Mobile Work Exchange

In the beginning there was Telework Day, an effort in conjunction with the government of Virginia to encourage residents to reduce commutes and energy consumption.  The result was 4,000 people statewide pledging to telework August 3, 2009. Telework Day saved pledges $124K in commuting costs and reduced emissions by 82 tons.

Let’s say it’s been an action-packed two weeks. Two storms impacted the country – Yahoo! and Saturn. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of talking about both. No matter what your views are, we were reminded this week of the importance of contingency plans – even if the weather threat was bigger than the actual impact.

With the announcement of Yahoo's new ban on telework, the Internet has been abuzz with people chiming in on the pros and cons of this new policy. Last week, the search engine sent an internal memo to all staff informing them everyone must start working from a Yahoo office come June.

February 2 marks another Groundhog Day. Another year I cross my fingers hoping that Phil won't see his shadow... or maybe I want him to see it. I can never remember, but mark my word, I'm rooting for spring. The reality usually sets in though -- it is February and I do live in the D.C. area. It's a safe bet that Old Man Winter will stay for a while longer.

It’s awards season – the time of year when celebrities walk the red carpet, award show hosts try to make us laugh, and the most talked about guy is Oscar. 

But this year there’s another award garnering buzz among the Federal crowd – the Mobile Security Honor Roll.

To drive or not to drive? That is the question – at least, historically. When wintery weather hits, we’ve traditionally been forced to ask ourselves if making the trek to the office is worth the risk.  The alternative was missing work – and missing deadlines. 

These days, though, wintery weather does not always pose an either/or question. Telework is becoming a more viable option – and is changing the conversation in the federal government.

When recently asked about the “jobs of the future,” inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil mused that while we can see patterns and predict trends, the jobs of tomorrow have yet to be invented. He goes on to argue that jobs today include significant ongoing learning because people must learn the new skills needed for new jobs. Kurzweil envisions a future where change continues to accelerate, but where people have better tools and abilities to adapt to the change. Creativity and learning are the dividend of this reality, not the old chestnut that everyone will have more leisure time because robots will do all of our work.

It’s easy to take all the comforts of our modern lives for granted.  Cars are basically parking themselves these days, and Wi-Fi on airplanes allows us to watch our favorite shows as we zip across the country in a matter of hours.  Mobile devices can talk to and interact with us like humans – not to mention letting us securely accomplish our work from anywhere and at any time. 

Spending less money at the pump, reducing pollution, less time in traffic – it’s easy to talk about these telework benefits because we can easily quantify the savings.  However, one of the biggest benefits of telework is a bit harder to measure – work-life balance. 

What is your weekend guilty pleasure? Mine is reading the papers on Sunday morning. In my line of work, you need to enjoy reading. I have online newsfeeds, Twitter searches, Google alerts and several dozen other sources of news I read on a daily basis. But on Sunday, I read the paper; the actual newsprint and ink version. Some things are interesting, some sad, some funny and some just make you think.

Forget spooky old houses, tacky Halloween costumes, and vitriolic presidential campaign rhetoric.  What’s scaring us the most this October?  Cybersecurity threats – particularly those against the federal government.

Did you know that next month, October, is National Work and Family Month? What a better time to talk about working and having a family at the same time. Full disclosure, I am not a parent, so I won’t be giving you my family story, but I thought that I would be a good person to look at this somewhat objectively. I am, however, the child of a working single mother and I know lots of working women and men who have dual responsibilities as the primary care giver and bread winner of the family.

With only a few short months left until Election Day, the political season is in the stretch run.  I think we’ve already seen enough attack ads to last us through November and beyond. 

Thankfully, those on both sides of the aisle agree – the federal government can identify areas where it could do more with less to maximize its resources.  And it’s further agreed that in the government technology arena, there are certainly a number of ways to do that.

Thus far, 2012 has seen wildfires out west, twisters in the midwest, tropical storms and flooding in Florida, unprecedented heat across the country, and now something called a "derecho" that knocked out power and uprooted trees from Illinois to D.C. 

So what’s going on? The Mayans, if they were still around, would surely say that all of this is a precursor to the end of everything that we’ll all face at the end of this year. In general, I prefer a slightly more optimistic worldview… but to each his own.

Most days I write about management issues such as the intersection of work and technology, remote collaboration, and management by objective, not attendance. Today I want to talk about how we fail – because it’s important to understand how we fail in order to give ourselves the best shot at real success.

It’s summertime, and the living is easy… and it’s even easier for those of us who can access our desktops or e-mail from mobile devices. While many would like to spend these hot summer days lounging by the pool, let’s face it — the workplace is no lazy swim. Today’s worker is ever on the go, and having mobile devices that allow us to stay productive is what it’s all about.

Earlier this month, the Federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released its first comprehensive report to Congress on telework following the enactment of the new Federal telework law at the end of 2010. I have spent the last two weeks talking to reporters about what it means. While they have written some very good stories, the most important thing in the report may not be getting the play it deserves; that is a plea to understand that this is just the first attempt to make this all work. I’ll talk about some of the findings and what I think they mean (in case you haven’t had time to read the full report). But first, I want to talk about this idea of maturity of the effort.

How many times have you had an e-mail exchange with someone that went on for three, six, even ten back and forth messages, just to set up a meeting? Sure, you could have "had the meeting" via e-mail or even picked up the phone and called, but sometimes you need to look the person in the eye to get across what you need to say or hear from them. E-mail and phone are OK, but it's not the same. So, you finally get the meeting set for a week from next Tuesday and then your boss calls and says you need to go to Dubuque a week from next Tuesday and the scheduling dance starts all over again.