02.08.08
Turn that blackberry off
That would be my message to my manager, who despite being on holiday this week has sent me at least 15 emails and phoned me once. There seems to be a culture within some areas of the public sector that no one else can do your job and that if you disappear for a week or two the world as we know it will collapse. It would be true to say that at various times in my career I have been unable to forget work during my off duty time. These have mainly been when I have been stressed by work, trying to carry a job that was too much for one person and have generally convinced myself that I was indispensable. My current manager has gone from carrying the entirety of the workload pretty much alone to having a team of 6 and I guess that takes some letting go of. Add to this equation the introduction of the ultimate gadget, the blackberry and it is no wonder that the poor woman cannot leave us all alone. These things are highly addictive, imagine being able to access your work emails 24 hours a day? How on earth could you manage not to look at the thing? Even a days shopping might not put you off. Well actually yes it should. Happily she made the mistake of emailing her own boss who knows that actually as a team we can cope without her. Next holiday my boss has been told she is to leave the blackberry behind, or at the least switch it off.
Guess what though, the whole team is to be given a blackberry so we can all send each other emails 24 hours a day…….
