I have generally had a seamless separation between work and life. This has been especially true when it comes to electronic devices. At IBM, I had one cellphone, one computer. I had my IBM email address, and a personal gmail address that I never checked. This was nice and compact, until I left IBM and somehow had to tease out which files were personal, which were work-related, and separate the two. My email address for everything at the time was sbasson@us.ibm.com, and so I had to connect with every entity that I do any business with to inform them of the change of email contact. (the bank, Amazon, Netflix, Paypal, American Express, Macy’s, etc. etc. etc.) I am sure to this day that I have missed a few.
In my new, fully separated life streams, I have a computer that is personal, and a computer from Google. I have my personal iPhone and iPad, plus an Android phone from Google. Neat and clean.
BUT - - that means that I have this array of devices to manage, update, keep charged. On any given day, my bag includes my iPhone (plus chargers), my Android (plus chargers), a backup battery just in case, plus my Mac (and chargers.) It feels like I’m a walking IT department. Plus, it’s heavy. And inevitably, one of the devices is out of juice. I feel like I’m feeding triplets, making sure that each device gets its due and adequate time plugged into the wall. So I don’t think that I would advocate this new and fully separated work-life technological divide as the ideal solution. At least, not till they come up with batteries that last for (say) a full week….
Another funny consequence -- Now that I have a work-related google.com account, plus a personal gmail.com account, I am often unsure about where a particular email was created. Add to that messages from Facebook, and sms, What’sApp, and LinkedIn, and it is a constant puzzle. My phone will flash a message alert that will disappear, and I am left wondering “was that from gmail? Or facebook? Or….?” Comment from my son Jordan….we need a new solution to sort it all out, like “What’s-MY-App” :-)
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