Am I working now?

I’m sitting in Starbucks now at 9.50am. I am meeting a partner at 10am for a meeting that may be more networking than pure business.  I’m wearing “casual Friday” clothes and just came from donating blood (which I couldn’t do b/c of my cancer treatments).  I’m on my work laptop and am emailing another employee at my company about something that isn't directly related to my immediate job goals.

Am I working now or am I on personal time?

The delineation between what's work and personal is evaporating.

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 08, 2006
  I agree - our mobility/connected lifestyles enables greater multitasking.  Now, I can easily check my work stuff from home, and my home stuff from work.  The boundaries between the two melt away.  But I wonder if this is a "good thing" or not.  Sometimes I think that multitasking is good, and other times I think that it is just a form of dilution.

• Anonymous
  December 08, 2006
  Arguably, the question is moot in a results-oriented workspace (see the recent Best Buy articles).  I think an extreme case helps make it clear. If you can work 5 minutes per week and magically get enough done to be as productive as 3 of your co-workers combined, why would your company care about the amount of time it took you to get your work done?  Or where you did it from?

• Anonymous
  December 09, 2006
  Your salary/grade/etc. is meant to compensate for differences in productivity/value/etc.  It doesn't mean that you can work 20 hours whereas your colleagues have to work 40 hours.  Full-time employment means just that - full-time focus on your job.  The more you get done, the better for your employer, and ultimately for you.  Throttling your output because you are faster than your co-workers is not a recipe for success.