The other day there, I went into the male toilets in my work to answer the call of nature. Whilst in there, I was horrified to hear that someone was actually having a telephone meeting on their mobile - whilst on the toilet seat. Yes indeed, they were actually chatting away about some problem with some server whilst moving their bowels at the same time. I don't know about you, but I was pretty scared.
Has work really become that intrusive in our lives that we have to continue to conduct business whilst we take care of our biological functions? Are we to interrupt our defecation, urination and love making now because there is some problem in the office? Where does it begin and end? Are we now like Prometheus, chained to the rock of work wherever we go? I sincerely hope not.
Gayle Porter, associate professor of management at the Rutgers University School of Business in Camden, New Jersey, has written a paper that states workers whose personal lives suffer as a result of tech addictions could turn their sights on their employers. Thusly, we might see employees who are kept on electronic leashes via laptops, BlackBerrys and other devices suing their employers over the disruption to their lives.
"These people that can't keep it within any reasonable parameters and have these problems in their lives, at some point may say: 'My life is not all that great. How did this happen? Who can I blame for this?'," Porter, who co-authored the study with two other academics, said on Thursday. "And they're going to say, 'The company'."
I've done on-call support before, and keen called in the middle of the night to fix some problem. I've been interrupted during social nights out with work related matters. All of this was well paid, but there does come a point where money is just not enough. You can't put a price on having a life, or even just being able to go to the toilet in peace.