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What if you came into work one day and your boss told you to leave your company-issued BlackBerry at the office that night? That, I think, would be one of the best solutions to the recent issue over employees’ distress over after-hours BlackBerry usage. Here’s the quick story. Employees want overtime because they tend to use their BlackBerry after working hours. That constitutes work, they say, and as such the employees should be compensated for their extra time. Many experts believe this will lead to lawsuits against employers. If that’s the case, then companies need to start designating clear-cut BlackBerry policies.

The best solution, as suggested in the linked CNBC article, is for employers to gather all overtime-eligible employees, known as “non-exempt,” and tell them to leave their BlackBerry devices in the office overnight. After all, the company owns them, and technically they shouldn’t be put to personal use.

However, companies can get a better feel for their employees’ BlackBerry usages by offering them, in writing, the option to bring home their BlackBerry at night, on the condition that they cannot sue for overtime. It is strictly the individual employee’s choice whether he or she brings the device home. With that choice being clear-cut, a lawsuit would likely be tougher to argue.

The problem, though, is with former employees. Without a clear policy in place, and without the company requiring them to document their off-hours working habits, lawsuits are a near certainty.

Currently, the most prevalent solution to this type of problem came when ABC required some employees to sign a waiver stating that they would not be compensated for off-hours BlackBerry usage. When they didn’t sign, the company took away their devices. This led to a negotiation, the result of which states that employees will not be paid for off-hours email checking, but did provision overtime for other tasks that technically should be taken care of on-hours at the office.

Certainly, there is no easy answer, even as I presented it above. This kind of case is not going away anytime soon. As a BlackBerry user, what are your feelings on this? How can employers and employees come to an agreement on fair use of BlackBerry devices away from the office?

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