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Working from a Third Place
Krishna Dagli writes to mention a USA Today report on the social and business ramifications of working from a third place - somewhere that is neither home nor office. From the article: "An estimated 30 million Americans, or roughly one-fifth of the nation's workforce, are part of the so-called Kinko's generation, employees who spend significant hours each month working outside of a traditional office. This rootless army is growing 10% annually, according to Gartner Dataquest research. The reason? Corporations are increasingly supportive of teleworking for reasons that range from saving money on office space to needing a backup in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack."
"Corporations are increasingly supportive of teleworking for reasons that range from saving money on office space to needing a backup in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack."
Now even more places for data to leak.
If you want to be able to work from a new location on short notice, a laptop's the only way to go. Set up its networking so it always tunnels to the company's server and runs all communications through that tunnel.
I've heard of a lot of so-called solutions based on USB drives, even bootable ones, but the fact is they all have serious problems security-wise. Even if you're booting - or think you're booting - off the flash drive, by using equipment that's owned or accessible by other people puts your company at risk. The only solution is to also bring your CPU, keyboard input and video output with you; in other words, a laptop PC.
I'm a teacher and I like to do work after school at Panera because there are less distractions there. No colleagues/students/parents stopping by to discuss/chat & no temptation to pick up the phone when it rings (& I live out of my district, so I don't bump into people I know there). So many people, like teachers, work longer than their contract indicates, and places like Panera offer a chance to get a great deal of work done during that overtime in a nice environment without distractions & without making your home into a workplace.
:P )
(And yes, the state of the US education system is my fault. We give people what they pay for
It's funny, it didn't dawn on me that spending all day in my apartment would drive me crazy, so quickly. But after a week at home, I was ready to go back to working from my office cubicle :)
Don't underestimate just having people around you all day.
I still "work at home", but I go tour local coffee shops and bookstores. At least now, there's movement in the environment.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
There seems to be 2 kinds of working from home:
1) I'm taking a sickie really and I don't feel like working and look the business has provided me with a good excuse.
2) Legitimate working from home.
Unfortunately the infrastructure at the moment seems to be set up more for type 1, because every employer I've worked for hasn't got their technology right to facilitate type 2. Mind you I'm in IT and require access to a lot more than many non-IT employees might.
I think if you're going to allow work from home, that's a good thing, but for goodness sake unless your business can afford slacking off set some goals that have to be met, and provide the technology.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Those of us in Field Service have been doing this ever since the first carpenter put his sack of tools on the back of a mule to go repair an ancient roof or remodel a cooking pit. The home office is something I visit once or twice a year if that. Most of my work is done at a customer worksite, from my car, or occasionally from home to finish paperwork.
The wireless technologies you mention could enhance rather than degrade security. Without connectivity, you have to carry all your information with you whever you go. That's dangerous. Having connectivity means you can access only what you need, when you need it, reducing the risk. Think of that VA laptop that got stolen with millions of SSN's. If the guy had just been using the laptop for remote desktop over VPN, no information would have been compromised.
I've been telecommuting for 3 years now and before that I was on a plane every week traveling to client sites ... so I've experienced both extremes of the white collar work environment.
... etc - This is a massive benefit, actually like a salary increase. ... start again at 2:00 to 5:00 then start again at 8:00pm to midnight. I'll see email timestamps from my coworkers at 3am. Other than conference calls you have free reign.
... even seriously depressed.
Telecommuting benefits:
* Minimal fuel, vehicle upkeep, shaving, suits, home lunches
* You have the whole day to get in your time. So I might start at 9:30 break at 12:00
* No distractions so I can often complete projects in a matter of hours rather than days
* Plenty of time to day trade stocks or work on side projects.
Telecommuting disadvantages:
* If you're not married, involved or have a good set of friends then you can seriously get lonely
* You are at a disadvantage for career advancement because the people at the mothership have first dibs.
* It can get REALLY lonely
I have a detached garage and above it i have a 600 square foot room that used to be a toy-train shop that has slowly been remodelled to my "dude room" and now my office. Its great. I have my own private bathroom and everything! i wired the room before i fixed up the walls. I put in a kitchenette with a microwave, fridge, stove, sink, COFFEE MACHINE! and other nice"ities". Its a place i'm fully functional in without having to distract myself but yet a place i can be in for those days when we have upgrades and i need to push the clock to work odd hours. (i'm a database administrator..)
I've got comcast, upgraded to the "pro" account for 8mbit/768k, i've got a Vonage voice line, Vonage fax line, my Cell phone, a company laptop, an extra monitor and plenty of space to work, stretch out and be myself.
I bought a nice speakerphone, got a headset for when i simply want to use Skype and layback during a call (hey its still free for the rest of the year!). Headset can travel with me if want to work from Panera, Barnes in Noble, Borders or other local joints with wifi.
I couldn't ask for more! I drop my daughter off at school, pick her up, make it to her activities, i get to see my wife during lunch and for more than 2 hours in the evening. My car went from seeing 25,000 miles a year to seeing about 4,000.
I find myself closer to my friends, i find myself closer to my community, i find myself more invigorated to do more, achieve more and get more work done. I find myself doing more training, i find myself working on furthering my education, i find myself INTERESTED again.
It takes the right company to know your potential and let you live up to it. Believe me they take security measures that can be annoying but after pushing time at a bank sitting around because i was paid to do one thing and nothing else to busting my balls at places i thought were fun but were just beating me into the ground with work an excuses and getting poor results because of it i'm glad to be here.
My life isn't work, its what i do. Now i do it really well because my work is part of MY Life!
They sell coffee not Internet.