As a journalist who’s out of the office quite a bit, I’ve become attached to my phone and I’m sure most PAs can appreciate what that feels like. I’ve also learned from writing for this audience that switching off to take a break from technology now and then is essential for maintaining my sanity.
Research by the Chartered Management Institute shows 61% of managers believe mobile technology makes it hard for them to switch off and a whopping 54% check emails outside of work hours. As a result, 39% say they want their organisation to restrict out-of-hours access to work emails, as the French government has.
But surely the PAs to these executives must be equally as affected by the always-on culture created by mobiles. We’ve found from talking to our readers that many of them act more as middle managers than assistants, and it’s pretty obvious from the fact that most readers turn up to networking events with phone in hand that work for them doesn’t stop when they leave the office.
And who can blame them? It’s incredibly rare that I come across a person who doesn’t have a smart phone of one sort or another these days, and many people are supplied with mobiles by their employer so they can be contacted when they’re out of the office. Even without this amenity, most people I know have their work emails loaded on their personal devices.
When technology allows us to be connected to work 24/7, does it mean we should? I think not.
Even though I receive work emails on my personal phone, I’ve learned to put them on the back burner outside of work hours. When I leave the office, I enter “me time” and that means not checking messages. Research from last year shows even the thought of receiving an email at night is enough to stress you out and the only solution is to make a conscious decision to switch off mentally.
When it comes to going on holiday, the need to leave work behind is even more important. There’s nothing worse than preparing yourself for a relaxing break and having it ruined by checking your emails to see what you’re missing. My advice – DON’T DO IT. There’s no point, especially if you’re hundreds or thousands of miles away in a different time zone, in which case you can do very little to solve any problems. Appoint a trustworthy colleague to handle any emergencies in your absence. Everything else can wait.
I follow this rule whenever I travel back to the US to see my family. In fact, to avoid temptation I often completely switch off my phone and leave it in my suitcase for the week, using it as an opportunity to take a break from social media so I can enjoy the company of my loved ones, whom I see so infrequently anyway.
What happens as a result is quite remarkable; I come back to work completely refreshed and ready to tackle anything that hadn’t been done before I left. Yes, catching up and clearing out any “junk” that has accumulated in my inbox is time-consuming and boring, but it’s worth having to waste a morning doing this when I get back in exchange for the peace of mind I feel during my time off.
No job is worth sacrificing time for yourself, so heed my advice and learn to turn your device off outside of work hours. Your future self will thank you for the consideration.
