workshifting

Workshifting Etiquette

2010-03-11T12:47:50Z

Today we have a guest post from Brent LaSala who is Citrix Online workshifter.

Recently I had the privilege of workshifting with Eric Bensley, a good friend and co-worker at Citrix Online. As a permanent workshifter based in San Francisco, this was a rare opportunity to assess the dynamics of working from home with a teammate. Needless to say, there were a few lessons learned.

Eric arrived at my apartment Monday morning around 10:30am, just as my alarm was going off... Only kidding, David (my boss), it was more like 7:30am. We cooked a delicious egg scramble because we're a couple of well-rounded, domesticated gentlemen that function best with high blood sugar levels. It's not relevant to my post, but let's face it, cooking your own meals is a major workshifting perk that keeps extra change in the piggybank and adipose tissue off your finely sculpted abdomen.

The day started out great. We were energized, excited for the work day, and before long were bouncing (brilliant?) ideas off one another while pounding coffees. By about lunchtime we noticed a few 'home-dwelling' behaviors/sounds not ideally suited for a prosperous work environment. A knowing glance of discomfort, coupled with some form of verbal outcry was typically enough to relay a message of disapproval. Video production is a small hobby of mine, so by about the 4 o'clock hour we were inspired to make the following tutorial on workshifting etiquette, only 'slightly' exaggerated. Hope you enjoy!

Does Workshifting Make You Fearless?

2010-03-10T20:40:44Z

Two business researchers have a study coming out that suggests that many workers are afraid to speak out lest they be mocked by their peers and bosses. According to an HBR blog post, "we relentlessly work to avoid 'image risks,' ... In an analysis of responses from 425 employees in a variety of U.S. businesses, Yuan and Woodman found that worries about image risk significantly diminish employees' innovativeness."

In other words, people think shutting up is smarter than speaking out. And, in their workplaces, they may be right--which underscores the need for a broad culture shift to ignite innovation.

Can workshifters form the vanguard of this new movement?

This isn't an idle question. I was working on my own long before workshifting was a word and telecommuting was an acceptable business practice. I've found that workshifters innovate every day by trial and error, from testing new markets to tweaking our bookkeeping systems to something as mundane (but critically important) as figuring out the best way to recharge multiple devices on the go.

And we have one more big thing in common: we dare to be different.

Does workshifting make you fearless? If so, why?

Photo Credit: Man's Pic

5 Items to Provide the Comforts of Home While Traveling

2010-03-10T14:15:18Z

Like many people, I spend a lot of time traveling. And, I don't mind it but I'm always looking for things or ways to make traveling a bit more like home. It's amazing how one or two little conveniences can relieve insecurities when you're in an unfamiliar place, new hotel surroundings, etc.

Interestingly enough, the topic came up at a recent conference. What do you travel with that makes life a little more bearable so you can focus on the task at hand...which is work? Here's what we came up with:

1.   Outlet - Maybe it's just the hotels I frequent, but they never seem to have enough outlets or they have them in the wrong places. That's why I carry a 3 plug extension that also has 2 USB outlets. It's small and I don't have to worry about cords all over my hotel room. I can get work done and charge my gadgets at the same time.

2.   Book Reader - After listening to my friends rave about their electronic readers, I'm gonna have to break down and get one of these. And now, there are many different kinds to choose from. Besides the obvious advantage of not taking up a lot of space, there were a couple other benefits that intrigued me. One was always having the latest and greatest sellers available; you can also pre-order books and have them delivered right to your reader. But the biggest for me was the reader will stand up on a table. I often travel alone and eat meals by myself...so being able to have something to read is important. Having a reader stand up on a table is a great solution.

3.   Coffee (or tea) - There's nothing worse than waking up to terrible hotel coffee or tea. In tiny cups. So if you're like me and need that morning caffeine - even before I venture out to find a Starbucks - bring a couple of small disposable condiments with you. For example, I'm a big fan of vanilla - and I've found vanilla instant coffee, vanilla creamer and even vanilla flavored sweetener. Friends have done the same with their hazelnut fix. And, I bring a travel size coffee mug. I can use it for water on the plane then coffee in my room.

