You’re on holiday but surreptitiously check your work emails the moment you wake up. You get anxious if there’s no wi-fi in the hotel or mobile phone signal up the mountain. You fret if your phone is getting low on power, and you secretly worry things will go wrong at work if you’re not there. These are the typical signs of “always on” stress induced by smartphone addiction.
For some people, portable connected devices have liberated them from the constraints of the nine-to-five. Flexible working has given them more autonomy over their working lives and enabled them to spend more time with their friends and families. For many others though, smartphones have become tyrants in our pockets, never allowing us to switch off, relax and recharge our batteries. And a number of commentators are becoming increasingly concerned about the syndrome.
Pittsburgh-based developer Kevin Holesh was so worried about how much he was ignoring his family and friends in favour of his iPhone he developed an app - Moment - to monitor his usage. The app enables users to see how much time they’re spending on the device and set up warnings if self-imposed usage limits are breached. “Moment’s goal is to promote balance in your life,” his website explains. “Some time on your phone, some time off of it enjoying your loving family and friends around you.”
And some employers are acknowledging that getting the work-life balance right isn’t so easy. We need help. For example, German car maker Daimler recently introduced an email auto-delete option for its holidaying employees, in recognition that they may not have the willpower to switch off from work.
Dr Christine Grant, an occupational psychologist at Coventry University’s Centre for Research in Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement, told the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation): “The negative impacts of this ‘always on’ culture are that your mind is never resting, you’re not giving your body time to recover, so you’re always stressed. And the more tired and stressed we get, the more mistakes we make. Physical and mental health can suffer.” The fact that we can stay connected to the workplace wherever we are in the world is feeding deep-seated insecurities, she argues.
“There is a massive anxiety about relinquishing control,” she says. “In my research I found a number of people who were burnt out because they were travelling with technology all the time, no matter what time zone they were in.” Women in particular were susceptible to doing a full day in the office, coming home to make tea and look after the kids, then putting in a late shift before going to bed. “This triple shifting can have quite an impact on health,” says Dr Grant.
(www.bbc.com. Adaptado.)
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