Although it might seem like a business's wildest dreams to have willing employees available at a moment's notice, a new report by Rutgers University School of Business says that employers may be liable for encouraging addiction.

Gayle Porter, an associate professor of management at the university said "Information and Communication Technology addiction has been treated by policy makers as a kind of elephant in the room... everyone sees it, but no one wants to acknowledge it directly. Owing to vested interests of the employers and the OCT industry signs of possible addiction, excess use of ICT and related stress illnesses, are often ignored". http://ur.rutgers.edu/medrel/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=5284

Well, anyone with children can attest to how addicting electronics are for kids. Once a kid is logged in to his DS, PS, Tamagotchi or Xbox, never mind the television or internet-- they are in a trance. In order to break the trance, the parent must risk a range of reactions from their progeny ranging from blank stares to outright hostility at being disconnected. Come to think of it, I have seen a similar reaction from my spouse during football season and Survivor.

The point here is that self awareness and self control are the keystones to using a Blackberry or any other tether to work. That said, I must admit to a compulsive habit of logging on every chance I get. Recently, I began to log the minutes I spend logging on and keying in to my several mail accounts, my website and a couple of favorites on the internet. I haven't tallied the minutes yet, but it's already looking like I put in a lot of time. This is still preferable to doing much of this commincation on the phone like we used to do. Phone time is for significant interactions with clients, press and marketing support.

Addicting? No doubt about it. To me constant connection with work is the natural progression from the what the baby boomers invented as workaholism. At the time, we travelled in to the office every day, stayed late, came in on the weekends. The addictive behavior isn't new, but the flexibility afforded by remote access is potentially a good thing. If it can shave hours off a commute, get you out of the office on time or sometimes and improve response time, both morale and productivity should improve.