Sick and tired of "always on" tech

[mr_spock]

Given than my career has been in IT, mostly in networking, cloud, web apps and so on, this may seem odd.

I am totally sick of being always available by umpteen means. I'm working at home, so it's hard to escape anyway, but I get:

• Customer texts
• Customer whatsapp (since they find me by phone number, and from many countries this is the best way to call too)
• Colleague IM on Google Hangouts
• Emails obviously
• Phone calls, usually telesales but can be real business calls.
• Personal whatsapp, texts, FB messenger
• Skype messages, calls

Time zone seems to be meaningless to customers in Australia, Israel, Korea, Europe. Even my colleagues in Spain don't get the idea that I don't want calls at 8am. If I dump them to voicemail they call again. At least the Americans get it, I suppose they're more used to working across time zones.

It all arrives on my laptop (same one for work and personal), iPhone (same), watch...

I want ONE button that says I'm not available to work. This doesn't seem to exist. Maybe there's a business opportunity. However, that would prevent being contacted if we had a real customer outage or a colleague had a personal emergency.

Whinge over.

[The Moose]

1 laptop but 2 log ins. 2 different phones etc. split your life and don’t let business people get your personal contact details.

[Roofless Toothless]

The first time I ever saw a mobile phone the immediate thing that intrigued me about it was that it had an "off" switch. I had never seen such a thing on a phone before.

I believe they still have them.

[Paddymcc]

Dual SIM Xiaomi phone.

It has a virutal space that acts as a second mobile phone so you can log into this space with a different fingerprint. Basically if you aint logged into the 'work' virtual space its closed.

[Lemming Train]

mr_spock said:

Given than my career has been in IT, mostly in networking, cloud, web apps and so on, this may seem odd.

I am totally sick of being always available by umpteen means. I'm working at home, so it's hard to escape anyway, but I get:

• Customer texts
• Customer whatsapp (since they find me by phone number, and from many countries this is the best way to call too)
• Colleague IM on Google Hangouts
• Emails obviously
• Phone calls, usually telesales but can be real business calls.
• Personal whatsapp, texts, FB messenger
• Skype messages, calls

Time zone seems to be meaningless to customers in Australia, Israel, Korea, Europe. Even my colleagues in Spain don't get the idea that I don't want calls at 8am. If I dump them to voicemail they call again. At least the Americans get it, I suppose they're more used to working across time zones.

It all arrives on my laptop (same one for work and personal), iPhone (same), watch...

I want ONE button that says I'm not available to work. This doesn't seem to exist. Maybe there's a business opportunity. However, that would prevent being contacted if we had a real customer outage or a colleague had a personal emergency.

Whinge over.

Umm.. all these problems are instantly solved by activating the on/off switch. Perhaps you should try it? It sounds to me that the problem isn't with the hardware/software but with you because you're too much of a wet blanket to say 'no' and make your customers wait outside of normal business hours. MTFU?

[Badda]

mr_spock said:

I want ONE button that says I'm not available to work.

So tricky.

[Hoofy]

You'll have to establish a routine eg you only check on the hour for 10 minutes, the phone is off before 9am and after 5pm, you set the phone to mute.

Maybe have another phone/sim for personal stuff.

[FunkyNige]

mr_spock said:

It all arrives on my laptop (same one for work and personal), iPhone (same), watch...

I can't see why you would have the same devices for work and personal use? I also work from home and would never use my work laptop for personal stuff (and vice versa) as I need a separation between work life and home life, which is more difficult when working from home.

[alorotom]

I have one set of text for work and one personal - and never the two shall meet.

I leave the work phone on at all times but only check it randomly - unless it’s when on call of course

[bigandclever]

If only there was a way, with some kind of conscious will or something, where you could just not look at or listen to the device.

[P-Jay]

I know your pain.

I've looked at loads of solutions, the best I could find is a completely separate phone for personal stuff, these days lower model / older model iPhones are pretty cheap - I'd happily pay £30 a month for a bit of peace and quiet.

As for the laptop, have a work account and a personal account if you don't want two.

Build yourself a completely new digital 'identity' or all those cool bits of integration we like will bite you in the arse.

Get a new phone, use that to create a new iCloud account (or use Gmail or whatever) use that to create a new Live Account or just a local one.

Then you just need to get into the habit of turning the work phone off when it's time to turn it off.

Yeah friends and family will forget and use the wrong e-mail / phone number or whatever at first, but they'll soon learn. If your parents are like mine, take their phone, delete your old contact details and enter the new ones for them ha ha.

