Every day I find that the lines blur more and more. I’m checking work email on the bus, or more preferably the ferry. I’m reading blog posts on my work computer. I’m simultaneously monitoring infrastructure upgrades and tweaking my blog theme on my work laptop on the table at home. I’m not the first person to comment on the every changing and shifting boundaries between work and play but I have been noticing it more and more recently.
My current job is split between pro-active and re-active tasks. Because most of the re-active tasks are short and intense – usually a crisis of some form or another – I often turn to something personal before returning to my more pro-active thinking tasks. A sort of amuse bouche of the mind between courses.
I’m sure that if my boss was aware of this he wouldn’t be happy. But he is old school. In his world if you are at your desk you are working and if you aren’t there you cannot possibly be productive. He doesn’t appreciate the 24×7 nature of the sort of things that I do and the flexibility I bring to the role. To my mind there should be equal accommodation from my employer and if I read my email during work hours (or write this blog post) then everything evens up in the end. As I say to my team, I don’t care when you work or where you work as long as you get your work done to the deadlines that we agree.