4.   Exercise - I'm not as good with this one as I should be but I do try to get in some exercise when I'm on the road. And because sneakers can be bulky and hotel gyms can be expensive, I bring resistance bands. They really work, take up virtually no space and I can exercise in my room.

5.   White Noise - Getting a good night's sleep is essential. Otherwise you'll need to pack a lot of coffee (see #3). One of the things that helps me sleep is having noise, similar to house noise, in my room. I have apps on my iPhone that create white noise (or other sounds) to help me sleep. If you don't have an iPhone, there are travel alarms that include a white noise feature.

Whether you're gone for one night or a week, being comfortable when you travel allows you to be productive and do your best work. What comforts of home do you bring with you when traveling?

Photo Credit: ThinkPanama

We eat our own...and are better for it

2010-03-09T19:42:32Z

This blog was designed to serve the Workshifting community with relevant information contributed by the community, and when appropriate mention our services. However, every now and again a really interesting and useful fact lands on my desk that I feel compelled to share.

The graph represents Citrix Online's internal use of GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar compared to our Average Travel Spend per Head Count. The reduction in our Average Travel Spend is significant as our use of online meeting tools has increased (special thanks to Scott Allen).

I thought it would be useful to pull back the kimono and show internal data that demonstrates the value of online meeting tools. I feel like I should add the disclaimer, "...individual results may vary". However, I don't believe that to be true. There are many choices as it pertains to Workshifting tools, and plenty is being written about adoption. Once put into practice, whatever your tool of choice, the impact can be significant.

However, ROI for online meeting services is not always measured by a reduction in travel expenses. In many cases your travel may increase because your use of the tools has allowed you to interact with an even greater number of clients and potential clients. If you're that person, ROI could be measured in terms of an increase in Leads, Gross Revenue or Bookings. For many others, ROI is defined by Productivity and Family Time.

The point is not to pigeonhole yourself into one or the other. Select the tools that best serve your needs and the needs of your team. It's your adoption of the tools into your life that makes them effective, not vice versa.

How do you measure the effectiveness of your Workshifting tools?

Business Continuity Needs to be Continuous

2010-03-09T15:14:19Z

Today Andrew Millard stops by from across the pond to give his input on how to retain business continuity in the face of the unexpected. Andrew is the eCommerce Director of EMEA at Citrix Online.

This winter has seen some extreme weather conditions on both sides of the Atlantic with snowfall causing havoc for businesses and employees alike. Of course, as savvy workshifters know, it doesn't have to be like this! But the sad fact is that there are many who are just not as prepared for these unexpected conditions when they occur.

In the UK, we conducted some research during the heavy snowfall that hit in January and found that the cost of the inclement weather was £1.35bn in lost productivity for British businesses in just one week!

In addition to this, we found that despite 78% of small businesses saying they were prepared to cope with the snow chaos, over half admitted that their business suffered as a result of the winter weather.

When we look at the impact on employees, around a quarter of British workers claimed they lost more than five working hours, with as many as 124 million working hours estimated to have been lost in total.

Let this be a warning!

But now is not the time for us to breathe a sigh of relief. More snow is predicted, and it's just one of any number of unexpected events that can prevent workers getting into the office. During the rest of the year we're likely to face a gamut of other incidents that will make life hard for employees and employers, whether its strikes on public transport, natural disasters or something totally unexpected.

So for all those businesses that were impacted by the snow, now is the time to get your business continuity plan in place, so that next time round there will be no nasty surprises and you have the right processes and technologies in place so productivity losses are avoided.

And it doesn't have to be hard! Here are my five top tips for businesses on how to prepare for the unexpected:

1.    Communicate clearly in advance - make sure your workers know what they need to do if they can't get into the office

2.    Equip employees with the right technologies - remote access and Web conferencing tools can help them remain productive even if they can't get to their desk

3.    Talk to your customers - Phone redirects and remote access software will allow you to go about business as usual, but if clients or customers are likely to be affected let them know as early as possible and keep communication channels open

4.    Consider alternatives - Travel to the office or to client meetings may be impossible, but instead of canceling, conduct the meetings online instead

5.    Put in place a business continuity leader - if the unexpected happens, it's wise to have one person in your organization responsible for coordinating efforts and informing all staff of the potential impacts and company policies

What will do you to prepare for the unexpected?

