Woe is us. According to a new study, the accelerating shift of workers to a more mobile lifestyle has a dark side attached to it, and that "overcoming the challenges of the dark side of mobility is essential for well-being and satisfaction in life and work."

The study, the "Well-being of the Mobile Workforce" from the Institute of Work Psychology at the University of Sheffield in England, compares findings from quarterly iPass Mobile Workforce reports with academic research on the subject of employee well-being.

Not surprisingly, it found that many of us who work out of the office pay a price for being able to sport polo shirts and shorts around the clock... 47 percent put in 5 to ten extra hours each week, and 26 percent work an extra 15 to 20 hours each week.

And there are additional repercussions; among them:

• A difficulty in balancing work and personal commitments, and additional stress because of too much flexibility;
• 32 percent of us said we felt tethered to our smartphones, even when on vacation;
• We're more likely to work odd hours, especially late at night. That, obviously, costs us sleep; and,
• Those long hours, because they've worn us out, may actually be making us less productive.

"People should be careful to mentally detach from work and create strong work-home boundaries while their employers should find ways to enhance employee control, provide support and reduce the expectations on them to work long hours," said Dr. Carolyn Axtell of the Institute of Work Psychology.

But, the paper said, being able to schedule their own time--a third of mobile employees are able to work when and where they want--leads to higher job satisfaction, better psychological well-being, better work life balance and lower intentions to leave the job.

Another study, from the Journal of Business and Psychology, reported similar findings, and pointed out that telecommuting and mobility might even make parenting more difficult.

"When job and family are in the same place, some workers feel there is no chance for downtime--no respite or time to relax," wrote one of the report's authors.

Of course, for every cloud there's at least one silver lining.

In this case, it's all about UC, videoconferencing and collaboration.

A BroadSoft survey of some 400 IT professionals from the United States and United Kingdom revealed that enterprises are rapidly shifting to a mobile-only workforce. The bright note? They're prioritizing the expansion of their unified communications capabilities.

In fact, some 62 percent of survey respondents said they are expanding their UC use, and 72 percent of U.S. execs said they plan to deploy videoconferencing across their organization in the next year. And that's good news for our industry.--Jim