Work-Home Balance
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The work-home balance
Technology is both a benefit and a bane to employees and employers alike. From an employee perspective, technology enables telecommuting and reduces 'real world' commuting time. It permits parents to remain with their young children if necessary -- as well as for an employee to work in pajamas. Also, if there is a problem at work, the employee may be able to deal with it virtually, either from a home computer, or even using a Blackberry or Smartphone, rather than going into the office. The downside, however, is that because employees can check their email even while on vacation, employers may expect them to do so. The workday can become never-ending, as the fact that employees can be connected to work 24-7, the expectation arises that...
However, the distractions of the Internet at work may mean that workers are surfing the net online rather than being productive. The fact that a new retail slogan -- Cyber-Monday -- has developed to describe the upsurge in purchasing the Monday after Thanksgiving at the office underlines the ubiquity of using work for personal business. An even more serious aspect of this phenomenon is how email exchanges between employees can lead to lawsuits, if flirting or inappropriate words are used. Unlike real life conversations, employees can easily engage in covert dialogue online while working, although this does have the 'upside' of leaving an electronic paper trail to confirm or disprove any allegations.
The ethics of what constitutes personal space online is itself murky when workers are given company computers for their own use at home. How much of an expectation of privacy exists online at work?…
