You might think that asking what happens when the WiFi goes down, is not an IT question at all.

Technically, it's not really an IT question because it doesn't address skills or knowledge. However, these day, every desk based job is now more or less a job in computing and for many people, IT and the idea of always being online are inseparable. Which is why the following question will tell you an awful lot about the person you are about to hire.

"You come into work one morning and the Internet is down. What do you do?"

Obviously there is no correct answer to this, and over the course of these interviews, I have heard a dozen different responses.

People talk about trying to fix the Internet connection themselves; they will suggest calling out their IT support; some will propose that they go to a local Café or even just using their phones.

In every case, the answer was not as interesting as the thought process that underlay it. The assumption, every time, was that the Internet was absolutely essential to their work, even in the short term.

Being online and being productive are not the same

Depending on your job, this may or may not be the case. For example, you don't need the internet to answer your emails. You can draft a response to a hundred emails and then wait for the router to kick back in.

You don't need the Internet to write reports. A spreadsheets can be worked on offline. Clients and suppliers are just a phone call away. You don't need the Internet to manage projects.

You definitely do not need the Internet to make some tea or tidy the storage cupboard.

In the short term, there are an enormous amount of things you can do when the WiFi goes down, but this answer never occurred to any of the interviewees.

Most of their answers were formed around the necessity of returning, as quickly as possible, to their normal working methods, and those methods were invariably tied to being online.

Of course you need to get back online as quickly as possible, so having an actual IT specialist at hand is still important. There will be tasks which can only be completed via web access. Nevertheless, the idea that being connected to the Internet is absolutely integral to your work is simply not true. But worse is that fact that it is not even considered to be a question. When the WiFi goes down your attitude towards work becomes paralysed and defeatist.

Blending your working and social life

Does this come down to simple habit. For many people the Internet means social media. By this I mean social media in it's broadest meaning. If I were to define it, I would say the most universal definition of social media could include anything which allows you to communicate. That could easily include email and even the likes of WhatsApp. Others may argue with that as a definition, but if you accept it then social media becomes the ultimate in grey areas.

If my definition holds, then many of us have fused our working life with our social lives.

This is not an attempt to demean social media in any way. Frankly it wouldn't matter if it were. Social media is part of the fabric of many people's lives and that is not going away any time soon.

You need to be in absolute control of your social media use, particularly in terms of demarcation. You must set up boundaries between your personal online use and your business use. If you don't you risk losing control of your life in ways that may not be immediately apparent.