Do smartphones make us too contactable?
Smartphone users, and in particular BlackBerry users, are contactable by email, voice, text and instant messaging 24 hours a day if they allow themselves to be. I have been the victim of this recently and finally realised that the more I make myself contactable, the more I am contacted. It is a vicious circle that will grow and grow if you continue to respond to enquiries and one which is hard to stop once it has started.
It hit home to me the other day following a two hour meeting in which mobile use was (surprisingly) expressly forbidden. I came out of the meeting room and was greeting with 7 missed calls, 5 voicemail messages, 15 new emails and 3 BlackBerry PIN messages- AAAARGH!!!
I tend to respond to most enquiries because that often saves them either being escalated or simply resulting in duplicate requests and this seems logical. However, human nature dictates that if you help people they will come back for more help, and if you help them in a positive way they will come back time and time again. Like an ever growing digital snowball you will soon be inundated by enquires and questions and it will never end, unless you end it yourself.
It would be daft to blame the smartphone, but it is a tool which large companies can use to ensure your continued attendance in and out of the office. They know you have a smartphone and some expect it to be turned on all of the time. Without wishing to sound paranoid, it is without doubt a problem that is affecting more and more people and the smartphone is central to that problem. Turning it off is much harder than simply pressing a button.
It’s not the phone that’s the problem. The device is just a communication channel. It’s the expectations of the users – both the device user and the person trying to contact, that just because the tool is there you are contactable 24/7 (sic)
Also, ref the point about if you help in a positive way people keep coming bck for more, my strategy is to make sure encourage people to find the answers for themselves wherever possible. They don’t always like it, but eventually there’s a realisation that if they do, they won have to try to contact you for the answer/information.
Just to provide an example re the 2nd para of my earlier post – I have a Team Leader who’s generally acknowledged to be a “nice” person. They are also very knowledgable. She keeps complaining that she’s always being interrupted because people ask her for things.
The reason this happens, is becase she’s there and visible and doesn’t say “no”. So people find it easier to ask her than find the info/answers themselves. She’s changing her approach, learning to say no, people are getting the message and she’s getting interrupted less and can concentrate on the things I need her to.
I know it’s not particularly related to a mobile device, but to me, the principle is much the same.
So this article written after my comment about the BB?
Bene…
I wrote it Wednesday. I try to be a couple of days ahead.
I just not that popular!
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