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Book Review: Are you a technology slave?
By Toni Kistner
Turn It Off, How to Unplug from the Anytime-Anywhere Office Without Disconnecting Your Career by Gil Gordon ($12.00, Three Rivers Press, 2001) The idea for writing Turn It Off came to Gil Gordon on the way home from taking his son to a night game at Yankee Stadium. In the stands, a nearby fan - still donning a business suit and winged tipped shoes-spent the entire nine innings with his cell phone glued to his ear making deals-oblivious to how he ruined the outing for Gordon, his son, and everyone else around who were there to relax and have fun. Technology, Gordon argues - specifically, advances in mobile devices and residential broadband-is responsible for eroding the boundaries between the office and home, and has allowed cell phone boors to proliferate. But even if you don't disturb anyone, say, by checking your e-mail at all hours, or by taking your notebook with you on vacation, you're still in danger of letting your work life overrun your personal life. Gordon's goal was to write a manual to help workers take back their free time, and create solid boundaries between their work and personal lives. The veteran telework consultant doesn't claim that every worker who relies on a cell phone or text pager is in need of an intervention. In fact, many always connected workers may feel less anxiety because they always know what's going on. But since Gordon realizes the challenge may lie in determining whether you have a problem, he devotes a chunk of the book to aiding readers in self discovery. If it turns out you have a problem, Gordon offers a step by step approach on how to overcome it. Especially useful are latter sections devoted to managing other people's expectations. It's understood that if you've always been available 24 - 7 for your boss and colleagues and clients, changing that behavior by curtailing your "on" time could lead to a backlash and even career problems if not handled carefully. GOOD for all stripes of remote and mobile workers BETTER for those who need some help learning how to say no to the boss BEST for type-A personalities who are prone to overwork and burnout 
Related links Toni Kistner is managing editor of Net.Worker. Contact her at tkistner@nww.com. Telework Beat archive Apply for your free subscription to Network World. Click here. Send this article to a colleague
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