Does The Blackberry Help Or Hurt Work-Life Balance?

Does being constantly connected mean that you are constantly available to work, and does the Blackberry help or hurt the balance between your home life and your job?

It is a very common argument that having a Blackberry, Treo, or other portable device gives busy people more flexibility and enables them to spend time with their families they otherwise would not be able to. They are able to take vacations, can attend events, and run errands that being connected makes possible.

The CEO of RIM puts it like this: "Would you rather have your parents 20% not there or 100% not there?".

It is an interesting argument - does the cost of having people be able to reach you 24/7 make up for the benefits it provides? In fact, a survey by Korn/Ferris says that although 4 out of 5 business executives are always connected to work through PDAs, 77% of those say that it improves their work life balance as it allows them to leave the office earlier.

There are signs, however, that the scales are tipping too far to one side. Some parents say that "Blackberry" is one of their children's early words, and toy PDAs are available for kids "just like mom and dad!".

A recent AOL survey found some interesting stats:

Email user on portable devices has nearly doubled since 2004 59% of those with portable devices use them to check email every time a new message arrives 43% of email users with a device say they keep it nearby to listen for incoming mail while they sleep 83% of email users admit to checking their mail at least once a day while on vacation 53% of portable device users admit emailing from the bathroom, 37% check it while they drive (yikes), and 12% check email in church

I don't believe there is an easy answer to the question "does the Blackberry help or hurt work-life balance?", but perhaps it is best to keep in mind a postcard I read about online: "Your Blackberry can't love you back".