You can't escape the wireless age

These days when I leave the house I fair waddle under the weight of my combined communication devices. Admittedly I am using more of them than any sane man would normally choose to.

I have a Telecom Harrier running on the new T3G network that includes full Windows PocketPC for my processing pleasure; a RIM Blackberry running on Vodafone's GPRS network; an Acer laptop and my own Vodafone cellphone.

I have two headsets, chargers for three devices (all of which consume more juice than I like and require me charging at inconvenient times) and am working on my hernia.

If the pundits are right, this is only the beginning, however.

Like colliding galaxies, the IT industry and the communications sector are powering towards each other at a great rate of knots. Mobile data is the future, we're told. It's liberating, it's empowering and it will change the work/life balance we all strive for.

Instead of being trapped in your office or cubicle, you'll be free to take your processing power anywhere you like.

It's the ultimate goal of many companies to move their staff out of the office to be closer to their clients.

Until recently this has been a clumsy and difficult process requiring nerves of steel and the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster. Today, it's less of a chore and getting better.

The Blackberry is a great example of this phenomenon. Mobile out-of-office workers can send and receive email to an easy-to-use device they carry on their hip.

The beauty of the Blackberry, and the reason for its huge success, is that it's easy to use and it pushes emails out to the device.

Corporate America has embraced the Blackberry like nothing else but the first generation unit looks like a label printer.

Fortunately a cellphone-style unit is arriving so hopefully that'll mean you can get email and avoid looking like a wally talking into what is, in effect, a giant pager.

It's a device aimed at non-technical people. Small business, chief executives, home-office folk. That's a huge market in New Zealand where most of us work for companies that employ fewer than five people.

So if you don't need to be in the office to work, why do you have a need to go into the office at all?

I worked from home for three years and got to watch my daughter learn to walk and talk. Radio New Zealand's Simon Morton decided his children needed to meet their grandparents and is working in the UK for a year. He didn't give up his day job, however, but continues to produce a show from the far side of the world.

This is an interesting phenomenon that needs some serious attention. Unfortunately, home working is often seen by managers as a bad thing - if staff aren't in front of you they're obviously slacking off.

A trial remote working scheme in the Hutt Valley was cancelled last year because only one employee managed to convince his boss to let him work remotely and even then it was for one day a month.

That kind of attitude is going to be a problem. A recent European study suggested road congestion could be reduced by one-third if staff could be encouraged to work from home.

Nothing I've seen about Auckland's traffic regime comes close to reducing our road usage by anywhere near that much.

But there is a flip side to being able to work from anywhere: working from everywhere.

Where do we draw the line? Should I be answering emails from my boss at nine o'clock at night? What about holidays - should we be insisting technical support staff take laptops and high-speed connections with them when they go to the beach?

The danger here is that we accept new mobility for all the wrong reasons. Instead of freeing staff from the burden of the office it potentially could extend its reach into all aspects of our lives.

I like being able to check my email on the bus on the way to work - would I be so keen to do that over a long weekend or when I'm enjoying the rugby?

Much like the cellphone, some people will see the technology as vitally important and some will see it as an intrusion. I guess in the long run we need to be able to choose for ourselves.

Whichever way you go it pays to remember that the pohutukawa are blooming, summer's coming and it's time to head to the beach, with or without a belt full of devices.