"Absenteeism" in the Blackberry age

The Ottawa Citizen has its knickers in a knot because Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, did not sufficiently interrupt his PEI family vacation following the terrorist arrests in Britain. I'd link you to the article but it's for subscribers only and nobody else seems to care enough to publish an article on it. Telling.

Could somebody please let them know that in the age of Blackberries and telecommuting, physical presence in the office is no longer requisite? The poor guy did fly back for a day, and has been in electronic contact with the office several hours a day on his now rather compromised vacation, but the Citizen is trying hard to sound shocked anyway. On the front page, not in the editorial section.

To be fair to the Citizen, they did pillory Liberal minister Pierre Pettigrew for his lengthy stays in Paris too, so at least they're bipartisan in their indignation. But I think they should drop it altogether. First, it makes them sound like dinosaurs, and whiny ones at that. Second, it begs for an investigation into how much time their reporters and columnists actually spend in the office, and how much time they're only in contact electronically. Because we all know that you can't do real work when you're away from the office, right?

Technorati tags: Journalism, Ottawa Citizen