More Managers Allow Workers to Multitask As Job and Home Blur
In the months leading up to her wedding last July, Anne Crum Ross says the line between her work and personal life dissolved. "For every five work calls I made at the office, I made one wedding-planning call," she says.
With just three months to go before the ceremony, she changed jobs in real estate and became director of corporate training at Sussex & Reilly in Chicago. She took the wedding-guest and catering files she had stored on her Palm to her new office. "As long as I was doing my work, my bosses didn't have a problem with me doing wedding planning," she says. "It's all about knowing how to multitask."
The 10-hour work day now typical at many companies increasingly means having to blend professional and personal tasks. Between meetings and memo writing, employees and their bosses log onto the Internet to pay bills, manage their 401(k) accounts, shop for birthday gifts and plan vacations. While attending their children's school events, they use their BlackBerrys to answer colleagues' questions, proof letters and make appointments with clients.
For managers, this overlap between work and life presents several new challenges. Many recognize that since they now expect employees to be accessible 24/7 on e-mail and cellphone, they also must give them the freedom to handle personal chores during regular office hours. But should they also set limits? What overlap is productive? How should managers handle employees who abuse the new flexibility?
Steven Centrillo, executive vice president of advertiser Grey Worldwide, expects his employees "will use the computers and other tools we give them to manage their work to also manage their personal lives." Doing so can boost workplace productivity, he believes.
"If employees can access their bank accounts on the Internet while sitting at their desks, they're saving hour-long trips to the bank," he says.
The same goes for them getting their work done at home. "All I care about is if they are getting their job done on time, and well -- not where they are doing it from or what else they are doing at the same time." says Mr. Centrillo.
He himself relies on five computers, two cellphones, a BlackBerry, a Palm and a pager to get work done for his Atlanta and New York offices while seeing to his family duties. "With my pager, I can be at my son's high-school football game on Friday afternoon and be available if a client needs me -- and I don't have to choose between them," he says. "The pager helps me handle my job and my life better, and if that's the case for me, I can't deny that to others."
Luke Visconti, partner and co-founder of DiversityInc, a New Brunswick, N.J., publisher and consultant on diversity issues, assures his employees that some personal business is permissible during work. He tells them: "Don't cover your computer screen when I walk by and you're checking a personal travel reservation."
But he won't allow employees to multitask through lunch by eating at their desks. "I don't want smelly food around, and I think it's healthier for people to get out for an hour," he says.
Mr. Visconti also forbade one employee to log onto an online game at the office. The employee "became so engrossed in the game for a while that even though he didn't play it a lot during work hours, he was distracted, and then he'd stay very late at night to finish his work," says Mr. Visconti. "I had to explain that even though he finished his assignments, he was disconnected from the flow of everyone else's work."
Some managers establish guidelines through their own example. Terry Wachalter, director of global operations at Euro RSCG Life, an advertising and marketing company, arrives at her New York office at 7 a.m. to pay her credit-card bills online and do other personal chores. By 8:30 a.m., she focuses exclusively on work. She rarely takes a break for lunch so she can leave by about 6 p.m. and have time in the evening for her husband and 13-year-old son. "This works for me," says Ms. Wachalter, who has helped other employees create different schedules, such as working from home a few days each week.
More companies are offering equipment and services to help keep employees at work longer with fewer interruptions. They include ATMs, health and beauty aids, photo-developing stores, dry cleaning services and fitness centers.
Google offers the 800 employees at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., free lunches and dinners cooked by a gourmet chef. The dinner is popular with Google's young engineers, who tend to be single and work late. Google also offers dry-cleaning services, washers and dryers for those who want to do their laundry during work, yoga and other fitness classes, and massages.
Managers who blend work and life easily may also do better at weathering life crises. When Marcia Firestone was battling breast cancer two years ago, she scheduled chemotherapy treatments on Thursday afternoons to least disrupt her office routine, and she continued to work at home through the weekend. "Work gave me focus and kept me going," says Ms. Firestone, president of the Women Presidents' Organization, a New York nonprofit group of women heads of companies.
