Turn off Blackberry email after work hours?

[Susann Lindqvist]

Just read BBC News article that Volkswagen turns off Blackberry email after work hours. Do you agree or not?

[Patrik Havander]

Would love to turn it of. Ideal would be to have a standard setting that receives mail between lets say 8 am to 6 pm and then it would be "out of order". Today I check my inbox 24/7 when I see that I have mail,

[Hakan Aldrin]

Very interesting move by VW. I used to have a BB but today use an iPhone with the DME3 app for my business mail. The combo of the iPhone/DME3 app has actually "eased up" my itch to check the job mail every 10 minutes (as I did with the BB). Reason is that I now have to start the app and then download the mail which can take quite some time so I only do it when I have some "down time" like being on the bus. Less stressful actually.

[ulfnoren]

Theoretical View: Yes , I Agree
Reality View: Not at all in agrrement.

I think that would be to declare unavailability and doing that is probably not the wisest thing to do from a strict business viewpoint. Everyone will sympathise with such moves up until the time they are under pressure to get information quickly. ''Slow response time'' is travelling up the ladder on reasons for dissatisfaction. Unfortunately I believe that life balance must be sought with the inclusion of communication devices.

[Goran Fors]

In principle I can agree to reduction of time reading emails and being constantly available.
Over time I belive we have to become better at accepting that everyone is not reading emails all the time.
But for me it would make no sense to turn off the Blackberry, the whole idea with the Blackberry is that it enables me to read emails 24/7.
My view is that if you have a Blackberry it should be used and not turned off. If you can turn it off after work hours I would suggest reading emails through normal tools and using a normal phone for calling.

[Daria Avdeeva]

One can also argue that BB was originally intended to give you extra flexibility to access your e-mail, calender, etc. when you are not sitting chained-fast in your office, but rather during travelling, out-of the-office meetings, times when you have to be out of the office without "autoreply" turned on (e.g. in case of illness, unexpected events, etc). So I would agree that at times when you are normally expected to rest/occupy yourself with other stuff, your BB should be off. In case of emergency/force majeure, you can alternatively be contacted by phone?
I guess many of us has in practice established some routines that we check e-mail out of the ordinary hours when we are (as Håkan says) are sitting on the bus or waiting for it, maybe in the quiet evening hour with a cup of tea just to make sure we are updated/aware of our inbox status. But this is not a must and is not so much expected.

[David]

I think that if you are a manager you should think about not sending emails to colleagues all hours because it can be very stressful for staff. I however think it is very difficult at least for me to turn the BB off and not at least read incoming mails.

[Jacob Koch]

I totally agrees with David’s point of view, that you as a manager should not email (or answer you employee’s emails) outside normal office hour. That is the reason why outlook has that delay bottom on when to send the emails.

When on vacation I see the Iphone as a double sided sword – It is negative that people expect you to act on emails when you are away – on the other hand is it fantastic not to come back to the office and the first thing is to sort 1000 emails. What I normally do – is that I turn off my corporate email – so they don’t tick in automatically – but then turns it one once or twice a day, just to clean out and push emails forwards to co-workers. Works pretty well for me.

[Susann Lindqvist]

Many thanks to all of you 45 members who have voted on this poll. I would also like to thank for your comments. The result shows almost a tie with 53 pct in favor of turning off BB after working hours and 46 pct against.

[Christian Ransby]

This is not really a matter of BlackBerry or not is it... I see a shift in the mentality around these devices... Mobile devices in general are making information available at all times, and we are no longer discussing how to receive the information, but how to avoid it.

Personlly, I see it as a major benefit that i can prioritize to answer mails in the evening, morning or whenever i find it suitable. Most days (!) i find my work extremely exciting, and being able to plan ahead, and perhaps ease my workload for the coming day by shooting the ball back, is a major advantage to me. Also, since i'm heavily involved in projects, there are very often times where you may be a bottleneck for a process to get going, and by replying the mail you can trigger other activity. So efficiency; Yes !

However, it may become a problem when the company expect you to always be available at any given time, or in the cases where you feel stressed by mails ticking in... For me personally, it does not stress me out, and i think that the worklife balance is a matter of a lot of things, not only the BB or other devices... Obviously stresslevel, priorities and willingness to have work being part of your full everyday is not commonly accepted nor appreciated by all people. For me this is an OPTION to act, not an obligation.. There are certainly days where i do prioritze a no mail policy as well.... (those are few though