Photo Credit: Anirudh Koul

Checking-in & #Workshifting: A Valuable Partnership

2010-03-08T17:42:50Z

Ratings and reviews have become a large part of what influences my decisions on where I eat, sleep and drink while traveling. I constantly find myself checking tips on Foursquare and reviews on Yelp to help me decide where I want to spend my time and money. These reviews and ratings are valuable because I know they are user generated and I can trust the opinion of normal people like myself, for the most part.

Now imagine if we applied these ratings and reviews to workshifting. I go to Starbucks in Stratford upon Avon looking to get some work done. I get my coffee, sit down and realize they have free wifi, plugs at nearly every table against the wall and its pretty quite (except at 3:30pm when all the kids get out of school). So I get out my Nexus One, check in on foursquare and write a tip about the great atmosphere, free wifi and outlets and I tag this tip with our cute hashtag #workshifting. Or I am at my coffee shop in NYC and I write a tip that the Bean has free wifi however they have only three outlets and I use the #workshifting hashtag. Next time you are in the East Village looking for a place to workshift you probably won't go to the Bean if you need to plug in. Now we have the ability to make our #workshifting hashtag valuable.

What are your thoughts?

Photo Credit: Melissa Leon

6 Traits Needed to Successfully Manage Workshifters

2010-03-05T20:04:19Z

Many articles have been written about the personality traits needed to be a successful workshifter. Most stress the importance of finding people who are flexible, adaptable go-getters and disciplined workers. But in my opinion, the traits of those people who manage workshifters are equally important. A strong relationship between managers and workshifters is one of the most important elements in a sustained remote working environment.

I'm lucky because two of the three people who supervise me also work out of their homes and as a result understand the situational factors that influence a workshifting environment. But I know this isn't the case for everyone. As a workshifter, the people who manage you are often the only lifeline you have to the office and sometimes even clients and customers. It can quickly become frustrating if you're stuck with a manager who isn't in tune with your unique needs or tries to control every move you make.

As a result, it's important for organizations to not only focus on the workshifters that are part of the team, but also the managers who oversee them. Identify the people who have a management style that best supports worshifters, and provide them with the freedom they need to successfully manage a remote workforce.

From my perspective, here are some of the traits I've found to be most important in people who manage workshifters:

Be an over-communicator. In my opinion, there's no such thing as communicating too much with a workshifter. Workshifters are not around to hear the back and forth about ongoing projects in the office, which is valuable information they're missing out on. Make sure you keep your remote team in the loop. Develop mechanisms that will help them stay informed without having to constantly call their office cohorts to get the information they need.
Be a team builder. Feeling a part of the team is important to the success of workshifters. It increases motivation levels and helps reduce feelings of isolation. Managers who are natural team builders will succeed in acting as a bridge between the culture within the office and the remote team.
Don't micro-manage. Excessive scrutiny increases stress, fosters insecurity and doesn't empower workshifters to contribute their own ideas. It also gives the impression that that you don't trust them. Managers need to figure out a way to monitor the workshifter without micro-managing them. Build trust. Emphasize deliverables instead of actions.
Be responsive. Appointing your busiest employee to manage a team of workshifters is probably not the best idea. Workshifters who don't hear back from their manager until the end of the day will become frustrated at their inability to move projects forward due to lack of information. Managers need to make a conscious effort to be responsive and make themselves available to their team.
Be curious. Take time to understand your workshifter's world. It's easy to build relationships with the people you see every day in the office. For offsite employees this becomes more challenging. Workshifters who believe their managers do not understand their world will feel unsupported and skeptical about their managers' ability to give performance feedback. Managers should go out of their way to get to know workshifters and make them feel more connected. Visit each other's home office. Share family photos. Meet regularly.
Be flexible. Workshifters are a self-motivated, autonomous and dedicated group. This means that managers must look at workshifters as individuals and not as a group entity. Understand each individual's unique needs and motivations and how to respond to them.

Do you have any other traits that you would add to this list?

