It’s All On The Cloud, But Do We Ever Leave The Workplace?

Looks like we might be putting more hours into our careers than we think we are…

We really don’t mind reading about a survey that’s telling us we need to take a break!

New research shows that workers are finding it more and more difficult to leave their work behind when they clock off and it’s all down to increased online access.

A survey by Eircom found that there are no universally-agreed rules on what is acceptable when communicating via email and text for work purposes outside of your working day.

The survey revealed 41 per cent of respondents found it to be no problem texting a colleague outside of office hours while 43 per cent thought emailing a colleague during evenings or weekends was acceptable. Acceptable? Perhaps... but generally not very nice for the recipient!

The divide between men and women was also noticed in the answers people gave as there were clear cuts of opinion across gender lines.

Clinical psychologist David Coleman said; “Generally speaking, men don’t have an issue sharing information or contacting colleagues outside of office hours. Women are less happy to do that. Similarly, young people are happier than older people with it.”

People also noted that texts and emails took away a lot of the personal aspects of communication like facial expressions and, as a result, problems in interpreting the message can arise.

Up to 53 per cent of people admitted sending or receiving texts that were not fully understood, with 36 per cent saying their texts had been misinterpreted as “cold”.

Could you really send a few smileys to a work colleague though?

Mr Coleman said; “We really rely on facial expressions and the tone of voice to work out the emotional tone of what someone is saying.”

Looks like there's going to have to be some ground rules set down in society...