How Important is it to disconnect from work?

During the past decade, there has been a revolution in the way that “the workplace” is considered. To some, in 2010 the workplace may be many things but a place. Smart-phones and laptops have become, for many, the workplace. This has redefined the way people work.

Being at the office is not a necessity anymore, which leads to more flexible work schedules and increased productivity. The down side is that now we are the office, meaning that your bedroom, living room, a bar, a restaurant, an airport or almost any imaginable location becomes a potential workplace. Some full-time jobs have become full-life.

Pulling the plug

Connectivity is one of the defining characteristics of the XXI century and the work environment is no exception. The possibility of getting a midnight call from company offices on the other side of the planet or an email landing in our blackberries at 2am has become commonplace.

Outside the corporate world there are some professionals like health care practitioners whose jobs require them to be on stand by 24/7 x 365 waiting for that one emergency call to arrive. The looming feeling that you can be summoned for duty at any time, wherever you are is one of the factors that contribute to maintain high stress levels and prevent us from enjoying our lives outside work or enjoy our jobs. When the line that divides personal life and work gets blurry or is erased the entrance door to mental health problems and workers compensation issues is opened. The question that arises is, for how long can someone keep up with this pace without starting to make easily avoidable mistakes or suffering health deterioration?

Even in jobs  that are not that “enslaving” some people find it hard to stop thinking about pending tasks, rehearsing sales pitches or mulling the altercation they had with their bosses that day.

Contrary to common sense, this constant rumination undermines our ability to retain information. Short term memory does not specialize in keeping and processing information for too long -30 seconds at best-. Constantly exercising our working memory by cycling over the same things prevents memories and concepts from being stored in our long term memory and making that knowledge available for similar situations. In other words, it limits creativity. That is the reason why it’s so important to turn our “work-switches” off until arriving at sour workplaces the next day; or at least while it is not necessary. Of course this is easier said than done. If flicking the switch on and off at will were that easy, there would be no need for this post or stress management techniques.