Work/Life Balance?

liz-cdw · 2014-10-29T15:23:22.000Z

As the future of tech becomes more personal, more wearable and more advanced, how do you see it affecting work/life balance?

Katie-M · 2014-10-29T15:28:54.000Z

The more devices upon which we have the availability to conduct work, the blurrier the lines will get between work and home life. I know a few IT pros who have a large degree of difficulty balancing the two. Fine line between work and lifestyle. Work doesn’t necessarily have to be your lifestyle, unless you allow it.

georgejurcan · 2014-10-29T15:29:37.000Z

I don’t mind work bleeding into my personal life, I like being connected to the tech I work with. I dislike large phones and wearables however. Google Glass still seems tachy, and so do all other wearables to me.

cjnc · 2014-10-29T15:32:03.000Z

Now i’m going to be getting telemarketers and cold calls everywhere, all the time and not just on my desk phone like I do now. Yay…

stevedietz · 2014-10-29T15:32:49.000Z

I honestly envision (this still may be years and years down the road) but the vast majority of people will start working remotely. We’ll eventually wake up, plug into the internet and work, disconnect and repeat. Once companies become more “relaxed” with certain things, especially the concept that you must work 8am -5pm, the work life balance will become better. The best job I ever had was one where I had the ability to work flexible hours. If I wanted to take an afternoon off to golf and then work at nigh, no big deal, the work gets done, company is happy, I’m happy.

georgejurcan · 2014-10-29T15:34:33.000Z

SteveTheITDude:

I honestly envision (this still may be years and years down the road) but the vast majority of people will start working remotely. We’ll eventually wake up, plug into the internet and work, disconnect and repeat. Once companies become more “relaxed” with certain things, especially the concept that you must work 8am -5pm, the work life balance will become better. The best job I ever had was one where I had the ability to work flexible hours. If I wanted to take an afternoon off to golf and then work at nigh, no big deal, the work gets done, company is happy, I’m happy.

Considering we live in a Global Market, I can see the 8-5 notion going away. If you need to do business with China, or UK and you live in cali, no need to work 8-5…

Robert5205 · 2014-10-29T15:35:21.000Z

I believe it is the prevalence of all these forms of communication that have conditioned people to an expectation that “now” is the only acceptable response to something they want. This creates an artificial sense of urgency about everything - even the very mundane.

Do I really need to get an angry phone call because I didn’t respond to your text that you were on your last box of toner and needed a spare?

The perceived offense is not longer that a need was not met, but that I didn’t respond immediately, regardless of the urgency of that need.

I spend a good portion of my day lowering expectations.

jimmy-t · 2014-10-29T15:36:32.000Z

No one can say that there won’t be more gray areas and bleed over with this. More connectivity means more opportunities to work when it wasn’t possible or feasible before. Personally, I don’t see it affecting me much for my day job. The moment I drive out for the day, that’s done. My hobby, possibly.

seanwolsey · 2014-10-29T15:47:23.000Z

I just ignore work communications when I’m on personal time. You just have to draw the line and stick to it.

collinoneill · 2014-10-29T15:47:28.000Z

Robert5205:

I believe it is the prevalence of all these forms of communication that have conditioned people to an expectation that “now” is the only acceptable response to something they want. This creates an artificial sense of urgency about everything - even the very mundane.

^This

For many people, personal and business life has been mixed for a while. Having a flood of panicked messages on the weekend is disconcerting, and I work in an environment where I am expected to be in the office 9-5:30, but there is officially no after-hours compensation.

Also, when everyone expects you to be connected, it limits your ability to go off the grid. I like to go places on weekends and vacation that aren’t connected to the grid. No one should not be penalized for that. But here we are, many employees, techs and non-techs, are in the same boat.

milosz · 2014-10-29T15:54:18.000Z

what is this work/life balance thing you speak of ?

jamesholden8454 · 2014-10-29T15:57:28.000Z

I can’t imagine it ever being any worse than it already is. As it stands, I can do just about anything from my phone that I can do from a computer. The only reason I actually need to visit a site is to do physical installations, maintenance, and repairs. With current technology, The only limits are those that I impose.

saluki · 2014-10-29T15:58:48.000Z

Errtus:

what is this work/life balance thing you speak of ?

EXACTLY!! Bonus peppers for Errtus!!

@milosz

youngitpro · 2014-10-29T16:16:44.000Z

Try working for a managed service provider. You will quickly realized that you are doing a maintenance for a different company every weekend. It’s horrible. IT is a family and relationship killer.

coreyfonseca · 2014-10-29T16:56:38.000Z

I don’t have any work/life balance to begin with.

garyadkins4385 · 2014-10-29T17:00:57.000Z

my life is work so there for work = life and is always in balance. atleast thats what the boss man tells me… o.O

mooney · 2014-10-29T17:05:30.000Z

Yeah… Balance… I’m familiar…

mooney · 2014-10-29T17:08:34.000Z

Robert5205:

I spend a good portion of my day lowering expectations.

I’m getting that printed on a tshirt.

georgejurcan · 2014-10-29T19:20:30.000Z

Bluedevil58:

Try working for a managed service provider. You will quickly realized that you are doing a maintenance for a different company every weekend. It’s horrible. IT is a family and relationship killer.

I honestly think i’d enjoy that.

mitchherndon · 2014-10-29T20:02:10.000Z

I’ve been very fortunate to land at a company who holds that as one of their values. I’ve even been reminded by my supervisor that I had ‘X’ many vacation days left and that I should take some.

I know working in IT that’s unheard of, but there you go.