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Mike Elgan

The World Is My Office

Take laptop on holiday? UK shrink says you're 'stupid'

7 comments

TAGS:digital nomad, vacation
IT TOPICS:Mobile & Wireless

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- A "top psychologist" in the UK told the Daily Express newspaper that employees who take their laptops on vacation are "stupid" and risk damaging relationships with loved ones.

The Workplace health expert, Professor Cary Cooper, says: "A holiday isn't just for rest and recuperation but to commune again with your family, connect with your children."

That doesn't sound like professional advice to me, but merely the expression of an anti-mobility, anti-technology bias shared by so much of the public.

Cooper makes it clear that the diversion of attention from family and friends is what's so "damaging" about working while on vacation. But why not include other activities that divert attention. Why focus on laptops? For example, what about reading, taking naps, getting drunk and any number of other activities people do on vacations that divert attention from the people you're traveling with?

Clearly he's not talking about attention itself, but diverting attention using a computer. Cooper's clear assumption is that work is "bad" and that leisure is "good," that technology (a laptop) is "bad" and non-technology (a book) is "good."

Cooper also makes a host of other assumptions. For starters, he assumes that you're disconnected from your own family all year, and need to "commune again with your family, connect with your children." So that's his advice? Become alienated from your own family, then "commune" with them for only two weeks a year? Why does he assume alienation in the first place?

Cooper assumes that you're some nine-to-fiver who doesn't do creative work. As an opinion columnist, good ideas can strike me anytime, anywhere. That's true for a lot of different kinds of people. For many, a laptop is merely a writing tool, and a source of information and inspiration.

An increasing number of digital nomads are traveling without taking time off. The laptop *enables* travel and time away with family rather than creating a problem while traveling.

It appears to me that Cooper is making a lot of assumptions, and using his credentials to give credibility to his anti-technology bias.

Don't get me wrong. I'm totally in favor of going on holiday and leaving the laptop at home. But laptops give us choice. And for many of us, the right choice is to bring the laptop.

My laptop has enabled me to spend weeks exploring Mayan ruins in the jungles of Central America, to drive across Mexico and months island hopping across a dozen Greek islands -- and all while continuing to make a good living.

A huge number of people have used mobile technology to dramatically improve and enhance their lives all year, and escape the conventional, nine-to-five rut Cooper assumes is inescapable.

That doesn't sound "stupid" to me.

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It's all about choice

Submitted by Juan Carlos Sl on August 18, 2008 - 1:58 P.M.

A great use of your laptop while on your vacation is to find restaurants, activities, what to see, and other fun things to get the best of your R&R.

Taking a laptop in a vacation does not need to be just for work. For me its OK to scan subject lines in office email just to make sure you partly tuned when you get back.

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Psychologist is the stupid one

Submitted by Walking Bass on August 11, 2008 - 10:53 A.M.

I would think that a professional psychologist would know better than to make a blanket diagnosis of a large group of people just because they choose to do something that he himself chooses not to. Just because someone makes a choice different than the choice you would make does not mean that person's choice was not rational or well considered. People make their choices based upon what is right for them, not what is right for some Luddite in England.

I bring my laptop on vacation, Why? Because I take lots of pictures and I like being able to copy them from my camera to my laptop. This allows me to share pictures on a larger screen with my companions, and to email pictures to others in short order. My laptop also can hold several thousand times as many pictures as my camera can. I also check my work email from time to time, mostly because I can often put out a fire with a short email. Not putting out the fire quickly would mean I'd come back from vacation to face a huge conflagration. My reasons are therefore rational to me, and I think most people with similar life and work factors would choose to do the same.

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Further disagreement

Submitted by MikeFox on August 9, 2008 - 10:57 A.M.

Hello, Mr. Elgan! I am a regular reader of the RawFeed. I enjoy your work. However, this time, I'm not sure you're on the money.

I understand, as someone who gets involved in projects, that about the most stressful thing in the whole world is to have a great idea *right now* and to not have anywhere to record it *right now*. Having a laptop, notepad, etc. along for the ride can help both ease the need to distress and help discharge the stress in a productive way.

I also understand the psychologist's point. It is important for your family to see you as more than a symbol of a worker. If they don't see you being able to set your work down for them and have fun with them, then they will begin to see those activities as being without merit to adults. They might grow up with those values or in rebellion to those values, but they will be greatly effected by your choice. Further, they will learn that it is okay to value projects and ideas (important ones) more than the people they care about.

An alternative could be to take your vacation in 9-5 style, plus meals/not including. After dinner you go to work. You work, away from your family, until bedtime. You should be able to get in 2 to 4 hours of work a day - more than enough.

