Has the Smartphone Forever Compromised Work-Life Balance?

Always connected. Always working. Always burnt out?

Years ago for a job that I was working, I had to visit a corporate T-Mobile store in Detroit, Michigan. I recall talking with the store manager of this location and he was talking about how T-Mobile did a great job of prioritizing employee work-life balance. It was unusual to hear that from the manager of a wireless store as my experience in the position was always that it was a demanding job that required constant availability. Ironically, someone in a position that is so close to mobile technology is championing work-life balance when it can be argued that it is that very technology that has diminished the concept of work-life balance in the modern workforce. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of work-from-home workflows, work-life balance has become more of a myth than an attainable goal; a side effect of our always-on connected culture.

The Pandemic Shift

The global pandemic in 2020 changed everything, but perhaps nothing has been changed more than the way we as a collective work. The idea of the commute, a concept that has been ingrained in…