Photo Credit: Round Indigo Rock

Sharing, Engagement and Serendipity

2010-03-02T14:00:03Z

In social media we understand and accept the principles of sharing, engaging and being open to serendipity. We benefit from engaging and sharing information with people online to form new friendships and working relationships. But how often do we ignore these same social media principles in "real life"? How many times do we sit in the coffee shop working all day with our headphones in trying not to make eye contact with the person sitting next to us?

I share my thoughts on sharing, engagement, and serendipity in a short video....

Your thoughts?

Photo Credit: Medmoiselle T

7 Considerations for Setting Up a Home Office

2010-02-26T04:04:33Z

When I started my consulting business eight years ago, I heard tons of advice about setting up a home office. Everything from - "don't do it" to "it will take two years to get used to it." While on the surface, hearing the words "work from home" might conjure up the somewhat blissful vision of a person working in their sweats all day, having a home office does take some getting used to. And in order to be successful, you have to plan the environment for your needs.

If you think about it, when companies design work spaces they do it for maximum efficiency and productivity. When you make the decision to work at home, you want to focus on the same things. Create a space that allows you to be comfortable, efficient and productive.

7 Considerations for Setting Up a Home Office

Location, Location, Location - Think about the best place in your home to designate as work space. Not only should you think about how much space you will need, but whether or not the space needs to have a door or window. For instance, having a window doesn't matter to me. But having a door does. I need to be able to separate myself from work. And, the best way to do that...is by closing the door.

I also considered the temperature of my house. My home has an east-west facing. Meaning the back of the house is warmer toward the end of the day. So I intentionally have my office at the front of the house. It stays cooler and I don't have to deal with too much sunlight.
Ergonomics - In order to do your best work, you have to be comfortable. And, that comfy sofa in front of the plasma TV starts looking real good after a couple hours in a poorly designed workspace. Your office chair needs to properly support your back. If you'll be working on a computer from home, make sure you have proper lighting and wrist rests.

I know this might sound elementary, but you'd be amazed at the people who don't consider taking good care of their posture in designing a home office. It's one thing to jump in a chair and send off a few bills from a desk. That takes minutes. It's another thing to work for hours. Reading a few articles on how to take good care of your movements will make you healthier and more productive.
Communication Musts - One of the keys to working from home is being accessible. I've always found my clients didn't care where I was as long as (a) they could reach me and (b) I delivered on time. This means how you communicate is key, because you are establishing your credibility and creating trust.

Many people use their cell phones as primary communication devices. Which is great. I love my iPhone and use it all the time. But I also know there are a couple of places in my home that the coverage is spotty and I could drop a call. So I have a landline backup. Nothing is worse than being on an important conference call and getting dropped off the line. I'm not endorsing one way over another...just keep in mind how you need to communicate when setting up your office.

Also when it comes to phone coverage, think about whether voicemail, forwarding services and applications like Google Voice make sense to keep you connected to your customers.

My last two-cents about phones - one of the best investments I made was a wireless headset. If you spend a lot of time on conference calls, this could be a lifesaver for you. It's also great when you're on a call and someone wants you to sign for a package. Multitasking at its best.

In planning your communication needs, consider other electronics. I know faxing can seem old-fashioned, but some places still use it. A lot.
Technology - Talking about communication leads to discussions about the internet. If you have multiple computers in your home, a wireless network might be necessary. I've had plenty of occasions where the Ethernet cable wasn't working but the wireless network kept me up and running until a repair was made.

Ever lost a document you spent hours creating because the electricity blinked? Well, don't let that happen. Get a battery back-up (also known as a UPS - Unlimited Power Supply) for your computer. Trust me. It's money well spent.

I also can't resist sharing my technology indulgence. Dual monitors. Years ago, the graphic designer who worked on my website suggested it. If you spend a lot of time on computers, it will completely change the way you work and your productivity.
Storage - As you finish projects and/or accumulate resources, you'll have to find someplace to keep all of this "stuff." First, I'd suggest contacting an attorney who can offer some advice on how many years you need to store projects.

After you know how long to store files, consider how you'll maintain both electronic files and hard copy. And how you'll dispose of them as well. I've found a wonderful service that brings a truck to my door, destroys files on-site and provides a certificate they've been destroyed. So I can rest assured that any confidential info that has been entrusted to me by my customers is safe.

