The downsides of the work life merge

The work life merge is having complicated side effects. Over the last few years due to technological advances, propelled by Covid, people have been accessing work emails and messages on their personal phones and laptops. Bring Your Own Device has been a growing phenomenon for years. It was seen as easier – you don’t need to carry multiple phones, for instance – but there are a lot of potential drawbacks.

We’ve seen the downsides, for instance, in politics with politicians using their personal devices for policy work. But this is happening in a much more widespread fashion with implications for people’s jobs.

This week a tribunal ruled that a journalist was dismissed because of her refusal to download a work app onto her personal phone. The journalist argued that she didn’t want to be disturbed by messages all day and all night and asked for a separate work phone or number that she could switch off when she wasn’t working. Her employer told her to mute notifications, but she said that she could still see them. In the end she was locked out of work-based systems and unable to do her job before being dismissed.

Another issue is security, with two-factor authentication [2FA] all the rage at the moment. In one of my jobs 2FA is now required for almost everything. I’ve written before about the problems of doing multiple jobs all with different security rules and the problems of getting messages with codes texted to your phone if you don’t have good mobile coverage. Only yesterday, I was in a Wework office trying to get into my work email on my laptop [I only have the one so it’s for everything]. It said it was sending a code to my phone. Nothing appeared. The phone coverage in the WeWork was not great. I left my laptop and ran with my phone to a nearby staircase. Bing! I got a code. By the time I’d got back to my laptop, however, time was up so I had to do it all over again. This time I took the laptop with me. It’s not ideal and the risk of being locked out when you need to send an urgent email is stressful.

Now I’m being asked to change all my passwords to the gobbledy gook ones with asterisks, etc. That means I’ll never remember them so I need a password manager. I downloaded one, but it kept asking me things like do you want TOTP or URI without explaining what on Earth these are. Maybe I am just out of the loop, but please, please make it simple for people. In the end I deleted the app. I’ll settle for Google password manager, even though it is reportedly less secure. My bank has 2FA on it in any event.

The problem arises, however, with the fact that I use Facebook for work-related reasons as an admin on some sites. Will they force me to change my password to a gobbledy gook one, making it potentially more difficult to access on the move? I feel, probably unreasonably, resistant to the idea that my employer can dictate something that is about my personal life. They don’t own me and if I left them, I would, of course, have to change the password. I’ve been told a past employer who I was in dispute with about bullying [over childcare issues – and yes, I still haven’t ‘forgiven’ each and every person involved. I have a long memory] checked through all my emails – and my deputy’s apparently, looking for something to get me on as I was considering legal action. I don’t generally trust employers to do good things after that experience, which is not to cast any aspersions on my present employers. It’s just one of those painful life lessons.

So, for now, I’m waiting for the email telling me to change my Facebook login. The solution will probably be to set up a separate Facebook login for the employer, meaning more logging in on the password manager app which, hopefully, will always be accessible [I was shut out of all the apps on my phone recently for seven days after I changed my iphone]. I’ve already informed my manager that they need to factor in the added time taken to do 2FA on everything and realise that, though it seems like a small thing, it all mounts up and slows everything down.

I understand security is vital and my manager has told me all sorts of horror stories about the dark web, but I think much more needs to be done to support remote workers in particular with IT. Usually the tech desk of this one employer of mine is overloaded with calls and you have to email. They then email you back a ‘solution’ which generally, in my experience, doesn’t work. You really need to be able to talk to someone. It’s such a time waster when time is of the essence these days and so much extra is expected – podcasts, posting on multiple social media sites, etc – without any account usually being taken of the added time involved.

I’ve done several online security courses. I remember thinking at the time that most of the stuff was about things I wasn’t doing because generally it seemed to be designed for people doing one full-time job in the office…

Maybe I’m a natural freelancer, but I’m beginning to long for retirement [even though I know I will probably never retire] or at least for a job that requires absolutely minimal contact with tech.

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