Page 143 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

122 � mAnAgIng the moBIle workForCe

him, these seemingly tiny productivity losses can reduce performance
signifi cantly.
But when clients call these days and you don’t answer immedi-
ately, you’d better have a pretty darn good reason, right? They know
you just looked at your messages and are now sitting on that call.
“Twenty-four hours is a lifetime now,” John says, “with all the con-
nectivity.” So you’d better be right on it. Right?
Well, maybe right or maybe wrong. Sometimes, as John relates,
“you have to put your arm around people and tell them they need to
kill their BlackBerry for 24 hours. You can see them fray.” In fact,
KPMG encourages people, even up to the partner level, to leave their

mobile device and laptop at the office at least one week a year. “I’ve
gone so far,” he tells, “with some people to say, ‘I want you to check
your computer in.’” Because if they don’t, they won’t take a real vaca-
tion. They won’t recharge, and they won’t be as productive when they
return. Some clients are nearly impossible to disconnect from because
they are investors with hundreds of millions of dollars, but John finds

that most clients are understanding, given enough notice.