Sunday, August 31, 2008

Wired Up

Vacations just don't seem to be the same now that everyone is wired up. Almost every morning I awoke to find this at the breakfast table.



O.K. Some of it was blogging and checking the weather...but unplugging from work has a whole different meaning nowadays. It literally means - UNPLUG. The only hope is lack of signal or a dead battery.

Why is it that everyone is made to feel they must be within reach at all times?

I read an article in an old Oprah magazine about a woman who gave up email for 30 days. It was like giving up crack, she said, but after the first jolt of detox, she actually found peace and other ways to communicate. Now, according to her article, she still emails, but she schedules it, chooses it when it is the best communication choice, and then (gasp) sometimes uses the phone, face-to-face, or even a handwritten note, when it is the better medium.

It is our fear of being dispensable? Can our workplace actually get along without us? Will they eliminate our position if they discover they don't need us for 1 week? It wasn't even that long ago that cell phones and email were not a part of the workplace at all...and now...they are electronic leashes that keep us tied to the job 24-7.

Hubby and I admitted that the last day of vacation was the best - when we truly felt relaxed. I wonder if that is a normal wind-down process, coincidence, circumstance, or the effect of the electronic tether. Next year, I may ban the laptops and blackberries from the house and see what happens.

2 comments:

A's Mom said...

I think that's a great idea to ban the electronic devices. I'm not surprised that it took you 1 week to actually start to relax. Glad you had a great time though!

Mama Lou said...

You know that I do give up the computer every winter for our trip to Florida. And Yes, I no longer work or have to see what e-mail came in but the phone call contacts are so much better! And the snail mail from family, friends maeans so much more