The next big employer-employee dispute is not life/work balance but whether one should be paid to check their Blackberry after hours. There have already been several union grievances filed over this issue with the union contending that employees should be paid over-time for looking at their Blackberrys. Most of the grievances have lost because checking 1-5 emails isn’t really considered work (and how do you pay a time and half for 5 minutes work?). But… it is always a slippery slope and suddenly employees are checking emails 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours a night.
I, personally, hate the machine. It only makes my life easier if I am on business travel; the rest of the time, it makes me feel like I am on call. I don’t forward emails to my Blackberry unless I am on travel. If someone really had an emergency, they would call and leave a voice-mail (think about it this way: before, when you got your emails on your desktop, if, God forbid, your child was in an accident, would you call your spouse or email them? Of course, you would call them. Same rule should apply even if you have a Blackberry. If it is that important, pick up the phone!).
After I leave the office, I define an emergency as its burning or its bleeding. In all other cases, it can be dealt with in the morning when the banks are open and people are in the office (I don’t work in a big office and I don’t have to engage in the politiking where people send emails out late at night to prove they are working hard).
Of course, there’s a the constant checking of the Blackberry’s in front of others… a real pet peeve of mine. The whole point of technology is to make our lives easier so we can do things like spend time with people we love. Funnily enough, we now use technology as a means to separate ourselves from our loved ones (metaphorically and physically).
Me, I would throw the damn thing in the lake if i could (and, yes, I don’t own any stock in Research in Motion- tell you why next week).
My Friday rant is over. Thanks for reading.
Do you think employees should be paid to check their Blackberry’s after work?
June 27th, 2008 at 6:13 am
I refused a blackberry for just such a reason. People seem to use them as a status symbol, pulling them out all the time to check their emails like their so important. I totally agree, if it is that urgent, call me. Otherwise, it can wait.
This also transcends to younger kids with cell phones and text messaging. Ever watch a bunch of kids hanging out together? They are all on their cell phones communicating to other people. They don’t know how to interact with each other without electronics.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Blackberrys are the business cards of this decade; everyone sees which model you have and its a big contest to see who has the newest, lightest most expensive one (if you have ever read the book American Psycho you know this analogy well).
June 27th, 2008 at 10:30 am
If you’re answer to the question is “yes,” then why are you carrying it with you after hours? (If it’s really a work implement, it should be left at work.)
June 27th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
People who check there emails at night should be asking themselves why they are doing so and if the answer is because your boss expects it, then file a grievance. I promise you you’ll have a good chance at winning that one.
July 5th, 2008 at 6:08 am
[…] My Wallet point out the fact that several people are dependent from a Blackberry and ask if those people should be paid to look over their emails after work hours? I think it is up […]
July 5th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
In answer to your question, employees should be paid if they are expected to check their email after work. This is what being on-call is about. We have held this discussion in our organization, and management decided it was wiser to have a very few senior managers accept emergency after-hours calls, rather than pay a greater number of staff to be on call. As such, my employer paid phone is turned off at 4:30! (I’m not high enough on the food chain to deserve a crackberry)
A large portion of my work day is in the field, so even during the work day, very few calls are sufficiently urgent that they can’t wait until my return at the day’s end or next morning when I have the resources to address the inquiry. Thus only true emergencies are transferred from reception to my cellphone.
DAvid
July 7th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
What are business hours nowadays? If your company gave you a BB, you’re probably paid for your results rather than your time. I don’t check messages after hours except in the morning before heading to work.
I’ve been forgetting my BB in my car or at home about 25% of the time. My subconscious must not like them any more than my conscious self.
I no longer get peeved when people react to their BB or phone without reason in company. I think of Pavlov conditioning dogs by ringing a bell and smile inwardly at the parallel.