By Art Holliday
St. Louis (KSDK) - Today's cell phones mean we're always connected to work. You may feel compelled to constantly check your email in your free time or even on vacation.
Most of us can agree it's becoming a real challenge to disconnect from work.
It's a beautiful day at City Garden. The noontime place to be to soak up some sun, splash in the water, hang out in the shade, and check some email.
"Unfortunately your job is almost 24/7 nowadays and lunches and any other personal time, people still want to get hold of you and regrettably things still need to get done," said Steve Raskin.
Jack and Lori Burns are first time visitors to City Garden. They brought their grandkids, and their cell phones for email and Facebook.
"It's nice to have so you can get out of the office but it does get in the way of entertainment. I can't wait to leave to get back to my computer to answer some questions," said Jack.
Like it or not, smart phones mean we're always connected, but is it smart?
"I was at the drug store the other day and I was waiting for something, a prescription. And I thought I'm just going to whip out my phone and I looked around and everyone else had their phones out texting or something and I said, no I'm not going to do that," said Lori.
Trying to disconnect from our phones and email is a worldwide phenomenon. Germany's federal labor minister is pushing for new rules protecting workers from being bothered in their spare time by their employers.
Some companies like Volkswagen have already implemented rules about after work phone calls and email. VW's mandatory Blackberry break means no work emails forwarded 30 minutes after work.
One of the tips we found for email overload is this: If you have thousands of messages in your inbox, declare bankruptcy and delete all of them. If something was important, someone will follow up.
KSDK