I can't believe that article is not satire. It hurts.

I don't understand this whole Blackberry addiction thing.

What is the problem? Do they have issues with their thumbs? You know you can press the little buttons with your nose also. That seems better to me. That is, that these people at least spend some time trying to use their noses to press the little buttons.

That's why they come with the auto-on/off feature. Make it turn off at 7pm and on at 8am.

seariously, I only use mine when I'm playing hooky from work. that way no one knows i'm not at my desk. turn it off outside of business hours.

That'll teach those nasty employers to give people jobs.

Tactful

That'll teach those nasty employers to give people jobs.

Well played...

i read that headline and thought it said crunchberries.

Am I the only onw who really, really hates this cliché?

veale728

no

veale728
Am I the only onw who really, really hates this cliché?

No.

I cray for the state of humanity. Please someone tell me that this article is a joke. People are suing their employers because they cannot put a shiny object with buttons down? This is ridiculous. The sound that you are hearing in the background is the death rattle of personal responsibility. The company should not be held liable for issuing tools to employees that help with their job.

If a company issued smelly markers to employees, and they started to sniff them excessively. Is that the employers fault or the employee for being weak? My opinion is towards the latter.

There is no one forcing the employee to check their messages, during time off of work. Also how many of the messages are personal not business related? Are they addiceted to the black berry or are they simply addicted to constant social and business contact other than from their family?

what they said.

ugh that should have been "cry" in the first sentence.

/crays for himself
// that's right you heard me

gremzo: I cray for the state of humanity

Me too. I cray every day.

See this cliche bothers me much less than some other cliches. This one actually somewhat amuses me. Unfortunately, I'm sitting at work and my brain is paralyzed by boredom, so I am unable to recall cliches that I DO hate.

/read "cray" as "pray"
//cry works too
///Slashies will never die.

gremzo: People are suing their employers because they cannot put a shiny object with buttons down?

People should sue employers who reward employees who don't put the shiny object with buttons down.

It's one thing to say "just put down the box". It's another thing if their employer says "if you put down the box we will punish you for it."

Why is anyone surprised? You're giving a shiny object with buttons and flashing lights to people that are obsessive/compulsive! DUH! They're like rats hitting the bar to see if they get a food pellet this time.

My former boss had a signature on his that read "Sent from my electronic leash." He didn't *want* his crackberry, some superior decided that he was going to carry one so he could be reached at all time.

Frankenberries are addictive.

Some genius had the idea that if you give employees something thats both fun AND productive they'll get more done. This is how disgruntled employees strike back when they realize they've upped their effort at the workplace.

So much for personal responsibility...

This reminds me, my boss said he's getting me a dashboard mount for my crackberry.

One of my favorite cereals growing up was Kellog's "Crack 'n Berry", only in my view as a kid there were too many berries and not nearly enough pieces of crack.

Okay, I'm all for the cool gadgets and fancy consumer electronics, but I just never caught the appeal of these things. I just upgraded from a two-year-old cell and that's probably the last one I'll get for a while. The mp3 ring tones, bluetooth headset, and the cheapest plan Cingular could offer sums up my wants and needs from a cell. I can do email on my home and work computer; do I really need to do it for the few hours a day I can't access them? And why would I want to try to type that on a tiny-ass Blackberry AND pay extra to do it?

I was in the restroom at work the other day. Older man wearing a yarmulke at one of the urinals. Blackberry in his right hand (writing a message), draining the main vein with his left hand.

I felt like saying, "That message couldn't have waited 45 seconds, eh?"

Blackberry.... meh... shoulda stuck with the heroin...

/stuck... get it?
//whatever...
///anyone got a spare oxycontin they don't need?

Simul-posts are cool... thanks jimpoz

jimpoz

Perfect opportunity for a suckerpunch, and you blew it. He could have been covered in pee with the crackberry substituting for the urinal cake.

The report found that some BlackBerry users displayed textbook addictive symptoms - denial....

I never understood why denial is one of the key symptoms of addiction. You're going to have denial whether you're addicted or not.

Think about it, there's a 100% chance you'll have denial if you're NOT addicted.

micah1701:
Actually it is easy to tell when people are sending from thier blackberry... It comes as a plain text message. So if you don't use plain text normally on your computer, it is pretty obvious.

"So if you don't use plain text normally on your computer, it is pretty obvious."

Should actually read: "So if you don't normally send plain text e-mails from your computer, it is pretty obvious.

replace Blackberry with myspace or facebook. I'm going to sue Tom and Mark Zuckerberg too

Can't wait till they make a Fark Plug-In for the CrankBerry.

I'd love to see someone with some testicular fortitude stand up to this kind of nonsense. Also I'd love to be the judge handling a case like this.

Lawyer: My client and I are suing her employer because the employer issued her a blackberry and she became addicted to it.

Me: Get your client to the bench.

Lady you need to take some presonal responsibility for your own life instead of biatching and moaning to anyone who will listen. Mr. Lawyer, you should have known better than to take this case. I'm dismissing this case because this court has better things to do than listen to your biatching and moaning. I'm giving the two of you 30 days for wasting the court's time. Baliff get them out of here. Next case.

