Coo do you remember the days before mobiles when people only got in touch with you - when you turned up in the office!!
Mobile devices - modern evil, just ditch them, never a moments rest!
I disagree with you there Stan. Mobile working has improved my quality of life enormously. I work from home a lot now so I don't have the M62 hassle that I used to have in my previous jobs (1 hour in the morning to travel 16 motorway miles to the office and the same coming home at night).
I work in sales and as such my productivity is directly related to my level of activity. Now, if I have a 2 hour car journey to go and see a customer I can use that time to make calls, sort out problems and ultimately make more money for both my employer and myself. The ability to work freely, wherever and whenever I want means that if I decide to check my messages/emails at lunch time while I am on top of a mountain in the Alps, I can. This for me is a benefit because sometimes, especially when I've been working on very large tenders/contracts, I'd rather still be able to influence things than be cut off for the week I'm away. I can spend 6-12 months campaigning with a customer and if it turns out they are going to be making a key decision while I'm on holiday, I want to be able to be contacted... Especially when the commission payments can be big enough to buy a new Zed!
Do you not get any personal satisfaction knowing that what you've been working on is helping your employer to meet its business targets, targets that are tangible and that are undoubtably underpinned by the efforts of people in jobs like yours?
Maybe its just because I'm a salesperson... if someone sets me a target/challenge, I just want to hit it or over acheive it and doing that gives me my satisfaction (OK, the commission is good too ).
Anyway, that turned out to be more of a rant than I intended, sorry...