PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: A little over a week ago, the unthinkable happened to me: I broke my phone. In an instant, gone was my ability to text while walking from my office to the car, read three different email accounts while waiting for a meeting or over lunch, update my schedule on the fly, and verify my upcoming appointments for the day before I even rolled out of bed.

Ten days later, all I can say is, “Thank goodness … I need to break my phone more often.”

As most small business owners and salaried workers already know, the 40-hour business week is a myth. I believe part of the reason for our excessive work hours are the numerous “efficiencies” smart phones provide us.

While we sit on the couch at home, we can still review our work emails. While waiting for dinner to finish — only the finest processed dinners for my microwave — we can review documents for an upcoming morning meeting. We can even send texts to associates before we jump into bed and let them know that darn PowerPoint presentation they’ve been waiting for is now in their inbox.

The list of things we can finish after working hours goes on and on and on. Thank you, Mr. Smart Phone.

I am not saying this is all bad, but I am suggesting that a shift has occurred in the way we look at and do our jobs because of 24/7 access to work-related information. I will use myself as an example.

At one time, I would stay at work for the extra hour or hour and a half to finish checking email, filing paperwork, setting tasks, etc. I did it as quickly as possible because I wanted to go home. Now, I can just go home and do it on the couch. Why spend the time at work when you can spend the time at home, right?

Well, the problem is I spend more than the hour or hour and a half at home. The reason? I’m “catching up” on other things that need to get done. You know, I am trying to get ahead.

What I am really doing is never giving my head a chance to rest, or my mind to clear, and therefore, I don’t “recharge” as well as I used to. (And oh, by the way, I have found other projects to fill the hour or so I used to spend catching up with other things, too).

The end result? I become all work and no play … which according to my wife makes me a dull boy. When that happens, unneeded stress enters the Wallace home.

In the study, “Work-Family Spillover and Daily Reports of Work and Family Stress in the Adult Labor Force,” researchers found that with an increased amount of spillover from work to family, the likelihood of reporting stress within the family increased by 74 percent, and with an increased amount of negative spillover from family to work the likelihood to report stress felt at work increased by 47 percent.

This illustrates that those who are experiencing stress that has spilled over from work to family are more than likely to report feeling stress related to their family. Also, those who feel stress that has spilled over from their family into their work, almost half were likely to feel stress when they were at work. The end result? Nothing makes anyone happy.

You might be saying to yourself, “That is a lot of baggage to blame on your cellphone. Maybe the problem is you not having a balanced work life.” To which I would have to say, “You’re right. The problem is me.”

And when responsible people are confronted with a problem, they take action to fix it. Or not. Maybe the answer is not fixing that particular something that enables you to blur your coveted work-life balance.

Ten days without being tracked down on my cellphone, without being a slave to my three email accounts, and the “privilege” of 24/7 texting and calendar updates. I feel great. I might just wait another week before I get my new phone reactivated.

UPCOMING EVENTS: EZ AuctioNet, Inc. invites the public to tour its new location at 6 Bay Bridge Road, Brunswick, on Thursday, 4 to 7 p.m. Come to participate in their grand reopening open house and a ribbon cutting ceremony. EZ AuctioNet is a onestop shop for the eBay marketplace.

MEMBERS IN THE NEWS: SMMC welcomes Midcoast Home Designs to its membership. To discover more about this businesses, go to www.midcoastmaine.com.

The chamber proudly serves 660 businesses and organizations in the following communities: Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Brunswick, Dresden, Edgecomb, Georgetown, Harpswell, Phippsburg, Richmond, Topsham, West Bath, Westport Island, Wiscasset and Woolwich.

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