sake of "coolness" is not addressing any 'problem'. Cell phones are a glaring example of that. But if the "cool" later becomes a health problem, how then will the world wean itself off these addictive devices?
November 19, 2010 at 7:25 am
You know, I agree that they can mess up your work/life ratio, but they can also help it. When my daughter was a toddler (18 now) I was at work 10-12 hrs a day sometimes 6 and even 7 days a week. I missed a lot of time with her and regret that even now.
With the connectivity that I have now, it allows me to leave work early to take in my sons' soccer games. I use an android phone for first level and if I need a secure network, I can pop out my notebook and VPN through the hotspot. Not a speed demon, but allows me to enjoy life a little more, even if I am a little distracted from it.
I guess my thought is that my work hours have become more flexible because of the technology. I do have to be careful to not drop into that pit of working extensive hours, but that could happen with or without the technology.
November 19, 2010 at 8:04 am
Great topic!
Not only does our IT department not ban smart phones, they actually issue them. I use mine often, and for many tasks. My family is my priority, and part of that means providing for them. I am a better employee when connected, which is an important thing in this economy. I have a WinMo device for work and have an Android X for personal use. I love them!
Here are a few upside points
1. No surprises when I walk in the door in the morning. I've already checked my email and have connected to check on SP's, etc.
2. As someone said, mia and irregular work hours are more well recieved when the boss knows how to communicate when something blows up.
3. I have some custom apps that streamline mundane tasks.
4. When there's a pressing deadline or a code red issue, I can turn up Rachmaninoff
and tune out the world. Instead of being a distraction, my smart phone helps me concentrate.
5. For crying out loud, the thing has an off button!
Admittedly, I'm a geek, maybe even a super geek. In my estimation, a smart phone is a better hammer, or mouse trap, or whatever analogy you prefer.
November 19, 2010 at 8:11 am
Joe Johnson-482549 (11/19/2010)
You know, I agree that they can mess up your work/life ratio, but they can also help it. When my daughter was a toddler (18 now) I was at work 10-12 hrs a day sometimes 6 and even 7 days a week. I missed a lot of time with her and regret that even now.With the connectivity that I have now, it allows me to leave work early to take in my sons' soccer games. I use an android phone for first level and if I need a secure network, I can pop out my notebook and VPN through the hotspot. Not a speed demon, but allows me to enjoy life a little more, even if I am a little distracted from it.
I guess my thought is that my work hours have become more flexible because of the technology. I do have to be careful to not drop into that pit of working extensive hours, but that could happen with or without the technology.
I don't know the details of your situation, but you're describing a job with 70 hour weeks being a regular occurrence. To me, that amounts to highly unreasonable demands. Technology may now allow you to take some of those unreasonable demands away from the office and thereby give you some flexibility, but if I were in your situation, I'd see the underlying problem as being the excessive demands, not where they're carried out.
I'd also remind everyone of one of the previous editorials Steve sent out a while ago, discussing research on working hours. The summary was that if you regularly work long hours, your productivity per hour reduces until it hits the same level as if you only worked 40 hours a week. If you use a fancy mobile device to extend the period you're able to be contacted (and range of communcation methods open to you), you may just be ending up spreading your same capacity over a longer time period. I don't say it will happen, but it's another warning to make sure you use the tool wisely.
Semper in excretia, suus solum profundum variat
November 19, 2010 at 8:17 am
Here's one example that may seem trivial, but it wasn't yesterday. I was in a discussion involving coverage of a specific city. Everyone was struggling to remember what county the city was in. I simply picked up my smart phone, hit a button and said into my phone , "What county is xxxxxx in?" And just like that we had the answer and could continue the discussion and make a decision. That's efficient.
November 19, 2010 at 8:19 am
To answer Steve's question -- as little as possible. I manage/read email with it and, if really pressed I can even answer an email. I love my phone's form factor but have a horrible time typing on a virtual (screen) keyboard so I try not to. Of the 8 months I've had it, I've replied to maybe 3 emails. The rest can wait until I'm in front of a computer. When I first got it I tried connecting to our VPN and then RDP'ing into a server. Took me about 10 minutes to get to where I could click the Start button. No thanks!
