No one can escape electronic communications but it’s not as though people are really making much of an effort these days to do so.

Nonetheless, receiving an email or text from work while at home does seem to bug most Americans, according to a study by University of Texas at Arlington management researcher Marcus Butts, who surveyed 340 people over a week to measure their feelings about just such a circumstance.

The degree of displeasure about getting a message from work during downtime has a lot to do whether people consider themselves a segmentor or an integrator.

For instance, segmentors prefer a strict delineation between home and the workplace and therefore, get more upset with e-communications from the job, which interferes with their private lives.

On the other hand, integrators, who also expressed unhappiness with emails or texts from the boss or co-workers, aren’t quite as bothered when they get interrupted at home because they actually want to keep abreast of things at work.

Either way, Butts and his team came up with a list of do’s and don’ts for supervisors about how to best word e-communications, when the best time is to send them and which messages are most suitable for face-to-face meetings.

I know that with my job here at the station, you're often getting messages or doing work or something like that while you're on your off time.   There's always an email to answer or something to check on the websites or a text from management or SOMETHING. I'm pretty used to it by now, but it still irks Boyfriendo every now and then - he thinks  home time should be home time.  But I don't have a job where that's possible because of weather or emergencies or what have you.   So that leads me to ask you about your work and home life merging.   Are you a segregator or an integrator? Do you take your work life home with you? Do you keep tabs on work while you're in your off time?   Does it bother you when you are contacted by work when you're at home?  Tell me what you think and we'll share your answers on the air while you get points to win prizes.

Workingly yours,
Behka

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