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“ALWAYS ON” DEALING WITH A CONSTANT AVAILABILITY ——o— VOLKER JÖRN WALPUSKI ABSTRACT Mobile communications devices like smart phones are revolting our daily lives and working conditions. Reality and virtuality merge, and there is no longer a contrast between them. Boundaries are blurred in multiple ways. Ubiquitous computing influences organisation of work and has an influence on exhaustion and recreation and is a topic for occupational safety and health programmes. But organisations find it difficult to find rules because there are many contradictions and it seems more likely to let the employees set individual boundaries. This is problematic as it collides with a mindset as ‚interest in riskto-self’. Subsequently contents and the process of supervision and coaching is influenced. Further research should focus on the future tasks and development of counselling and its attitude towards ubiquitous computing. INTRODUCTION To say it first: ubiquitous computing and digitalization are offering a lot of wonderful and helpful improvements for daily life. But in the cheering and praising of their wonders and opportunities there are aspects and side effects forgotten or overseen. Gradually more and more studies are published! about single effects of smart devices on perception, work performance and strain, communication processes and organisation of work. For supervisional practice it might be helpful to have a closer look on these side effects as they are relevant for counselling on both forming of workflow processes as well as stress and strain prevention in the context of occupational safety and health. 1 See for instance: Joshua Harwood - Julian J. Dooley — Adrian J. Scott — Richard Joiner, Constantly connected — The Effects of Smart Devices on Mental Health, in Computers in Human Behaviour, Elsevier, Vol 34, May 2014, 267-272.