现代化生活中的"公私兼顾"
安?克鲁姆(Anne Crum)在去年7月份举行了结婚典礼。在那之前的几个月，安说，她的私生活与工作的界限已经完全模糊。"那段日子，我上班时间所打的电话有五分之一都和婚礼有关"，她说。
在距离婚礼大约还有三个月的时间，安放弃了在房地产业的工作，跳槽到芝加哥的Sussex & Reilly担任公司培训主管。她将储存在Palm个人数字助理上的客人名单等各种与婚礼有关的文件带到了新的办公室。她说，"只要我是在工作，老板不会在意我顺便处理一些与婚礼有关的事情。只要学会同时干多件事就可以了"。
每天10小时的工作在很多公司变得越来越普遍，职员不得不将工作任务和私生活的安排夹杂起来处理。在开会和写备忘录的空档，职员和老板可以登录互联网缴付帐单、管理个人401(k)退休金帐户、购买生日礼物或者是安排度假事宜等等。当在孩子的学校参加活动时，他们也会抽空用BlackBerrys电子邮件软件回复同事的问题、校对信件或是安排与客户的会面。
对于管理人士而言，这种工作与生活的交叉会带来一些问题。很多公司的经理认为，他们有事的时候可以通过电子邮件或移动电话随时联系到职员，因此，在正常上班时间也应当给职员一些处理私人事务的自由。但这种自由是否应当有个限制？这种工作和生活的交叉是否会影响到工作效率？经理又应当如何处置那些过于自由的员工？ 精信广告有限公司(Grey Worldwide)执行副总裁史蒂夫?琴特雷拉(Steven Centrillo)说，员工在利用公司提供的电脑及其他工具处理公事的同时，也会处理一些私人事务。他相信这样可以提高工作效率。
他说，如果员工在办公室里可以通过网络进入自己的银行帐户，他们就不必耗费时间亲自跑银行了"。
同样道理，员工在家时也可以捎带著做一些工作。"我只关心他们是不是按时完成了工作。他们在哪儿完成的工作，完成工作的同时都干了些什么，这我是不关心的"，史蒂夫说。
他本人就使用5台电脑、2部手机、1个BlackBerry电子邮件软件、1个Palm个人数字助理和1个呼机来处理亚特兰大和纽约办公室的工作，另外还要处理一些家庭事。"如果我佩带呼机，周五下午就可以到儿子上学的高中看橄榄球比赛，即使有客户找我也可以随时找得到。这样，我就不必在看橄榄球和陪客户之间做选择了"，他说。"呼机让我更好的处理工作和生活，所以我不能不让我的员工也像我这样。"
Diversity Inc.的合伙人兼联合创始人鲁克?维斯孔蒂(Luke Visconti)告诉员工，他们可以在工作时间处理个人的事情。Diversity是一家新泽西州新伯伦瑞克市的出版公司和咨询公司。他对手下员工说，"当我经过的时候，如果你们正在网上查询旅行预定的情况，完全没有必要将这个窗口掩藏起来。"
但他不允许员工一边吃午饭一边手中还忙各种事情。他说，"我不想在办公室里看到各种食物，而且午休时间出去转转对人的健康有益。
维斯孔蒂曾经禁止一名员工在办公室里上网玩游戏。他说，"有一段时间，这个员工对游戏过于沉迷，虽然他办公的时候并没有总玩游戏，但他的心神分散了许多，弄得总要到深夜赶工作。我必须提醒他，虽然工作没有耽误，但是他却因此缺乏了与其他同事的沟通和联系。"
有的经理人还结合自己工作和生活体验制定出一套行事安排。泰里?瓦克斯勒(Terry Wachalter)是广告及营销公司Euro RSCG Life的全球业务主管。她每天早上7点赶到纽约的办公室，先在网上支付个人信用卡的帐单，处理一些个人事务；到8点半开始全身心投入工作。她几乎不午休，这样就可以在下午6点左右离开办公室，回家陪伴丈夫和13岁的儿子。"这种安排对我很适用"，她说。泰里还帮助其他员工制定了不同的排班表，比如每周在家工作几天等等。
很多公司都提供一些设备及服务，如自助提款机(ATMs)、健康及美容服务、相片冲洗服务、衣物干洗服务和健身中心等，好让员工有尽量多的时间用于工作，减少其他事务的打扰。
Google免费向在加州山景城总部工作的800名员工提供由一个美食大厨烹饪的午餐和晚餐。公司里年轻的工程师有很多是单身，往往工作到很晚，他们对公司提供的晚餐赞不绝口。Google还为那些想在上班时间清洗衣物的员工提供了干洗服务以及洗衣机和烘干机。除此之外，公司里还有瑜珈及其他健身课程和按摩服务。
那些能够将生活和工作有益的结合起来的人可能能够更好的应对生活中的危机。两年前，马莎?费尔斯通(Marcia Firestone)身患乳腺癌，为了尽量不影响工作，这位女性总裁组织(Women Presidents'Organization)的总裁将自己的化疗安排在每周四的下午，她整个周末都会在家工作。"工作让我忘记病痛的烦恼，给我前进的动力"，费尔斯通女士说。女性总裁组织是一个设在纽约的非盈利性组织，成员都是在各个公司担任领导职位的女性。
