Turn It Off

EXCERPT

Chapter 1

How Did We Become So Attached to Our Offices?

None of us wakes up one day and decides, "I think I'll give up my free time on weekends, answer my pages during dinner with my spouse, and carry my laptop on vacation." Those intrusions of work into our personal time result from a process of slow erosion, not sudden upheaval. As employees, we ourselves have unwittingly contributed to that process and ended up stretching our workdays and workweeks.

One of the characteristics of office work up to the 1980s (and thus before the deluge of technology) was the containment of most office work within the office. Certainly, the briefcases came home, the traveling businessperson worked on a plane or in a hotel room, and the sales rep caught up on paperwork in the car. But when far less office work was as easily portable as it is today, the types of work that could be packed into that briefcase were much more limited.

Employees who still had items on their to-do lists at 5 p.m. were more likely to stay late in the office than to simply pack up the briefcase and plan to finish everything after dinner. Briefcases weren't big enough to contain a file drawer's worth of information, and there was no easy way to look at a set of engineering drawings or a year's worth of monthly budget printouts on the kitchen table. At-home evening and weekend work was mostly limited to reading, drafting memos and reports on yellow pads, and grinding out budgets using a pocket calculator -- absolutely archaic activities by today's standards.

If we fast-forward to the late 1990s, we can see that the limitations on the kinds of work that could be done from afar disappeared almost entirely. Looking for the sales reports from the last two quarters? Just log on to the corporate network and download the files. Need to get out a rush memo to the entire sales force? Draft it on your laptop and upload it to the mail server, and it's in the sales reps' mailboxes in seconds. While every aspect of every job was not portable, enough were to enable most office workers to leave at a more desirable hour, get home in time for dinner, and still be able to finish the day's work at home after having had at least a little time with the spouse or family over the dinner table.

So far so good -- until the point when those of us taking work home slipped into some bad habits. The idea that came to us for the new marketing campaign could now be sketched out on the laptop at 10 p.m.; instead of being hastily scribbled down on a note to be taken into the office and worked on the next day. The budget planning that was going on with the overseas offices could now be compressed from weeks to days because global fax and e-mail meant that the morning message sent from Tokyo could be read in the evening -- at home -- by the financial analyst from the New York office, and so on.

You might ask, "What's wrong with that? Isn't business life today all about doing things faster and faster? Isn't it good to be able to save time by taking advantage of these tools?" The answer is, of course, yes -- but I believe it's a qualified yes. No doubt there are times when a faster response is not only better but absolutely essential. The problem arises when the people involved don't differentiate between the value of and need for having it faster on one hand and the desire to have it faster just because someone can send that e-mail from home at 11 p.m.

There are many benefits to being able to work extended hours at home instead of staying until all hours in the office and making do with a vending machine sandwich for dinner while your spouse or family stares at your empty chair at the table. It's great to be able to do increasingly sophisticated, complex office work at home; it's not so great when we aren't able to close the door (literally or figuratively) on the home office and wind up working well into time we'd rather reserve for ourselves.

Why I Wrote This Book

I am quick to note that I've been as guilty as anyone about failing to maintain the separation between work and the rest of my life. To give one example, I distinctly remember my "telephone sprints" during the first two years or so after I started my home-based consulting business in 1982, after spending almost ten years in the corporate world. My office is downstairs and the main living area is upstairs in our house; when I'd go up for lunch I'd be reluctant to turn on the telephone answering machine for fear that I'd miss the big call that would bring me fame and fortune -- or at least a little bit of consulting work. At that time in my fledgling business, every call was a "big call" because things were, to put it mildly, slow.

I'd be up in the kitchen having lunch and would hear the office phone ring, and would drop my sandwich in mid-bite and fly down the stairs, risking life and limb to get to the phone before that prospective client gave up and hung up. It's a wonder I didn't break any bones. It took me two full years before I realized I could give myself the luxury of an uninterrupted lunch break in my own home simply by turning on the answering machine.

