ANGRY MINUTE #0008: Overconnected – Work
What is everyone’s problem? Why does everyone need to be ‘connected’? It’s like a disease! Gotta get my fix, gotta check my email just ONE MORE TIME OR I’LL DIE!!!!
Our overconnectedness (is that the right word?) started innocently enough. Cellphones were created so that in emergencies we could call for help. The internet was created for reference and news. Yet out lust for information, our greed for knowledge, has created us into monsters.
Let me ask you a few questions, just to see if you are an Information Junkie:
1. Do you feel you the need to check your phone every 5-10 min to see if you have missed a new message?
2. Do you feel the need to be on the internet, even though you don’t have any real reason besides ‘surfing’?
3. If you had to choose would you pick your phone over food?
4. Would you rather communicating over the computer rather then physical communication?
5. Do you feel lost when you are without your phone/computer, even for short periods of time?
6. Do you turn to the internet when you’re depressed or even as a reward?
7. Do you have a history of failed attempts at limiting your online time?
8. Do you find yourself text messaging regularly during a party, concert, or social gatherings?
9. Do you text at work, even if you’re not allowed?
10. Do you surf when you’re feeling lonely or rejected?
11. Do you continue to surf the net even though you’re tired or hungry?
12. Do you check news websites more then 3 times a day?
13. When not on a computer/phone are you preoccupied with thoughts of your next interaction with those devices?
14. Do you find yourself saying “just a few more minutes” but stay on the computer for more then an hour after?
15. Have you neglected doing household chores because you’d rather be on the phone/computer?
16. Do you find you are called upon to do work related tasks when you are off the clock and at home?
17. On average do you Twitter more then 10 times a day?
18. Do you check your email more then 3 times a day?
19. Have you gone a day without being on your computer/phone within the last month?
20. Have you mailed a letter within the last month?
If you answer YES to the majority of questions 1-18 (and NO for questions 19-20) then you are an addict, just like the crackhead that lives outside my apartments! The problem is too many of us are addicts and we just either don’t know or don’t care.
So what is my anger today? Is it about this addiction? No, because to be honest I have many of the addictions I listed above and many of them are due to my technology employment. I’d like to center my Overconnected Anger here on only one of these 20 questions of addiction; #16 – Do you find you are called upon to do work related tasks when you are off the clock and at home?
This PISSES ME OFF! Now it’s different if you are salary because you agreed to be you’re work’s biatch, but for those of us who are hourly this is not only WRONG but sometimes ILLEGAL!
Now many of us don’t think a nanosecond about it. We open our email, see one from our employer, and quickly perform the action that is being requested of us (aka: you have something brown on your nose). The problem here is… well let’s go TO THE LIST OF ANGER for more information!!!
1. Not Being Paid – If I’m at home and get a call from work (even if it is a simple and easy question) I SHOULD BE PAID FOR MY WORK TIME! Regardless of how long it took, I am performing work and thus should be paid. This is the same for reading and responding to work emails when you are off the clock. If you do work, regardless of where you are, you are LEGALLY required to get paid. If you’re not getting paid then your employer is breaking the law.
2. Your Time – When you are off work you shouldn’t have to worry about anything from work until the next work day. Maybe I’m old fashion in that aspect, but once I leave the office I don’t think twice about anything. Employers are starting to think they OWN us, they think they can make us perform work REGARDLESS of where we are and what we are doing. That is BULLSHIT! Now I know some of you have ‘agreed’ to be ‘on call’ on certain days (aka: work’s biatch), and this is fine as you agreed to it before you were hired and odds are you are salary. But if you are NOT salary and you are called, then YOU NEED TO BE PAID! See #1 dummy!!!
3. Boundaries – I covered this one briefly in #2 but I’d like to reiterate my point. Employers need to not only KNOW boundaries, they need to RESPECT employee boundaries. When you are hired you sign a ‘contract’ that specifies those boundaries, but many employers fail to respect them. Read you contract, what does it say about responding to work emails/calls when off the clock? Odds are it doesn’t say anything, and that is a big problem!
4. Chained to Work – This is what your employer wants. They want you to be connected into work AT ALL TIMES without question, and many times WITHOUT PAY! You might think that responding to a quick work question on your day off is nothing, but add up all that time and the truth is your employer is getting away with theft! BREAK THE CHAIN!!!
5. Fair Labor Standards Act – It is THE LAW! Employees are to be paid for any extra time they put into work, regardless if it is voluntary!
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POSTANGER:
You know what pisses me off… what REALLY pisses me off? These jockstraps that put in 80 hour weeks because they are trying to give their kids/wife/family a “better life”. You’re a DOUCHE and an ASSHAT! You know what your family really wants? You to spend time with them, and I don’t mean physically being with them but having your head up your Blackberry! Leave the work AT WORK! Money can’t buy love!
Leave the work laptops OUT OF THE BEDROOM! Leave the Blackberries OUT OF THE MOVIE THEATER! Stop being a drone, a slave to your workplace. You’re a SELLOUT! SELLOUT! SELLOUT!!!!!!!!!! And the truth is your employer knows you’re a slave, they know you’re a sellout, and they will continue to abuse you and use you till you save ENOUGH!
When I go home tonight I’m gonna cook dinner, gonna run a few miles, and I’m gonna play some video games with a PHYSICAL person!!! Work can wait till tomorrow morning, because I’m only paid from 9-5!
Reference: Hyperconnected Workers Pushing Back