Work/Life Balance

The question of work/life balance is a tricky one. At the frontline it is often easy for staff to switch on at 9am and switch off at the end of the day. For executives, this is less true.

The birth of email was the first step in quickening the pace of business communciations and the recent explosion of smartphones made less than instant replies seem slow. One question I've asked myself is if having mobile access to mails and messages is more efficient or more time consuming.

In addition to this, much needed re-energising holiday time is now likely to be spent "just checking everything is ok". Unless, of course, you are relaxed enough to switch it off. In my business taking holidays is a tricky proposition and in fact dealing with the mountain of emails upon return often defeats the purpose of rest.

So does having instant access cause you more or less work?

On Monday, the UK's Daily Telegraph ran a story where research found that people in Britain who didn't turn off their mobile phones effectively worked 10 more days per year. Yes, two working weeks. It also discovered that while 24% of respondants found it stressful being on constant call, 20% kept their work phone on over the weekend.

So what does this mean for people leading their business? Do your staff, clients, overseas contacts, etc expect you to be on call 24/7? How do you manage your holiday time? Do you ever turn off your phone?