Today’s knowledge worker is expected to be on-call 24/7. While that requires access to information on a continuous basis, the trend probably also reduces at-work productivity, due to the fatigue factor.  We are bombarded with motivational messages from higher ups and a lack of patience from our contemporaries and colleagues. We’ve probably all witnessed at least one meltdown at work due to one coworker not responding to a text or IM fast enough. Expectations have gotten unreasonable and we all seem to be tolerating this irritating and very real trend.

Demands for consumerization and bring-your-own-device programs have grown, in part, due to this lack of separation. It wasn’t always this way. Not too long ago, what we did at work was just that … work. Now there’s Web surfing, gaming, social media … and (yes) work, as well. Business managers often respond with tolerance, as they are doing it too. Their IT departments, however, react with alarm and restrictions.  While there’s an attempt to reestablish a work/life balance, it can be argued that this is a fool’s errand.

Once you realize that work/life balance doesn’t truly exist, the IT exercise changes to managing the experience. Here are some suggestions:

1.)  Restrict broadcast messages, including when and how they are sent (like restricting sending images). The last thing anyone wants is receiving an inappropriate message.

2.)  If segmenting work and personal use (like using BlackBerry Balance), make certain applications available in both views in order to encourage enterprise application access.  You don’t want users to “live” in one view and not the other.

3.)  Leverage capabilities of your MDM solution to create “reminders” before users take actions that can impact enterprise security and employee-to-employee and/or partner communications.

4.)  Only restrict access when there is a compliance or defined information security issue. Don’t create unnecessary walls

5.)  Consider recasting corporate enterprise security as “employee privacy”. By addressing the selfish interests of your users (essentially internal customers), you’ll be more likely to get buy-in.

What are your views on the work/life balance in the mobile enterprise? Share your ideas, inspirations and suggestions in the “comments” below.