Francois Smit - How to say no to your ALWAYS ON device

How to say no to your ALWAYS ON device

Written by Debbie Smit

Saturday, 07 April 2007

There are some jobs that are obviously hazardous to your health. If you're a commercial fisherman, a logger, a trucker, a construction worker or a miner you have a much greater risk of losing your life on the job than if you work in an office. If you're employed as one of the former you could fall out of tree, drown, be blown up or run over. Extreme jobs carry extreme risks.

But now there is a new kind of extreme employment. A study conducted by the Centre for Work-Life Policy reports that high-level, high-impact workers are pushing themselves to the limit, clocking 70-hour workweeks instead of the traditional 40-hour one. The study asks: "Is the American Dream on Steroids?"

New technology is largely to blame for this trend. Teamed with globalisation, handsome remuneration and an addiction to the adrenaline rush, work tools like cellphones, laptops and PDAs compound the problem by following workaholics everywhere they go. There is plenty of advice online on how to minimise the effects of a sedentary desk job on one's health that are effective if you work in a nine-to-five office job.
There are exercises to prevent typical computer injuries (to you, not the computer) like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Simple stretching regimes minimise the back and neck strain that happens when you sit at a computer for 3 hours at a time instead of the prescribed 45 minutes.
My personal favourite is one that I invented but many have perfected. While sitting on your chair, slowly lean forward until your forehead touches the desk. Close your eyes. Hold this position until your superior walks into the room or you get woken up by the puddle of cooling snooze drool that has formed near your chin.

Computer safety web sites (your safety, not the computer's) offer tips on avoiding the hazardous chemicals exuded by your computer. For instance, because most of the radiation emitted by your computer comes from the back of the monitor, you should never stand behind it!
All these pointers are good if your computer is of the desktop variety that usually sleeps out of office hours. But what if your computer is a laptop that insists on following you home?

How do you maintain the correct ergonomic posture while doing a last minute email check while sitting in bed? How do you avoid excessive irradiation when the digital device roams the streets, hangs out at shopping malls and queues at the airport?
These devices are designed to be portable, so it follows that they should never be left at home and should always be on hand to perform some work-related computation, receive a strategic communication byte or relay an all- important message. Like our gadgets, we too are always on standby.

If connectedness is an addiction, then BlackBerry, with its real time wireless messaging and always-on web-browsing, is the drug of choice, so much so that people have begun calling it the Crackberry. Last year, Webster's Dictionary declared the pun Word of the Year. A musculo-skeletal disorder called BlackBerry Thumb has begun to replace Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as most common device-related malady.
According to the Centre for Work-Life Policy study, many workers blame themselves for staying in jobs that are killing them, citing their A-type personalities and the seduction of these "to die for" jobs.
There is a simple but vastly useful exercise that is useful in resisting life as a "sexless, vacationless, eating-at-your-desk" robot.

Once you have performed this exercise you should experience immediate relief from all symptoms: 1. Place the tip of your tongue on your palate. 2. Form an "o" with your lips. 3. Allow your voice box to vibrate.
If this exercise is executed correctly, you should hear the word "no" emanating from deep within.

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