As the technology I used became more complex and more integral over the years, it became evident to me how my technology-enabled work was squeezing free time out of my life, and squeezing me out of my family's life. I became intrigued with how common these problems were for others as well and started paying serious attention to work-life boundary issues in the early 1990s. They were becoming especially evident in my work with my Fortune 100 class corporate clients implementing telecommuting or telework programs. Those experiences, plus my observations of "road warriors" doing work at unusual times in unusual places, prompted me to bring this book to life.

In particular, I noticed the following signs and symptoms as I worked with my corporate clients:

* People seemed to be increasingly stretched, stressed, and almost breathless as they made their way from week to week. I would walk into a client's office for a Monday- morning meeting and almost everyone looked and acted as if it were 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

* I began to get e-mail and voice mail messages that had been sent late into the evening or on the weekend -- and in some cases on holiday weekends or during times when I knew a particular client was on vacation.

* The excitement with which people used to describe the tools they used (laptops, cell phones, e-mail, and so on) was replaced with a sense of resignation or even resentment. It was no longer, "This is really great! She was able to e-mail me the budget so I could work on it at home." Instead, it was, "Can you believe it" She e-mailed me the budget at 9 p.m. one night and expected me to have the updates done and back in her e-mail box before her 7 a.m. meeting the next morning!"

In addition to these observations, the most compelling reason for writing the book was seeing the reactions when I told colleagues and clients about it. I'd mention that I was starting a new book, and the title words Turn It Off were barely out of my mouth before I'd see the person's eyes open wide, followed by a knowing nod of appreciation of the problem that the title implied. Then I'd hear them say something like "Boy, do I need that book -- now!" or "I can think of a couple of people who should read it," which confirmed their interest. The fact that this issue was so much in their awareness, and that so many people seemed trapped by the long hours and almost endless work, convinced me that the time was right for this book.

The three background factors I'll review shortly help explain why I'm seeing what I did, and why, perhaps, you feel like you do. You'll see throughout the book that my goal is to help you assess your own situation and decide if and to what extent you want to change -- and then I'll help you put a plan together and show you how to implement it.

I want to make it clear that while my own experiences have caused me to choose a lifestyle that gives me a more distinct -- but still imperfect -- separation between work and the rest of my life, I realize that you might see things differently. That's my way of saying that you'll get insights and information from this book -- but no moralizing, prescribing, or finger-wagging from me. On the other hand, I'm completely confident that you'll find all the tips and methods you need if you do want to make some changes. I've seen these concepts work for my corporate clients and they'll work for you as well.

I'm not entirely sure what thought process leads someone who is probably already feeling overworked to take more work to places we normally think of as being work-free, but it is happening more often. Perhaps it's the notion that work squeezed in when there's a break in the action at these places is work that doesn't have to be done later, elsewhere. Perhaps it's a conscious or subconscious desire to be seen as so vitally important that work follow everywhere. And perhaps it's our new-age way of supercharging our lives by stretching our capacity for work, play, entertainment, and family time all at once. The technology lets us add hours to the day, and diversions and distractions to our lives.

No matter how diverse or seemingly justified the reasons, we become the ultimate multitaskers. Instead of concentrating on and savoring the pleasures of the moment in depth, we end up leading high-bandwidth, low-fidelity lives. This may well be the lifestyle of choice for some, but I suspect that for many it is a pattern they have slipped into and not one they consciously and deliberately chose.

Tracing the Trends

In offices and at work, as in all parts of our lives, we're immersed in a set of changes that were barely foreseen just a few years ago -- and they go far beyond technology. Many of us often feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of technology that surrounds us, the pace at which we're expected to absorb it, and the number of things that fill up our to-do lists for our lives, not just our jobs. (This is one reason, incidentally, why the simplification movement has become so popular in the last few years. This is a response to the way many of us feel our lives have spun out of control, and that we are now a slave to and not a master of our lifestyles. While this is a noteworthy social phenomenon, and is somewhat related to the focus of this book, we'll be concentrating on the workplace and the ways in which our work and our lives are intertwined.)

Setting simplicity aside, let's look at the three major factors behind the "de-officing" of office work and the disappearance of time boundaries for office workers:

A. Employees
B. Technology
C. Employers

As we review each factor, you'll better understand how we got into this situation and why simplistic solutions just won't suffice.

