The long arm of the email

A CNN study released today verified something many of us already know: checking email can be hard to resist. According to their study, while a majority of employees, over 80%, believe that email and other electronic means of communication improve the quality of and ability to do work, almost 50% felt that the ease of access to checking these means of communication make it harder and harder to get away from work.

I feel that as we become more and more tied to technology to accomplish our work, this will become more and more the case. Especially with the rise of cellular technology that lets people check their email directly from their phone. And in some ways, I think this is the result of a populace who doesn't want to become disconnected. Phones, computers, pagers, all these forms of electronic communication can ultimately be turned off, should the user choose. It's not like they are being forced to check email or answer phones unless their job requires that they be available on the off time. Certainly, some in some jobs, like the article mentions, the nature of the industry is making it more competitive, thus there is the impulse to remain connected, to take advantage of time-sensitive opportunities. While that, I think, is a result of human nature, I also feel like the number of critical industries where such decisions need to be made before someone returns to work the next day are so few, and in those cases, there is inevitably another employee who's job it is to work during those hours. I'm a big fan of the idea that society simply needs to relax, and accept that they can't be connected to everything at all times. When you're going out to dinner, turn off your cell phone or pager, your business can wait.