An interesting combination of stories to take a look at.

First, according to recent Gallup research, “full-time U.S. employees are upbeat about using their computers and mobile devices to stay connected to the workplace outside of their normal working hours. Nearly eight in 10 (79 percent) workers view this as a somewhat or strongly positive development.”

Meanwhile, a new study from Manta and Dell reveals that almost a majority of those surveyed (49 percent) were at their previous job when they decided to open their own small business.

I’m wondering if there’s any connection between the two?

Consider… almost 80 percent of workers don’t mind being connected to work outside of work, while almost half of small business owners started their business while at their previous job. Did these new small business owners decide to go into business for themselves because they were already working those long hours and thought that if they were going to continue doing so they wanted to be working for themselves?

Or is it just a normal reaction that we want the stability and comfort of having a job — regardless of how much we may hate it or how hard they work us — before going out on their own?

Staying Connected to Work

The Gallup research showed that among those who frequently check email away from work, 86 percent said that it is a “somewhat or strongly positive development to be able to do so.” However, this is only slightly higher than the 75 percent of less frequent email checkers who view the technology change positively. Even among employees for whom staying connected is compulsory, 81 percent view this development it in a somewhat or strongly positive light.

It seems everyone has a phone or their hip or in their purse nowadays and we’re constantly looking at, talking on it or texting with it, whether we’re at work or not.

Do we really down deep in our hearts enjoy — or maybe “not mind” — having the work phone on all weekend, checking emails and responding to texts from the boss. Or does it truly make us feel more important and positive about the contributions we make at our job, and therefore to the community and world in which we live?

Or could it be that we enjoy the convenience of being able to easily check in from home instead of putting in so many late hours at the office?

I don’t know. I feel like I’m raising more questions than answers, but I do think that it’s become almost habit for many of us to check the smartphone for email a couple of times a night. It’s so easy to do, and maybe we can delete some junk mail or respond to a couple of emails quickly or even be better prepared to deal with issues and challenges by glancing over emails that came in after office hours.

The Manta/Dell study showed that entrepreneurs believe that “mobile and social technologies hold the most promise for their small business.” More than four in 10 (41 percent) believe that new social media platforms will have the biggest impact on their business and nearly a third (32 percent) believe that mobile technology will.

Final Thoughts

Gallup notes that “frequent checking of messages outside of work hours“:

• Is more common among men (40 percent) than women (31 percent).
• Slightly more prevalent among millennials (38 percent) and those in Generation X (37 percent), compared with baby boomers (33 percent).
• Employees with a college degree or higher are more than twice as likely to regularly check work email versus those with less than a college degree (48 percent vs. 23 percent).
• The highest earners are about twice as likely as the lowest (53 percent vs. 25 percent) to say they do the same.

So employees and business owners alike seem to be on the same page. We seem to be becoming more a more a part of our job or our business.

Maybe one day we’ll be like the Borg, that “Star Trek” collection of species that have been turned into cybernetic organisms functioning as drones of the Collective, having been assimilated via injections of microscopic nanoprobes.

What do you think?

Do you like your electronics and will continue to talk, text and email at all hours of the day and night, or are you ready to take more of a digital detox approach to “staying connected” to the job?

Weigh in below in the comments box. It should be interesting to get some different opinions on the struggle.