I worked for a time in a reasonably senior position in a law firm.  Staff above a certain level were simply expected to be on call 24/7 (below that level, you indeed had contractual hours and were paid overtime if you exceeded them).  Nobody was (really) complaining, because you were remunerated well for giving up your life.

It may not be good news if that expectation - constant availability - starts to leak into less well paid professions.

It's true. That's why I always say it's a gift AND a curse.

I have no idea.

Yes, that is true. I don't really want this to happen but people don't really take things seriously until they experience it first hand.

:P :P I can understand the girlfiend part but with friends?

The only thing that is constant in the world is change. Everything evolves, although it seems that technology does so at a faster rate. For years, innovators have been pushing the limits by creating and inventing what people thought were impossible. Now that most of the 'basics' have been created and done with, it's time to come up with the 'extras'--in short, the part where you said what more can we do.

In a similar fashion, IT must also evolve and continue to do so to keep up with all the other developments in the industry. Thus, the need for speed.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Matt. Interesting. Technology has evolved a lot and we are really living in golden age of transformation of industrial age to information age in my view. It has been an exciting ride up to this point. The question around technology: "Can we do it?" is now transformed into "what else can we do with it?".

Matt:

Fair enough, kmt. And I would argue that it is up to us (the workers) to set the boundaries ... because the cold, hard, faceless shareholder isn't going to do it for us. :-)

One of the bitter ironies of that is that many of us *are* that "cold" shareholder.  I'm certainly guilty of not taking employment practices into consideration when I decide to participate in an employee stock purchase plan.

I think some labor lawyers are going to make a mint from BYOD at some point in the next few years. If you have a contract, as you stated Matt, where you're on call for X dollars per hour and get paid XX dollars per hour if you're working, that's one thing. But we're going to see people working and not getting compensated in positions that typically did get paid during that time. Somehow, a free phone isn't going to be enough of an incentive.

Kicheko:

Kim, - That overlap is particularly common in the IT fields.

It's actually built into Labor laws here in the USA.  At least to some extent.  Section 13(a)(1) and 13(a)(17) provide exemptions for computer employees and overtime.