Then, instead of writing your ideas down immediately, why not start a conversation with your family about them? Explain your projects and why your idea will help your project and the target audience. Then ask their opinions; maybe something they have been working on can provide additional insight. Maybe you might just listen to your wife or kids share the love they have for their projects with you. Either way, you win. And you can write about it that night, when you go to work!

I'm sure there are a dozen more problems and solutions to bringing laptops on vacations. But I don't believe, for example, that any mentally healthy individual needs to bring their laptop into Disneyland. And I know that no family in the world is better for the dad (or whomever) not being able fully join the "vacation project."

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Elgan the geek

Submitted by Anonymous on August 8, 2008 - 2:41 P.M.

This guy’s (Elgan) a bonehead, and he’s obviously mad because he self identified as one of the stupid people. He lists several other activities that he sees as “deverting attention” from others:

Reading: Give me a break – people usually read because they’re not interacting with anyone else at the moment. Working on a laptop usually means your “working” in spite of the fact that there are others around you who are not working , but vacationing, and would interact with you except you have work to do on your laptop during your “vacation.”

Taking Naps: He’s so stupid here he proves the guys point.

Getting drunk: If you’re socially well adjusted and not an alcoholic, drinking is usually done in a social setting, as you’re interacting with others - relaxing and having fun - you know vacation stuff. Duh! This guy must have been drunk when he wrote this, most likely sitting at his laptop – while on vacation with his family.

He’s mad because he thinks the doctor is saying work is “bad” and leisure is “good”? What a dork. Work is work, and leisure is leisure – their different that’s all. Your stupid if you go somewhere to experience “leisure” and end up doing “work”, which defeats the whole purpose of seeking “leisure”. – What an idiot.

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Re: Elgan the geek

Submitted by Mike Elgan on August 8, 2008 - 4:47 P.M.

So you agree with Cooper that taking a laptop on vacation is "stupid."

You write: "Reading: Give me a break – people usually read because they’re not interacting with anyone else at the moment."

So that's your argument? Somehow reading is always slipped in there when nobody's around, but working is always intrusive and done when others "would interact with you."

You're just making that up. Both are non-social activities, and either can be done between social interactions, or while social interactions would otherwise occur. If anything, reading is far more "anti-social" that work. You can check e-mail in five minutes. But few people bother to start, say, a novel, unless they plan to spend some quality time reading.

The purpose of mentioning reading was simply to lay bare Cooper's blatant anti-technology bias, which I think is obvious.

Mike Elgan

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it's the WORK that's the problem

Submitted by Cecily on August 8, 2008 - 7:13 P.M.

Well, isn't it nice of you to look out for us. Personally, I thought it was fairly obvious that it was the WORK on VACATION that was the problem. Vacation is supposed to be a break. You can't recharge your batteries if you're constantly checking your e-mail because the world will end otherwise. THAT is what puts strain on a family vacation. No one complains if their spouse brings a book to the beach. I can think of few wives who wouldn't when hubby takes along a laptop to do work on vacation. It's the modern-day equivalent of the briefcase. Technology just makes it smaller and shinier - not to mention, more immediate and pervasive. If hubby dearest were reading an e-novel on the laptop, rather than saying, "Uh huh - yeah - that's nice dear" while reviewing files for work, when you ostensibly go on vacation to NOT work, the issue would not exist.
Your specialty is technology, am I right? Then specialize in your nice shiny toys and leave human relations to those who specialize in that area - like, oh, PSYCHOLOGISTS, for example.

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How do U know they're working?

Submitted by tanstaafl on August 9, 2008 - 9:04 A.M.

What makes U think that people who take their laptops on vacation are working when they're using their laptops? From the articles I've read about the effect of internet access on productivity, the average laptop user spends a little time doing email, then plays games or surfs the web - and that's while at work. U might argue that it's managers and technologists who are issued a laptop, but managers who work on vacation are likely to be type A people who won't be spending time with their families in any case, and technologists are just as likely to be playing with the machine as working with it (and isn't playing the point of a vacation?). Type A individuals aren't going to be 'fixed' by taking away their laptops and cell phones; being people, they'll be resourceful enough to find a way to work every waking hour regardless of circumstance. And just because a computer professional (or just somebody who likes to play with computers and happens to have a work-issued laptop) wants to play with his 'toy' (or read a book, or watch a movie, or enjoy any other solitary activity), it doesn't mean he's neglecting his family. Professor Cooper was either quoted out of context (it's a very short article) or has a low opinion of people who use technology, and I think that was the point of Mr. Elgan's posting.

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