Work – life balance is something we all strive for. More than us, our families demand that we not bring the office home. But can we avoid that?
Work – life balance is something we all strive for. More than us,
our families demand that we not bring the office home. But can we avoid that? For so many professionals today, the freedom of work anytime, anywhere, which seemed like a beautiful dream for so long, has turned into the nightmare of work all the time, everywhere.
Firstly, since you are always connected to your mail server through the email application, you are expected be always available. It started with having people available on call for ‘urgent’ and ‘critical’ situations. However, now everything seems to qualify for those tags. While not chained to a desk anymore, the workers seem to be carrying their desks everywhere they go. This is a complication for the organizations too. Theoretically, if you respond to a business communication or work on something after hours, the company owes you overtime, irrespective of the fact that you did so from the comfort of your home, or a nightclub for that matter.
Secondly, it’s the device and the data. If you do not wish to buy, and more importantly, carry two devices –one for work and one personal – the two parts of your life will overlap, no matter what you do. There are developments on this front, but concerns about data security remain. If you leave the company, your employer will want to wipe everything business related. If they haven’t marked everything that is business, the only option is to wipe the entire phone. There go all you personal data, apps, pictures and music.
Another major security concern is that sharing of corporate data. The data on the device (if common), can be copied and shared over personal email / communication networks. So you can share your confidential presentation to the world through Dropbox, or simply email using your personal ID configured on the device. There ae measures you can take, but there success is partial at best. Also, there is a risk of malicious personal applications potentially getting access to the data. Even password-protecting the device loses some of its protection when personal and business get mixed. You give the password to your kids so they can play games, or browse the web, and now they have access.
The reasons above are concerns from the corporate and justify why they want segregation between how you work, and how you play. However, you too might some times wish to turn work “off”. You would not like to be disturbed during family time, when you are watching a movie with friends. However, you would still want to be available for friends and family over phone or text. This cannot be achieved if you have a single device for both the functions.
There is some light at the end of the tunnel to a dual-personality device. BlackBerry’s Z10, for example, has taken a step in the right direction on the data side with the BlackBerry Balance feature. Balance allows you to create two file structures – one for business and one for personal. All your business data goes into the business side. You can cut and paste or share data with non-business apps. If you need to wipe it then you can select to just delete the business side. This is an immensely productive solution to a common problem. However, there are some kinks that need to be ironed out.
