To Work or Not To Work....

How do you draw the line between your work time and your personal time in a virtual workplace? Expectations are that you’ll do your job whenever you’re asked to do it.  That could mean long hours or even working on vacation.

Yep.  I said it.  I worked on my vacation.  It was unavoidable.  I had to present to leadership about a topic that I own; it was bad timing on my part honestly.  We’d planned this vacation well before I switched jobs and I guess the assumption was that I could take the time off with no worries.  Any other week and I probably could have, but not the week we chose. 

So in the middle of my glorious getaway – prized time with the family – I had to find a way to dial into a conference call and miracle of miracles, find wireless so I could get onto my laptop to present my slides.  That was a lot of fun.  By the way, on Cape Cod in the off season, free wireless is very difficult to come by.  In fact, B drove around one afternoon with his laptop just looking wireless so he could upload his homework!

It’s amazing how attached we’ve become to being connected.  I can remember a time when if someone from work needed you after you were gone for the day they had to wait until you came in the next day!  Gasp!  You didn’t have a laptop and goodness knows there were no cellphones.  There was definitely a separation of work and home – but you did spend more hours in the office.

So where’s the win?  Either you have a laptop and you can work from home when you need to, which slowly becomes more and more hours or you work only at the office and come home later in the evening.  Then I miss putting little man to bed or doing dinner with B.  That’s not good. 

I do enjoy working from home – it sure is nice to do laundry and multi task while I’m on conference calls – but I miss the camaraderie of my co-workers and the teamwork that is so important to my job when I’m not in the office.

So I guess the answer is to balance both options.  Work from home when I need to be there and go into the office the rest of the time.  They gave me a laptop and Blackberry for a reason and I guess working a day or so on vacation is the reason.   At least I got lobster on vacation. 

Happy Thursday Ya’ll!

My Blackberry Won't Leave Me Alone

Taking time off - why didn't I think of this sooner?  I'm so much calmer and really enjoying doing nothing for a change.  Unfortunately, "nothing" has a whole new definition.   "Nothing" now comes equipped with a laptop, Blackberry and iTouch.  It used to be just a book and maybe a remote control.  When did the shift happen?

I really miss the days when I took off time from work and just walked away and hid out in my apartment or went home for Christmas.  Now, every time that stupid little star shows up on my work email, I feel compelled to at least look to see who sent something and what the subject line is....it's a problem I know.

Add to that my OTHER email and then texts and of course there's Facebook to keep up with as well.  I have been off for three whole days and haven't read more than 2 chapters in my 'I can't wait to read this' book. 

I've watched some really bad TV - Wings reruns - while playing Words with Friends.  I've written blog posts, while watching Deadliest Catch episodes we had DVRd and I've talked on the phone while checking my personal email updates.  I think I have a problem.

I can't get comfortable anywhere unless there's a plug nearby and goodness knows when my phone dies I feel cut off from the world.  (Not that it works at home or anything.)

So what can I do to disconnect.  I could just let all of the batteries die on everything and leave them be until I have to go back to work.  But that won't work - I'll just get yelled at by everyone - where were you???  We left you a note?! 

Ahh, the pressure of technology.  Maybe I'll compromise and not check anything until I finish my book.  Maybe a balance of real world and technology is all I need.  I think I need to ration my technological time with my 'grounding' time....

In the meantime, I'll focus on playing with the Bubbies, reading my books and talking with B and spending some quality time together!  Go crazy!  Talking with my husband?  What a unique idea....hmmm....maybe I'll take a nap....

Happy Saturday Ya'll!