It goes without saying that I use a personal shredder for everyday items.
Find Your Zone - Working from home can be a blessing and a curse. Need to take 5 minutes to make a personal phone call - no problem. Want to work in your pajamas, no worries. But it also means that work is staring you in the face all the time.

While you might enjoy what you do...you still need time to disconnect. Figure out a routine that works for you. When I first started working at home, I was so concerned about falling into the trap of being undisciplined that I made myself miserable. After settling into a schedule that allowed me to do some things that were important to me - like working out - I was happier and more productive.
Marketing your office - Even though you work at home, you still want to send the message that you're a professional. So when I refer to where I work - it's called the office. Not home.

And since it's not feasible to hold meetings in my home, I also think about where to hold meetings. Lucky for me, most of my clients want me to meet them at their site. Or they want to meet over coffee or lunch. But find good places to have meetings so you're always prepared when a customer wants to see you face-to-face.

With more people considering freelancing and consulting, working from home has plenty of advantages. A well-thought-out plan to establishing a home office can offer you a casual, comfortable, flexible place to work that's also easy to set up and relatively inexpensive to maintain. Best of all, it's a place where you can really get things done!

Photo Credit: Paladin27

Workshifting on the Move

2010-02-24T16:16:20Z

In the last week I have taken two flights, rode in a bus and on a train. While on these three modes of transportation I evaluated what type of work could I get done. How productive could I really be while in transit from one place to another. I usually sleep on a flight or in a train ride, but recently I have tried to make that time productive.

I have not been lucky enough to be on a flight with internet as of yet. So my productivity is limited to what I can sync offline and finish while in the air. I used my time on a flight from London to Barcelona to answer emails and work on blogs posts. Once we landed I connected to the internet and synced my emails and sent out my blog posts. This was a pretty good use of the three hour flight to Barcelona, considering I would usually have slept that whole flight.

On the train I had my broadband card so I was able to access the internet to work on a client proposal and record a screencast for an application. The train was nice because the seats were spacious and if you get on the train a bit early you can get a seat with table. The hardest place for me to work was on the bus. The bus was really cramped and extremely difficult to work on. The space was too small to try to work on my laptop and the ride was bumpy making it really hard for me to read because I get motion sick. So I used the rest of the bus ride to catch up on some sleep. So at the end of it I got some sleep but realized that I can be pretty productive on a train or plane.

What do you do while in transit to stay productive? What type of work do you do on planes, trains and buses?

Choosing a Place to Stay While Traveling

2010-02-22T13:18:22Z

One of the most fundamental elements of planning any trip is where to stay. At the moment, I am on a very long trip that, in the end, will span 3 continents and several countries. Locating and booking affordable accommodations that provide what is important to me can become a pain sometimes. For the past year, I have leveraged the collective wisdom of both Yelp and Foursquare to assist in these searches. Below is a quick video post identifying the items I look for in accommodations while on workshifting trip.

What are the things you look for when searching for a place to stay?

How Many People Actually Telecommute?

2010-02-22T01:13:13Z

Inga hit my hot button with her recent post "What's in a Name". Depending on whom you ask, the number of U.S. telecommuters ranges from between 2.8 million people (consider home their primary place of work, not including the self-employed) and 44.4 million (includes anyone works at home at least once a year).

The counting problem isn't because no one has bothered to study the work-at-home population. The IRS, Bureau of Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics Small Business Adminsitration, and a number of private researchers all collect data about people who work from home. But they all come at it with their own needs and biases.

The big problem, as Inga points out is that no one agrees on whom to count. Bruce Phillips, a researcher for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) called the task of separating out the real work-at-home numbers as a "statistical Vietnam--the data goes in, but you can't get it out."

The population of people included in various counts range from people who work from home as little as one day a year, to those who do so the majority of the time (Census). Some sources count incorporated and unincorporated small businesses, others don't. Some consider telecommuters to include road warriors whom, while they may be teleworkers, they are not not using technology to replace their commute--the classic definition of telecommuting. BLS and Census even include unpaid family workers among the work at home population.

None of the studies separate out those employees and business owners who work at home from those who work from home. For example, while a plumber may be home-based, he only earns his living with his head under someone else's sink.

