Mixing personal in official business


Even in these days of BYOD(Bring Your Own Device), the workplace still gives you a mobile phone and also a laptop. When you receive such devices, do you customize the appearance of these devices? Some techies have stickers all over their laptop. I treat it as extreme cases. I am talking about these devices. Do you opt for the default wallpapers? Do you put your favorite pictures or those of your loved ones? I used to look at people disdainfully at those who personalized the official devices to put up personal photos. A recent incident has changed my outlook on this topic.

Take the case of mobile phones. A company orders phone of the same make and model in bulk to distribute them to its employee. If you do not change the setting on these phones, all of them look alike. In one of the brainstorming sessions, all the team members had casually placed the phones on the table. The discussion got heated like any one of such kind in a creative workspace. After a repartee, one of the team members grabbed the phone and entered to pin to access the phone. The pin didn't work. So he kept trying a few more time furiously before he realized he had picked up the wrong phone. Luckily, he had not exceeded the maximum number of retries. Hence the data in the phone never got erased.

On the positive side, this incident helped wipe away the negativity in the air as everyone started smiling. Soon, all of the people present in the room were tapping on the phone to change the wallpapers. Now all the phones had distinct wallpapers mostly the picture of their spouses and kids. We are always taught to keep official and personal separate. Sometimes getting personal helps to reduce confusion and bring well-defined boundaries.

Picture Courtesy: gdsteam

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