Is tech good or bad for Hong Kong's work-life balance?

The number of mobile internet devices is set to outnumber humans by the end of this year. There'll be more smartphones and internet-connected tablets and monitors than there are people on the planet. The prediction is especially amazing when you think that 3G – already fairly old news – is just over a decade old.

As the market with the world's second-highest smarthphone penetration , Hong Kong forms the vanguard of this trend, and it's reasonable to think that, as the variety of devices that can access the internet grows, our appetite for them will also increase. 

Sergey Brin of Google has been seen wearing the Google Glass – spectacles that allow wearers to 'see' the internet. And it's widely expected that Apple will launch a smartwatch. If we don't even have to reach into our pockets to check emails, it's going to be even harder to take ourselves offline.

Positive or negative?

We all know that tablets and smartphones have changed the way people work. But this begs a crucial question – particularly for Hong Kong. Have they helped or hindered our work/life balance? In a local survey, respondents were shown positive and negative statements about the impact of technology on work/life balance.

Whilst only 15.4% agreed with the positive statements, 42.7% agreed with the negative ones. The main complaint was a perceived inability to 'switch off', even while asleep or on holiday .

Technology has facilitated the 24/7 working culture, but other things have driven it too. Businesses are interacting with customers and colleagues in different time zones, and staff are increasingly expected to be available for late-night or early-morning calls. And the global downturn forced many workers to take on additional duties, which led to them working longer hours.

The positives of 'anytime, anywhere' technology

So it's not fair to blame everything on technology. And let's not forget the very positive changes that technology has brought to work-life balance over the past decade.

Think how much easier it is to do your job when the cloud means you no longer have to go to the office to access corporate information or applications. Think how video-conferencing has reduced the need for time-consuming and environmentally-unfriendly air travel.

Both of these benefits are possible thanks to technology that allows people to work anywhere. It's no coincidence that the launch of devices such as the Blackberry in 2003, the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010 has been accompanied by a steep rise in the number of people using Regus business centres and drop-in business lounges to work.

There are now over 1 million customers in 100 countries using Regus, because now that they can, people are choosing to work at locations that suit them and their customers, instead of doing the old-fashioned fixed, daily commute.

In the latest edition of the Regus Work-Life Balance Index, nearly half of the Hong Kong respondents (47%) said their companies were doing more than they were two years earlier to help employees reduce commuting time.

Working remotely can save the average employee 79 hours of commuting each year. It also cuts their travel costs and car emissions. This may be one reason that the study recorded a five index-point rise in work/life balance in Hong Kong this year compared to 2012.

The negative aspects of 24/7 management models

Given this slight improvement in work/life balance in Hong Kong even given the city's well-documented love of technology, it seems fair to conclude that the negative aspects of 24/7 mobile technology arise not because of the technology itself, but because of management cultures.

In the Hong Kong survey above, almost a quarter of people said they use mobile devices and technology for work outside office hours because their bosses expect them to, and almost a fifth because their clients expect it .

So it's not the technology that needs to change: it's people. Local companies need to reflect on the issue of employee work/life balance in a 24/7 world. Sure, people may still need to do the late-night conference calls, but they may be happier to do so if the company's flexible working policies enable them to reduce commuting time or juggle home and work commitments.

This is not just a debate for bosses to have. It needs to involve ordinary workers as well, and they may need to think about their own habits. One reason why colleagues and clients can so easily reach us out of hours nowadays is that we're already on our tablet or phone – using social media or checking the football scores.

We're more likely to hear the ping of an email arriving, so we're more likely to deal with it.

The sender then assumes we're happy to work out-of-hours, and bombards us even more in future. So it's not just employers who need to learn the lessons about technology, presenteeism and productivity. It's us too.

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¹"Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012-2017", February 2013
²Flurry Analytics, Active devices during July 2012 versus adult population 15-64 years old
³"The State of Work-Life Balance in Hong Kong", Community Business, 2012

⁴"A Better Balance", Regus, May 2012.
⁵"Productive and profitable: taking the teleworking pledge"”, Cisco, 4 March 2013.
⁶"The State of Work-Life Balance in Hong Kong", Community Business, 2012.