Companies put iPod to work

When Gaddis Rathel needed to learn Spanish for his job, his boss gave him an unusual tool to help: a black video Apple iPod, preloaded with language lessons.

In September, Rathel's employer — ACG Texas LP, a Plano, Texas, franchisee of the pancake-house chain IHOP Corp. — started testing Apple Computer Inc.'s digital media player on a few employees to save money on Spanish-language classes. Now, rather than sit in a class on company time or read a textbook, Rathel uses the iPod for audio training in his spare time.

"I've used it in several scenarios around the house and in the car," says Rathel, 45, who, as a manager of field training, spends a lot of time on the road. He also uses it while waiting to pick up his daughter from soccer practice.

People used to hide their iPods from their bosses, if they used them in the office at all. Now the bosses are passing them out to their employees. Companies from health-care suppliers to fast-food chains are handing out free iPods so that employees can download audio and video files of CEO announcements, training courses and sales seminars.

The trend, which follows the widespread adoption of the BlackBerry, threatens to further blur the increasingly fuzzy line between work and leisure time.

Last summer, National Semiconductor Corp., a chip manufacturer in Santa Clara, Calif., spent $2.5 million on video iPods for its 8,500 employees, including those overseas, for training purposes and company announcements. At Capital One Financial Corp., a financial-services company based in McLean, Va., more than 3,000 employees have received iPods since the company began using them in supplementary training classes.

Siemens AG unit Siemens Medical Solutions, a health-care supplier based in Malvern, Pa., purchased about 100 iPods for its molecular-imaging group last year for training and sales support. Other divisions within Siemens are now considering giving iPods to their employees.

The content available for download varies. At Pal's Sudden Service, a restaurant chain based in Kingsport, Tenn., new employees listen to audio files teaching them how to prepare food while they are in the kitchen, enabling them to physically act out the steps. At National Semiconductor, one of the video files available for downloading off the company's intranet Web site features a senior-ranking engineer illustrating the history of the company by dressing up in costumes from different decades, such as hippie clothing from the 1960s.