BlackBerry, crackberry

Are you addicted to your crackberry? Maybe you can sue your employer for that:

Professor Nada Kakabadse, joint author of the study, said that lawsuits were a growing issue for employers who were being sued for failing in their duty of care to staff and in following health and safety guidelines. In one case in the US, a female business consultant claimed that her marriage fell apart because she was constantly checking messages. She ended up losing custody of her children and sued her employer for damages.

These people are clearly jackasses.

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum -- I wish they'd take my BlackBerry away.

At my last job, we weren't forced to get the BlackBerries right away -- for a while they were optional. (They're not anymore.) I volunteered, because I'm generally good with technology, and hey, I thought it would be good to have instantaneous access to my e-mail and calendar while on travel and in court. It was great for the first few days.

Of course, then I wound up going down to Florida to see my grandmother in the hospital. The damn thing didn't stop. For hours. Every five minutes, the purportedly urgent email would roll in. I thought about chucking it out the window.

And then there was that time when I was sitting in court while one of the ECF servers in one of the districts I practiced in got a virus. I was getting approximately 2 pieces of spam per minute. Then, of course, all of the dipshits on the distribution list were responding -- to all -- with e-mails saying to take them off the the list.

Fucktards, all.

So, every once in a while, I dream of a life without my BlackBerry. It's like a leash -- or better yet, one of those electronic ankle monitors -- keeping you from straying too far from your office.

Seriously.

It's been suggested that, when I'm not at my desk, I should check it every 15 minutes.

I'd rather not, thank you. I mean, I still like to pretend that I have a life outside of my job.