[Ninja59]

I have actually written a blog about this area in effect tech is "addictive" and in some cases designed (either through purpose or inadvertently).

Some blogs on this area-

Our inability to switch off - https://www.cipd.co.uk/about/media/press/270417-re...

Checking of emails, or I suppose any work related communication and the impact on wellbeing - https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/checking-ema...

My blog writing on this topic meant I deleted my work emails from my phone (granted personal phone), but with a business phone it would be turned off. I went as far as telling colleagues and boss that I would not respond (unless it really is urgent - but if it is pick up the phone) to emails outside of working hours. Initially it "upset" a few people, but ultimately it was accepted or simply as said above turn it all off.....it is truly fulfilling and you feel much better for it.

Edited by Ninja59 on Friday 16th November 11:46

[Countdown]

I’m one of those people that enjoy work so will answer work emails and calls at any time of the day or night.

However, if I was so inclined, it would be very easy to switch off. Our “work number” can be redirected to any landline, mobile, or voicemail. Our emails have “Out of Office”. I can sign out of Skype. WhatsApp notifications can be turned off. All of the above (apart from WhatsApp) can be done from Skype (I think)

I’m not really sure what your problem is OP.

[Ninja59]

Countdown said:

I’m one of those people that enjoy work so will answer work emails and calls at any time of the day or night.

However, if I was so inclined, it would be very easy to switch off. Our “work number” can be redirected to any landline, mobile, or voicemail. Our emails have “Out of Office”. I can sign out of Skype. WhatsApp notifications can be turned off. All of the above (apart from WhatsApp) can be done from Skype (I think)

I’m not really sure what your problem is OP.

But that is the thing people actually have "addiction" issues, almost for "fear of missing out". The thread on here that linked to a video showed how our "addictive" nature and usage of technology is impacting on the future generations was eye opening as essentially we sit virtually everywhere looking at a screen of some description.

[vixen1700]

As soon as I switch my computer off and put my coat on, that's it for the day.

[captain_cynic]

mr_spock said:

Given than my career has been in IT, mostly in networking, cloud, web apps and so on, this may seem odd.

I am totally sick of being always available by umpteen means. I'm working at home, so it's hard to escape anyway, but I get:

• Customer texts
• Customer whatsapp (since they find me by phone number, and from many countries this is the best way to call too)
• Colleague IM on Google Hangouts
• Emails obviously
• Phone calls, usually telesales but can be real business calls.
• Personal whatsapp, texts, FB messenger
• Skype messages, calls

Time zone seems to be meaningless to customers in Australia, Israel, Korea, Europe. Even my colleagues in Spain don't get the idea that I don't want calls at 8am. If I dump them to voicemail they call again. At least the Americans get it, I suppose they're more used to working across time zones.

It all arrives on my laptop (same one for work and personal), iPhone (same), watch...

I want ONE button that says I'm not available to work. This doesn't seem to exist. Maybe there's a business opportunity. However, that would prevent being contacted if we had a real customer outage or a colleague had a personal emergency.

Whinge over.

Android do not disturb.
https://www.greenbot.com/article/2995581/android/t...
Dump the iCrap.

I'm also in IT but long ago I discovered that I didn't want to be contactable by clients 24/7. I have since refused to hook up any work email or other work communications to my personal phone. My company gets my personal contact details on the provision that they are for emergency contact only and not to be given to customers. If they want me to be contactable out of hours by customers they must provide me with a phone which will be turned off when I'm not working.

You have to partition work and personal life. I do not use my personal laptop for work, nor do I use my work laptop for personal use. Same with phones. Above all of this you have to have the willpower to stick by this AND enforce it with your employer (most employers are fine with it, so this isn't usually hard).

My current work does not provide me with a work phone, but I also rarely get contacted out of hours in this job and never by clients.

[ReallyReallyGood]

I was given an iWatch for a birthday by Mrs GoodMeat. I politely asked her to return it for this reason. Swapped it for Silverstone tickets in the end

[sidekickdmr]

Man that spends lots of money on always connected laptop, phone and watch complains that he is always connected?

Why would you have a smart watch on your wrist,, in the evenings, if you didn't want it to go off?

Why not just turn phone off?

Get a work phone?

[Cotty]

Roofless Toothless said:

The first time I ever saw a mobile phone the immediate thing that intrigued me about it was that it had an "off" switch. I had never seen such a thing on a phone before.

I believe they still have them.

Or oh dear the battery must be flat, no place to charge it up.

[MrBig]

Time for a burner phone! Or at least give the Burner app a try?