Everything that came along in the past decade or so that was supposed to make office life easier has only increased most peoples workloads. See email, web access, cell phones, etc etc.

It's at a point where if you don't expect that a 50 hour week is a "light" work week you are considered a slacker. When you see generation X dropping dead from heart attacks in their 40's it might wake corporate America up. But probably not...

/refused company issued Blackberry
//but checked my work email on my honeymoon
///sigh

Email and web access are good - when not abused - but anything that allows people to pester you in real time is bad. Instant messaging, cell phones, etc. I suppose it's necessary in some fields such as sales, but you do have to set some sort of limits or you'll just go plain nuts.

Email was bad enough, back before I switched to Yahoo and got some decent spam filtering at last.

Have a blackberry from work, rather use a cell phone, e-mail feature is pointless as the email i need to see is in a mailbox i cant access with the device. Only use it for the cell phone component when I am carrying the pager (thats another story).

Can see use of device when users who only need email access for periods of time don't need to carry a laptop around. Won't deny benifits, just there aren't any for me.

We were supposed to get these at work but the boss wanted to get a feel for his first. One day a consultant came in to work on some legacy software and was working at a desk outside the boss's office. He spent most of the day on his Crackberry, after that the boss decided that we weren't getting them.

They have a use but damn, the consultant did nothing. He'd just start working them *blam* an email would arrive. Of course he didn't get paid for the whole day and was upset about it. We went to lunch and he spent most of his time answering email.

I wonder how many of his "emails" could be easier answered over the phone in 5 minutes than spending the day texting?

Shiney. Sheeple likey shiney...
/the collective drools

jbernie: Have a blackberry from work, rather use a cell phone, e-mail feature is pointless as the email i need to see is in a mailbox i cant access with the device. Only use it for the cell phone component when I am carrying the pager (thats another story).

Can see use of device when users who only need email access for periods of time don't need to carry a laptop around. Won't deny benifits, just there aren't any for me.


What makes blackberries so prevalent where I work is the fact that the mail servers push emails to the BB almost instantly. That's kinda useful when you do tech support and you need to let the rest of the group know who's answering the high ticket that just came in.

The downside is that it's damned annoying to go out to lunch with the department. I feel my hip vibrate and suddenly everyone at the table is looking at their phones.

Having been around them, I can see how they're addictive. And yes, personal choice and responsibility are both very important here... but when you work in a culture that encourages being glued to the thing after work, that's when problems happen. Not all businesses are like that, fortunately...

where I work, I see those with this addiction more and more... it's not a laughing matter... they really can't be without it, otherwise they do show signs of withdrawals...

just went to a day-long meeting, t'was funny but true... the "host" made people put all cell phones and crackberries in a box, and could only have them on breaks, and truly crazy, the moment break announced, they almost ran to get them.

did learn a new "buzzword"... "the crackberry prayer", for those that think that they can get away with using one during a meeting.

I laughed...

Don't have one, don't want one...

the crackberries taste like crackberries...

\\\i'm a trifle deaf in one ear
\\you are freakin' out. MAN
\upside down slashies

These guys need to realize that if you are REALLY important, the damn emails can wait until morning.

just went to a day-long meeting, t'was funny but true... the "host" made people put all cell phones and crackberries in a box, and could only have them on breaks, and truly crazy, the moment break announced, they almost ran to get them.


And why did these people agree to it? I couldn't care less about my phone, beyond the fact that it is MY phone, and there is no way some meeting host would get me to put anything that belonged to me into a box. What the hell is wrong with people?

People, we are not going to make any progress as a socioty until we STOP FARKING SUING EACHOTHER FOR NO GOOD REASON!!!

We have them here at work. Last year CEO says "We all have Blackberries so we are all avalible 24/7." That went over real well with the company.

I setup my profiles so that I have different notifications for email and calls. One work related, one set for personal. Also set the unit to auto off at 6PM and auto on at 7AM.

People need to realize that they can ignore the ring, beeps, and other sounds and just not answer the damn things. Just because it goes off does not mean you have to answer it right then!!

Also Blackberry do have one feature that rules. Full content (mostly) web access !! Love checking the weather while camping and traffic when getting close to a major city.

Notsure, i hope you got your CEO's words in writing. As an exempt of the company, what he says/writes becomes legally enforceable, and he just agreed to pay you 24 hours a day.

Check your HR overtime/call time policies, and let them know. You could have a ton of money waiting for you.

Blackberries rock! I had one during my summer internship. After you use it for awhile you wonder how you ever got along without being able to check the weather anywhere or send email instantly.
/yeah corperate america
//at least I interned with a cool biotech startup...

First I had a pager.

Then I got a cell phone and thought "I'll never own another pager"

Then I got a BlackBerry and thought "I'll never own another cell phone".

I chat to the wee hours on MSN, does this mean I can sue Microsoft for lack of sleep???