I just read a piece in the Globe and Mail about how a Canadian union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, feels that workers with BlackBerrys should actually get paid more. I am not going to rehash the whole article here, however, to make a long story short, union VP, Ed Cashman feels that workers expected to do work outside of regular business hours should be compensated for it.
What do you think?
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Just giving an employee a Blackberry doesn’t mean they deserve more money. It has to make them more productive to earn them more money. I’ve seen more execs with Blackberries playing games than actually doing work. Furthermore, just because you hand someone a Blackberry does not mean they will know how to use it to make themselves more efficient or productive. I’ve seen an awful lot of people with Blackberries on their hips consulting their handwritten schedule in a paper planner to find out where they need to be.
On the flip side, if someone is expected to answer the Blackberry and respond to emails on it outside of their 40 hour work week, they should be subject to additional pay or incident-based pay.
Yes, the BB is just like any other productivity tool – simply having it doesn’t make you more productive, and thus shouldn’t automatically entitle you to more pay.
If folks are truly required to use their BBs outside of “normal business hours”, then I would hope that this would have been considered as part of their compensation package. If not, then they might want to renegotiate.
While the BB may be viewed as keeping a person tied to work, answering emails, etc., it can also liberate a person as well from the workplace. Countless times I’ve been able to hit the road or conduct personal things while not missing a beat at work because of my BB. With the trade off it provides, I personally don’t mind answering work related issues in the after hours.
There’s always pros and cons.
since I have one…and always want more money, of course I am going to vote yes.
…i think it depends on the level of after-work use. for instance, if a person only occasionally (1 every other week, for instance) needs to answer after-hours, then i dont see a need for an increase in pay. if, on the other hand, a person is constantly putting out fires at all hours of the day, then it should be reflected in their pay.
i would tend to agree with what REV said above, this should be considered as part of the negotiation of their compensation package.
Hi
My respnse is yes and ofcourse I am receiving money and other benifits notably timely receiving my team members email messages and quickly resonding to management queries. Blackberry is the better information solution affordable for a novice and also useful to the expert at certain extent. Money will be an important motive and should be considered in company limits.