It seems to me the whole thing is a bit like studying meteoroids. We know there are a lot of them, we know there are different kinds, and we know they're important, but we don't know where they all are and not everyone agrees on which ones to count.

Of course I have my biases too. As a telecommuting researcher and author, I'm interested in the people who regularly work both from and at home because they offer the greatest potential to reduce global warming, energy usage, and traffic congestion. They're also the ones who derive the most work-life benefits from telecommuting.

For those counts, I lean toward Census data. They ask employed workers where their principal place of work was during the survey week. Granted, some may have had an unusual week, but the numbers for 2008 show that 5.9 million called home their principal place of work. Of those, 3.1 million were home based businesses. That means that only 2.5 million employees, 1.9% of the working population, worked at home most of the time. That's a long way from the 52 million people who hold telecommuting compatible jobs.

Of course, others, such as equipment and software suppliers, are just as interested in the mobile workforce counts (i.e. road warriors, plumbers, electricians). A reporter from Inc. magazine (they're doing a month-long experiment with telecommuting) asked if I knew the size of the mobile workforce marketplace. I was embarrassed to say I didn't, but as I thought about it, it goes back to the same problem--we're just not capturing the data.

Over two dozen local, state and federal programs aimed at promoting telecommuting have been proposed or adopted in the past year. Federal funds are already flowing to the cause. Without proper statistics on the growth of the trend, the return on investment for these programs will be impossible to determine. I've actually submitted several proposals aimed at doing the research necessary to get a handle on the existing telecommuting population and coming up with a way to standardize the counts going forward. Everyone I've talked to seems interested, but so far no one's been willing to put up the dough. Stay tuned on that.

Where do you get your stats on telecommuting? Have any good sources? Let's share them around and see if we can solve this, finally.

Photo Credit: RaeA

Is Your Workshifting Diet Killing You?

2010-02-19T12:40:06Z

Celebrity Chef and Activist Jamie Oliver gave a fascinating and disturbing presentation at TED on how food is literally killing us. We are eating ourselves to death. We live in the most abundant time in recent history. In the developed world, we have living standards which were unheard of only a generation ago. We also have access to the great equalizer, the Internet. Despite all of this, 2/3 of Americans are overweight.

What really stuck with me is how casually this can happen and how it affects all of us. This really got me thinking about the Workshifting diet. If you frequently work out of a coffee shop, airport or any other remote location, have you ever stopped and considered what you're eating?

Well...I did. On occasion, I workshift from Bulldog Cafe in Solvang, California. I happily enjoyed a latte with a ham and cheese quiche for breakfast. Throughout the day I was snacking on whatever was there, muffins, juice and more coffee. I don't think my story is unique so I started poking around the internet for tips on a healthy travel diet.

Much of the advice appears to be consistent:

Pack you own food
Eat breakfast at home
Avoid the drive-through
Be mindful of what your order

Sounds logical...but hell, I don't do that. Doing a quick search I didn't find any practical advice so I reached out to Celebrity Fitness Coach and Nutritionist Rich Guzman. This is what he had to say:

Meals: One third protein (eggs, fish, chicken, turkey, tofu) and two thirds vegetables (greens, squash, or other less starchy ones) if you're trying to remain healthy and lean.

Timing: Eating every three hours is advantageous to keep the body from burning muscle for energy. If you have the tendency to feel bloated or have indigestion after most meals you may have food allergies to yeast, gluten, dairy, or sugar. Sugar is the real enemy when trying to maintain or lose body fat. It sneaks into our diets via fruit juices, alcohol, packaged or restaurant food, and in our energy drinks. The body can only manage small amounts of sugar in the system and uses insulin to keep the body on an even keel. The body reacts in a defensive mode when sugar is introduced in mass quantities by pumping out insulin and storing everything as fat (carbs, protein, and fats).

On-the-go: Starbucks has oatmeal and hard-boiled egg choices. The dried fruit and nuts also works if you're training hard and need a snack. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf offers a yogurt parfait and a tuna sandwich. My recommendation for a drink is Green Tea iced or hot, or a soy decaf sugar-free coffee drink (take all the fun out of it).

