A global survey with 3,185 respondents in the United States finds degrees of overwork inhabiting the workplace, according to Regus PLC, headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. More than three times per week, an enormous 56 percent of U.S. workers cart work home, while 16 percent of the country's remote workers (versus 6 percent of office workers) hold down 60-hour weeks. Does transporting personal technology to work lighten the load?

Not for Matt Shortsleeve, general manager at Mercury Solar Systems Inc., in Waltham, Mass. He carries this personal technology to his office: DroidX Smartphone, iPad, HP Laptop, Remote Wifi Tablet and Bluetooth. In the field, his SunEye gauges sunlight and facilitates distance measurements. These tools don't "necessarily reduce the work," he concedes, "because the more I accomplish, the greater our results."

Escalating productivity from personal technology creates work, but simply having technology in the workplace does, too, according to Ed Ludwigson, vice president and general manager at Boston's Staples Technology Solutions. People need to back up tablets, but only 34 percent do, a survey of 200-plus users shows. Not even 15 percent of tablets have encryption or anti-virus software. Ludwigson also points to employer monitoring, which implies the need to self-monitor.

Shortsleeve doesn't know if his company monitors, but he uses his technology there exclusively for work. "I have to set a good example," he remarks, "hold myself accountable and be ethical. I should be working during the time I'm being paid."

Still, he meets some personal needs, such as working out when necessary. "I probably work 60 hours per week or more," he continues. "I'm responsible for my P&L. It doesn't matter when I work, just how productive I am. If the organization doesn't feel that's acceptable, I don't want to be a part of (it)."

Other potential forms of tension occasioned by personal devices may arise in traditional companies, whose culture may not be as flexible as their small-business counterparts. Erin Kelley, president of Chicago's Simply Smart Technology LLC, says personal technology "overall increases the burden on the individual worker, the IT staff and policy-makers."

Employees have to wrest time from other tasks to buy software, she indicates, some of which is extremely expensive. They must "manage their own anti-virus, pick a product that works, regularly update virus definitions and configure the scanning," she reports. "Users have to research backup options, understand the impact of their backup choices, configure a backup to run regularly and restore data when needed." She also mentions the cost of enlisting outside tech support.

Shortsleeve doesn't seem burdened by multiple tools, even when they malfunction. "When something goes wrong, I fix it," he comments. "We also have an inside IT guru for remote needs or I call the service provider directly. Yesterday my Virtual Private Network login failed. I texted my IT guy, who fixed it in less than one minute. My Wifi Tablet from Verizon Wireless needed to be reset. Their second-level help desk person reset it while I was on the phone. That took 20 minutes."

Not all companies want to support "a computer they didn't spec out, manage or safe-guard," Kelley observes. "If an employee decides to move on, how can the employer be assured that information is returned when it lives on devices they can't physically take back?"

Transporting personal technology to work might seem to reduce your workload, when it very well may not. You still must manage the technology, cope with increased productivity and avoid conflict with your employer. Do you clock 60 hours per week? What's to blame?

(Dr. Mildred L. Culp welcomes your questions at culp@workwise.net. © 2012 Passage Media.)