In the late nineties I found myself involved in a variety of Work/Life Balance initiatives at Intel. I had led Intel to adopt Telecommuting practices and although I’d proven that [one day per week] work from home had significant productivity benefits, the benefit for employees’ life was pretty obvious too. The ability to work remotely was clearly helping people balance their lives.

Then came a new decade, and with it the ubiquity of mobile devices and wireless connectivity, and it became apparent that the same ability was being overused and abused by knowledge workers to the point that 24×7 work was clobbering their leisure, family life and – through mounting stress – their health. “Work anywhere” was beginning to look not so great for balance: back before mobile computing you went home and that was pretty much that as far as working that day. Not any more!

And yet, suggest to people giving up the ability to connect from home, and you may well have a mutiny on your hands. Part of the problem is that with many knowledge workers in global corporations, the realities of time zones require them to stay in touch with people during all hours; and as I discovered myself when still working in a cube farm, it is far less disruptive if you can go home, have dinner with your family, and then dial into a teleconference from home, than to stay in the office till late at night. Furthermore, until we find a cure for workaholism – don’t hold your breath on that one – people will truly benefit from the ability to engage with their workload whenever it suits them. I’ve seen this often: managers are eager to cure unnecessary overwork, by solving email overload and related problems, but they are sincerely in favor of allowing work from home after hours, because they see it as a flexibility benefit.

Given this situation, what we may really need to figure out is new and innovative ways to reduce stress and enable employees to live their lives well. We should assume that there will not be a clear work/life barrier like the proverbial 5PM one in the classic “9-to-5” workplace; accept that work and life will remain inextricably meshed in the foreseeable future; and move on to adapt to this state of affairs. What we may need is to extend “Work anywhere, anytime” to coexist with “Live anywhere, anytime”, with both halves of the equation having an equal footing.

What do you think?

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So, is a Blackberry a pro or con for WLB?