IT Critic - I work more than 40 hours per week.

IT professionals benefit from technology since it gives them a job. But it becomes their life when they must support that technology 24/7. Because of technology we can never leave work. We have lost our evenings, weekends, and vacations. Is it a vacation to be in constant contact with the office? Pagers in the restaurant, cell phones on the beach, laptops in hotels? While HR professionals advise corporations on the need to balance work and life outside of the office, their admonitions are ignored. Most corporate Web sites have a section telling how the company values their employees and encourages them to relax outside of work. But, unless these corporations allow their workers to "disconnect" when they leave work, this is only so much fluff. I challenge corporate executives: People are not meant to work 24/7. People are not computers. Allow your employees to disconnect. Insist on it.