If you have questions, you can reach Rich Guzman on Twitter @laroxdude.

The best outcome of this post would be awareness. You are going to do some of the things Rich recommends and not others, but if you keep this top of mind and share information on lessons learned, we'll all be better off.

What are your tips for healthy eating on-the-go?

Photo Credit: sshb

What's In A Name?

2010-02-18T16:18:00Z

One of the comments on my last post (Is telecommuting good or bad for the environment?) got me thinking about the various different ways we refer to people who don't work in traditional office settings.

It seems as though the number of terms increases almost as quickly as the number of people who enter this type of working arrangement. I started putting together a list of a few of the descriptors that seem to appear most frequently (I'm sure you will have others to add):

Workshifter
Mobile worker
Road warrior
Digital nomad
Telecommuter
Teleworker
Home office executive
Remote worker
Nomad worker
Digital worker
At-home workers

While many of the terms are used interchangeably, like "teleworker "and "telecommuter," others clearly have different meanings. Road warrior, for example, is someone who travels extensively for business - much like George Clooney's character in the movie Up in the Air. A home office executive, on the other hand, would be someone who works exclusively from home.

The question of terminology of course becomes interesting when trying to measure the number of people who telecommute, how this is changing over time and how it is impacting our culture. Let's say for example, you are trying to measure the impact of Workshifters on something like home office supplies. How can you be sure you are comparing apples to apples when so many people define Workshifters in so many different ways?

How can we even measure the number of people who are telecommuting if we don't have an overarching term or "guidelines" to qualify you for this category?

It appears that the Bureau of Census attempts to count us Workshifters by determining how many people "primarily" work from home. That clearly doesn't encompass someone who is primarily on the road. Shouldn't this type of person be classified as a telecommuter, too? (Note: I contacted the Census Bureau Public Information Office to learn more details about how they will be counting Workshifters in the 2010 Census, but have not yet heard back as of this posting.)

What do you think? Should there be a set way to classify people who work outside of traditional office environment? Or, is it impossible to reach a consensus on these terms, since the "best" definition of telecommuting most often depends on your own point of reference?

Photo Credit: eshm

Has Technology Made the Work Day Longer?

2010-02-12T14:08:56Z

I have come across quite a few blog posts where the first paragraph is a general complaint about the hours we work; where we are the victim and technology is the weapon. To that I say, ignorance is bliss. From my perspective, we CHOOSE to work beyond the confines of traditional work hours because we can. We can, because we have the tools, not vice-versa.

It seems that just about everyday a new tool comes out that offers to pull the fabric of our self-made social web even tighter. Some new tools on the block are Foursquare and Plancast. Neither of which improve the quality of my network, but they are cool and fun, and I choose to try them out. Now add these to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or whatever your social media weapon of choice, and there is some serious time spent in the name of connecting.

I am connected to the social web via TweetDeck. I'm watching and participating in the conversations that I care about. Does it add to my workload? Definitely. Do I like it? No Doubt. Is there value to my company? Absolutely. I think the debate stems from how "work-day" is being defined.

The view seems to be that of the old-school corporate time clock vs. workshifting. One is focused on time and the other on outcome. One is focused on the office and the other is location agnostic.

Therefore, if I'm focused on outcome and I'm location agnostic, does that equal a longer work-day? No, it's equals a work-day that may include Monday morning at 4am or Sunday at 9pm. It also may NOT include Tuesday at 9:30am and Friday at noon. By re-framing perceptions of working hours and work space, you can quickly see that in most cases there are not more working hours, but the hours worked are more effective. This also requires setting boundaries for when you're "on deck". In other words, don't call me at home at 4am unless I'm expecting it.

By extending the definition of work-day to include workshifting, it opens up a world of possibilities on how to achieve an objective. I can collaborate with social media tools, attend a conference or speaking engagement, have an online meeting and of course (at least in my case) go to the office for a dose of much needed corporate culture. Despite how this post may read, I love going into the office because I need to connect in person.

So next time you read about how the evil social media tools are driving people to work 24 hours a day, stop and think. The definition of work-day is growing up. Are you growing along with it, or are you fighting for the status quo.

What say you?

Photo Credit: tranchis