Friday 26 August 2005

Anywhere, Anytime, and No Way Out

If computing becomes so pervasive that we can access our workspace anywhere, there is a social danger present. Imagine a boss who is just a little, shall we say, over-enthusiastic about his work. He wakes up in the middle of the night and, deciding he'll not get back to sleep for a while, rolls over to a workstation to catch up on some figures or presentations or who-knows-what. He notices something you can do, and would do when you wake up. He calls you and wakes you up to ask for a favour, just this once.

Today, you tell him "politely" that (a) he has woken you up, (b) it is 3am and work can wait and (c) you can't get to your work now anyway. When the network is that much better that there's really no point to travelling to an office because everything there is available at home, your demanding boss can, in all seriousness, tell you to get off your arse and work, because anything you need is right there beside your bed and you can sleep later. Oh, and by the way, you might need to come in early this morning, so don't bother going back to sleep.

Some bosses today don't understand the concept of "off-duty" very well. When the office is as completely mobile as the telephone, you'll never be fully "off-duty" when you've got a demanding boss.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - And usually nobody tells them they're demanding.
PPS - Plus they're the kind of people who don't listen to that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

does deb exist really????

do we exist really?????

my sister just became a christian !!! I'm so happy!!...just thought you might like to know