My phones is always with me because I'm always on paid stand by for work.
Someone calls, I answer, no exceptions and I often get phones calls from our Asian help desk at odd hours.

My Email and service queue is on my phone. It's great being able to check it on the go. I'd be lost without it.

Everyone around me knows that I don't answer calls right away. I NEVER carry my phone with me unless i'm expecting a call. I work outside alot, and have a job that makes it a risk to have an expensive phone in my pocket. I picked up my phone once today to look at the text I missed yesterday.......don't care, I wasn't the one who wanted all of this technology.

I have virtually no APPS, and have only accessed the internet a couple times for a minute or two, I just don't see the need, and get highly irritated when people pay more attention to their phone, than who is sitting in front of them, or next to them.

I've used an managed first a car phone, then cell phone since 1988.
Used them for voice, text, and email.

I am on call 24/7 so always have my iPhone in my shirt pocket or nearby on the charger. I look at it as a plus as I work from home or anywhere that has cell or internet for that matter. Don't tell them I really don't get many calls after hours and when I do can usually be dealt with within a few minutes.

I do not answer phone, texts, or emails while driving. Hands free or not! Have special ringtones for important people that I will pull over and call back. Otherwise you will get called back when I have reached my destination.


However, to attempt to provide assistance to the original poster...

There is a "Do Not Disturb" feature on the iPhone. You could easily set it up to take messages for calls from 5pm to 8am but allow calls from important numbers and family/friends in your contacts list during the do not disturb schedule.

Your outgoing message could state: I am way from the phone or it is past business hours of 8 to 5. I will get back to you as soon as possible within business hours.

That way you can easily use your cell phone as a personal phone as well and more than just work hours.


Know people that interact only by phone, some only by text, some email. Have one friend that is very tech savvy, but rarely returns calls, emails, or texts and surprisingly is out of work, imagine that.

When cell phones were not as pocket friendly I used a pager and left the cell phone in the car or on the desk. At one point I had it set up so if a call went to voice mail it sent the number to my pager. I had a timex watch that received pages. That was really cool.

Just for laughs, here's an outgoing message that comedian Steven Wright used as part of his standup routine many years ago (as best I can remember it):

"Hello, you've reached the answering machine in my car. I'm at home right now, so I can't receive your call, but leave a message and I'll call you back when I'm out."

I put it on our answering machine for a week or two, but as you can imagine, it scrambles people's brains and usually leaves them completely confused and unable to leave a coherent message.

So I took it off and went with the usual lame message.

I try to call after dinner time because some of my clients are working during normal business hours. 8 is usually the latest.

If you need to reach me, I'll call :).

Was tied to a pager and bag phone from the beginning of my corporate career and thereafter.....24x7x365...no mas!

Didn't get abused imo...came with the territory, but it sucked just knowing. Some folks I've known, can't/won't plan squat if "on call"...no way to live imo.

This pretty sums it up for me too. I think that the smartphone is an absolutely amazing piece of technology, but it's become an addiction for far too many of us...young & old alike. FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) has invaded our modern consciousness and has resulted in people living a good part of their lives thru a smartphone and on on social media.

Couldn't imagine having a job where being on call 24/7/365 was required, as I never sought to define myself by what I did for a living. There was 'work' time and there was 'my' time, and I was always careful not to let them overlap.

Part of what's gotten me to where I am is being the guy that's available and willing to help. That said, this only gets you so far. Eventually you have to out aside distractions to accompish key tasks.

...I think it's okay to shut down from the constant assault at a point during the day. ...it's not 5:45 for me, more like 8PM, but you do have to draw a line. My team is spread across the world so for me it's less about the time (that's impossible) but more about the priority....

Ha,

Run errands and do other stuff all the time without any issues.
Always answer phone or call back in a timely manner.
If needed, Phone works as a personal hot spot so can use laptop anywhere there is cell service.
If important issues get resolved in a timely manner it don't matter where I am or what I am actually doing.
Many issues can be deferred and worked on when more convenient.
As a example have taken "vacation" trips that included car gatherings and tours. No one knew I wasn't sitting in my home office.

Not really. Constantly reading. Limited social networking means my version of checking Facebook is learning on my mobile device.

When I can have contact lenses with a HUD I'll be happy.

I return calls and texts/whatsapps if I like to.
Sometimes I dont answer the phone at home, just because. If it is important they will call again.

Most people screen calls these days. It's damn near impossible to get a human.

I wouldn't have traded my high tech career in communications & large corporate world wide systems for nothing. 99.9% of doing wtf I wanted to do.....:)....it didn't suck. Being in the middle of I all, I typically only recieved the difficult calls however...and no one but me was gonna figure it out in those situations either. Just came with the territory....I had a techie's dream job imo...

Haven't kept a phone with me all the time since I was 48 though....corporate bs did get old, so I fired them :)

People often text me and then complain because i didn't read it until much later.
My response:

Sometimes it isn't all that bad. I am "officially" on call every other week but the reality is I am on call 24/7/365. That said, we get after hours calls a few times per year so it isn't too bad really.

Oh, and you guys that still have a flip phone, I am jealous. Mine was crushed a while ago and there were not cheap replacements available. I do use the camera on the smart phone now and then though.

just missed a call from my brother because I left it at my desk at work and I was in another room.
weekends I may not look at it but once or twice.

don't get me started on phones and addictions to them

exactly what i do.