Blurring Work/Life Boundaries Okay For Me… But Not For Everyone

by Daniel Berch of Techdirt / Oct 16

For me, the work/life distinction has all but disappeared. I use the same email address for both work and personal communication. I check my blackberry every ten minutes of every waking hour. I cannot turn off. And I like it that way! I have good friends who are also business partners. And business partners who are friends.

For my employees, however, I want them to maintain a distinction. Although I don’t mind email being used for some personal communication, I don’t want employees emailing anything that would put the company in a negative light (or potentially result in litigation). So I am more comfortable with personal lives blurring into work (i..e, checking gmail accounts during work hours) than I am with work blurring into personal (e.g., sending personal emails to coworkers through work accounts)

When socialization is a part of the workplace reality, it’s important to give mobile workers the freedom, flexibility and privacy they expect, while maintaining supervision and control for legal accountability and operational effectiveness.

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