A. Employees: Do It All, Want It All, Have It All

The first corner of the triangle that forms the basis of our tendency to work almost without limits is the shift in employee and labor force values, interests, and goals. Not only has the technology changed so we can work almost anywhere and anytime, and employers have changed so we're expected to work almost anywhere and anytime (as you'll see later in this chapter) -- we as individuals are changing so that many of us actually want to be able to work almost anywhere and anytime.

One source of this is what I call "defensive overwork." There are many reasons why people consistently work long hours and in some cases become true workaholics. One reason that is relatively new is the sometimes irrational but perfectly understandable reaction to the relatively recent history of downsizing.

When the word goes out that an employer is going to reengineer, restructure, or re-whatever, almost all employees get a twinge of fear as they wonder if they'll get caught in the downsizing downdraft. Performance records, plaudits, and praise from managers and co-workers aside, the reality is that downsizing can strike anyone. When the news release says that "4,000 employees will lose their jobs," it doesn't say, "the 4,000 employees with the worst ratings will lose their jobs." The extent to which the stream of downsizing that started in the late 1980s has made employees feel that the guillotine is always swinging uncomfortably close to their own necks is a sad commentary on organizational life, but that's the reality.

What do many employees do when faced with the possibility of being out of a job and out on the street -- in some cases for the first time in ten years or more? No matter what assurances their bosses may offer, most employees will redouble their efforts and do whatever they can to show that their performance is too valuable to lose. In some cases, this means that an average employee can truly raise his or her performance to a superior level, but in many cases it can be nothing more than a lot of extra (and, ideally, highly visible) work and activity. Better to look like you're sweating and slaving away for the good of the organization than to risk being labeled as "not a team player" or "doesn't seem to want to do whatever is needed to get the job done.?

Where does a lot of this defensive overwork get done? At home, of course -- in the evening, on the weekend, and even if you're sick in bed with the flu. It may also be why some people who in the mid-1980s would never have dreamed of interrupting their vacation to contact the office now carry a pager and check their voice mail and e-mail from the hotel room at the beach or wherever they went for a vacation from the office.

Compounding this is what we do in response to impositions on our own time by others. This kind of "accidental reinforcement" is a perfect example of the saying about being our own worst enemies.

We all know about the basics of behavior reinforcement: if we're rewarded (or at least not punished) for doing something, we'll tend to do it again; if we're punished (or at least not rewarded) for doing something, we'll tend not to do it again. That works for mice in a laboratory maze, small children who decide to exercise their artistic talents with crayons on the living-room wall -- and also for managers who call their employees at home on Sunday morning.

Every time the boss, or a customer or co-worker, calls you on a Sunday morning, pages you to remind you to check your e-mail at 11 p.m., or e-mails you an assignment while you're on vacation, you have a choice to make. If you respond (perhaps understandably) to these requests, you are inadvertently reinforcing that person's attempt to turn some of your personal time back into work time. Chances are the person realizes he or she is about to invade what should be your free time, and may even have a moment's hesitation before sending that page or calling you. If you respond without letting it be known that you dislike the intrusion, that intruder is very likely to think, "Well, he didn't say anything about my calling on Sunday morning," or "She did check her e-mail from the ski lodge and got me the numbers I wanted." The result? This person will hesitate much less, and perhaps not at all, the next time he or she considers calling or paging you on the weekend or late at night.

In Chapter 6, we'll cover some specific ways to discuss your concerns about incidents like these with your boss or customers or whomever -- but for now, understand the role that this kind of accidental reinforcement plays in perpetuating these incidents. I'm not suggesting for a moment that you arbitrarily ignore the page, slam down the phone, or delete the e-mail -- those are prescriptions for career suicide. And assuming that these requests and interruptions are at least somewhat justified, if not highly urgent, you'd be foolish to think you can maintain the boundary around your free time without causing problems for the organization.

For now, though, it's more important to understand how much we do to bring some of these endless work problems on ourselves, albeit quite unintentionally. Though some of you might not mind getting those evening or weekend calls or messages, others most definitely do find them to be out of place. Later, we'll look further into ways to make these "reach out and find you" technologies work well without having them overtake your life.