Fifty Percent Of Workers Use Smartphones While Driving

Listen up, employers of mobile workers. The results of a new CareerBuilder survey should scare you. More than half of all mobile workers admitted to using their smartphones to check emails and perform other tasks while driving for business.CareerBuilder surveyed more than 5,200 mobile workers in November 2009. The results should give any employer of mobile workers reason to worry. Why? Because so many of the survey respondents admitted to engaging in dangerous behavior that puts them, their vehicle and your company at risk.

Here are some of the numbers. CareerBuilder says that 54% of all workers surveyed admitted to checking their smartphones while driving. Perhaps what's most interesting is that the survey broke the numbers down by profession. Sales workers are the worst, with 66% admitting to smartphoning while driving. Professional and business service workers fared slightly better, with 59% admitting to smartphoning while driving. What's really shocking is that 50% of health care workers also admitted to using their smartphones in the car.

Why are these smart professionals engaging in this risky behavior? They believe they have to. More than one-fifth of workers said they check their phone every time it vibrates or beeps. About 18% said that their employers demand they be accessible via mobile device after-hours, and another 14% say the tough economy has forced them to take their job performance more seriously. Apparently that means lightning fast responses to emails at all hours.

Mobile pros are so addicted to their mobile devices, they check them pretty much everywhere they go.

• 62% check during a meal
• 60% check while on vacation
• 57% check while in the bathroom
• 50% check while lying in bed at night
• 25% check when at a movie, play or musical
• 18% check while on a date
• 17% check while working ou at a gym
• 17% check when attending their kids' events
• and, the unholiest of unholies, 11% admit to checking their smartphones while at church (what is wrong with you people!)

Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, offers some insight: "It is challenging for workers to maintain a good work/life balance when they are constantly connected to the office, so turning their devices off is important for their health and safety. The lines between work and [home] life can be very blurry these days - 17 percent of workers said they feel like their work day never ends because of technology connecting them to the office. To reduce burnout and avoid potentially risky behavior, workers should allot technology-free time when away from work."

If you employ workers who are issued company smartphones, perhaps it would be wise to offer some sort of work-life balance training or classes so they don't get carried away -- and land you in a messy lawsuit.