Oddly enough last week I had at least two seperate conversations relevant to this post by Dog Collar. It is to do with the way life has changed. In the old days travelling meant that you couldn't be contacted. Even when I started this job, only 7 years ago, once I was on the road it was hard to get me. Yes I had a mobile but that was it. Now we have mobiles (with better coverage), we have wi-fi, we have 3G. Although I still use the out of office message it is very unusual for me not to reply within 24 hours. We have added layer uppon layer of technology in the thought that it improves our lives. In fact it does the opposite.
Thinking time is now a thing of the past. When you couldn't be contacted then you had time to mull things over, consider new ideas. But now everything is instant. Replies are expected. This is actually a backward step. We spend so much effort dealing with the now that there is little time for the future.
I think how things must have been when the only options were snail-mail and land-lines. There would have been no point expecting things to be done by tomorrow, or even by the afternoon. A normal turn-around must have been a week. Everything slower. Everything more considered. It must have been wonderful.
3 comments:
Well, yes... and no...
My best friend in all the world has gone to live in Indonesia. When I went to Uganda, she wrote to me usually twice a week. I wrote to everyone. But phone calls were very expensive and emails had only just started to exist. I was very very homesick and unhappy for a year.
Now, we talk, not often due to the time difference, but often enough, via Skype. We email, we blog, we share pictures on facebook. It downgrades the newsworthiness of letters, and they're a little less frequent but still very cherished. It makes everything better.
There are some issues about being constantly available. And I think computers mean we're expected to just do more. But maybe a bit of expectation management is needed - don't reply instantly, reply at the end of the day. Turn your mobile off (probably not your work one during work time). Tell people you'll have a think about things and let them know. They'll get used to it...
That's kind of the popint though isn't it. These things are great for social life, and to keep in touch. But it is work that is the problem. It is easy enough to say turn it off, but some of us aren't built that way. I distinctly remember wandering around Disney Paris talking on my mobile to a vet about a disease called Bovine Viral Diarrhoea.
I am exceptionally good at ignoring mobiles if I don't want to answer them! I think it partly is about being disciplined - recognising that you need time away from work. And - possibly - that work is not going to collapse without you there.
Maybe I'm just not important enough yet..
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