The one change I did appreciate years ago, going from a pager to a phone, is that when I get alerted now, I can also get a wealth of detail on what the alert is about. We take that for granted now but it wasn't always that way.
I bought my phone as a PDA first, phone second, and work device a distant third. I'm addicted to: browsing, GPS, weather, stocks, syncing to my Outlook calendar reminders, the occasional game, and having a mobile file repository (Excel/notes/music/etc). Oh, and the always-available camera is great. RDP and/or SQL management -- nope.
Finally ... I refuse to carry a 3G laptop or iPad with me. I love them at home, but they don't fit in my pocket when out. 😛
November 19, 2010 at 8:27 am
For almost everything I do other than reading email - screen size is critical. I can't imagine trying to look through the Event Log or research a problem with an SSIS package on a smart phone. Maybe you could do it, but 'efficient' is not the word I would use to describe that.
I don't have a smart phone, and have zero interest in getting one. For me, battery life in a phone is more important than reading email on a tiny screen. I had a BlackBerry for a while, but just forwarded it to a much smaller basic cell phone.
November 19, 2010 at 8:53 am
I've found that working on a small screen severly hampers my effectiveness. Yes, I can do small tasks and check if a server is up and running. An iPad may be the smallest screen I would be able to deal with to actually do in depth work, but not the droid screen.
November 19, 2010 at 9:01 am
Great timing! Last night there was a documentary covering this issue. The info page is http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2010/digitaldummies/index.html and it looks like you can view the episode on line.
The take-away points (with my reaction in parentheses):
* No, we can't multitask the way we think we can. We can task-switch, but frequent task switching prevents us from focusing properly, leading to mistakes and shoddy work. (Duh!)
* Introduction of technologies like this lead to lower productivity more often than they lead to higher productivity. (okay, but show me some real research)
* Introduction of smartphones in particular is associated with an increase in hours worked from 45/week to 70/week. (not surprising)
* While people seem willing to acknowledge the problems, they are generally unwilling to change their behaviour. There seems to be some evidence that it may not be unwillingness but inability to kick the habit without help--addiction. (not surprising, given human nature, but I'm not comfortable with every hard-to-break habit being labeled an addiction)
According to other things I've seen and read, there are claims in this documentary that would seem to be contradicted by other research, but the core points seem to be supported by research.
I've always refused my employer's requests to accept even a dumb phone because I do not want to be on call or in any way available outside normal office hours without adequate compensation. That is, pay me (including overtime!) while I'm working or I don't work (again, that blue-collar background).
I recently picked up my own smart phone for my own reasons. I want to tinker with programming it and I like the idea of having a single device so that I don't carry a day planner or PDA and a GPS and a phone. As my personal phone, it stays off while I'm at work and outside work I turn it on only when I'm actually using it (which can include a request from someone--usually my wife--to turn on my phone). As it happens, I picked up an Android phone, a platform that we don't even support at work 🙂
November 19, 2010 at 9:01 am
I've used mine for a lot of productivity increases, without increasing hours.
I can answer e-mails while not at my desk, which doesn't equate to "at home", and so on.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
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November 19, 2010 at 9:17 am
I have seen any number of really cool apps and things that iphones etc. can do, and I am as wowed by them as the next guy. However I am very much a luddite when it comes to this kind of technology in my job, and I weigh in firmly on the side of majorbloodnock and others on their utility to me in my job. I find they can be useful and that they do make some things possible that were not in the past. However, they have expanded the reach of work to all corners of our lives, which is not an improvement. Most of the people I know who use them incessantly are more often than not doing 'trivial' (as opposed to 'mission critical') things with them. Their position seems to be that it frees up their time to do the more important things. But there is a huge body of very solid research about how we think, concentrate, work, etc., and it is in agreement that 'multi-tasking' is a myth, and that, as pointed out by others here, there are definite limits to our ability to work productively during any given day. There are some on my team that seem to be addicted to them, and others that do not have them. My star performers are NOT the addicts. Your mileage may vary.
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