Tag: Office Culture

Posted on

News You Can Use: 6/10/2020


Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

  • Poorly Designed Curfews Are Wreaking Havoc on Cities

    The problem stems in part from the litany of exceptions and caveats embedded within the curfew policy. Essential workers are allowed out past curfew as long as they are going from work to home. But they are allowed to stop at a deli for a meal. But then they have to go right home. Unless they need medical supplies, then they can get those too. Food delivery workers can also be out, as can media, but only if they’re working. If you’re stopped, there are “no specific requirements for ID.” It is, in short, up to whether the police officers believe you or not.

    Plus, the guidance that “transportation infrastructure such as bus, rail, and yellow and green taxis will be operating normally” proved not to be the case. At Columbus Circle, Gothamist reporter Jake Offenhartz tweeted a photo of police in front of the subway entrance 13 minutes prior to curfew. “Uber and Lyft have been ordered shut at 8. Citi Bike and Revel are already deactivated in the neighborhood,” Offenhartz added, referring to the city’s bike and moped share systems. “When curfew hits in 10 minutes, how the hell are people supposed to get home???”

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj4bv7/poorly-designed-curfews-are-wreaking-havoc-on-cities
    DoorDash says it is ‘prepared to provide support’ for Caviar workers arrested in NYC during curfew

    On-demand delivery workers are now caught between the protests and law enforcement, as on-demand apps like Caviar, DoorDash, and Uber Eats informed them that they could continue taking orders as essential workers in certain cities despite the curfew. In some locations, like San Francisco and Washington, DC, Uber and other apps ceased operations during curfew hours. But in New York City, the apps assured their contractors, many of whom rely on the apps for income during the pandemic and yet receive no other form of financial assistance, they could continue working.

    “Our teams on the ground are working closely with cities on how to best support them based on their needs and the local situation,” an Uber spokesperson told BuzzFeed News earlier this week regarding its inconsistent approach to city curfews. “Some cities have requested that we suspend operations during curfew hours while others want to ensure Uber is available for essential services.”

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/5/21281272/doordash-caviar-nyc-workers-arrested-response-curfew-protests-police-brutality

  • What should schools teach? Now is the moment to ask
  • Google outlines plan to get some employees back to the office

    Google will begin opening some of its office buildings in various cities starting on July 6, allowing a small amount of its employees who need a physical workspace “the opportunity to return on a limited, rotating basis.” The idea is to rotate employees in for a day every few weeks to keep facilities at only around 10% occupancy.

    If all goes well in its initial efforts, Google will scale that 10% up to 30% around September “which would mean most people who want to come in could do so on a limited basis, while still prioritizing those who need to come in,” according to Pichai.

    https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/26/google-campuses-reopening-covid-19/
    Google’s work from home strategy includes a $1,000 allowance

    As a result the company is providing a $1,000 allowance to staff to help them buy computers, office furniture and other equipment needed for remote work. While that might not cover everything, it should ease the burden for workers who don’t have everything they need.

    https://www.engadget.com/google-work-from-home-allowance-221701178.html

  • Why Does Zoom Exhaust You? Science Has an Answer

    Zoom and other video-conference services present many communication pitfalls—an inability to read body language, faces that move into different spots on the screen, a chat feature to accommodate side comments and transmission delays that hinder turn-taking. “You are always making a judgment about how much to speak and when it’s appropriate,” says Steve Harrison, associate professor at Virginia Tech and director of its Human-Centered Design Program.

    With so little non-verbal and real-time feedback, it’s difficult to tell if people on the other end of the video line are with you. “Ask a question and there’s silence. You feel like you’re talking to empty air,” says Keeley Sorokti, director of knowledge sharing at the Chicago-based nonprofit Ounce of Prevention Fund.

    Another source of stress, researchers have found, is that a mirror or video camera trained on study subjects causes them to see themselves the way they think others do. “When you look in a mirror, what you tend to see is your objective self,” says Amy Gonzales, assistant professor at UC Santa Barbara who studies media and identity. “I guess my nose is kind of big. Maybe I do need some wrinkle cream.” Zoom says it offers a control to block the mirror image.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-does-zoom-exhaust-you-science-has-an-answer-11590600269

Posted on

News You Can Use: 3/25/2020


Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

  • Silicon Valley Was First to Send Workers Home. It’s Been Messy.

    In recent days, software developers sent home by Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook have complained of slow download speeds and mounting confusion over still-evolving new internal rules about what work they are allowed to perform, staffers say. Some workers can’t access crucial internal systems from home due to strict security policies meant to fend off outsiders—which now includes off-site employees.

    Alphabet Inc.’s Google was overrun with requests after it told its 119,000 employees to put in for “work from home” kits of monitors, cables and other technological must-haves, employees say. Facing a backlog and no certain date of delivery, many San Francisco employees came in over the weekend, despite requests from Google to avoid doing so, and hauled home desktop equipment and personal effects like family photos back with them.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-was-first-to-send-workers-home-its-been-messy-11584190800

  • Farts, cats, naked bodies: People are failing hilariously at working from home

    Work culture will need to adjust to the new normal, in which toddlers and flatulent dogs are our coworkers. It inevitably will. But until then, here are some of the worst work-from-home fails we’ve seen in the past week. They prove that, however rough your work-from-home experience has been, it could have been a lot worse.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90478967/farts-cats-naked-bodies-people-are-failing-hilariously-at-working-from-home

  • Your Company Culture Isn’t an Office, It’s the People
  • At Schools Closed for Coronavirus, Online Work Won’t Count

    Schools are expected to advance students to the next grade, come fall, even with all the months of missed coursework, though many administrators say they haven’t addressed it yet. Teachers already dread what they call “the summer slide,” or information children lose over summer vacation, and schools haven’t yet said how curricula in the fall may need to be adjusted to make up missed work.

    In Washington state, where schools are closed statewide until at least April 24, the Education Department has warned against using online learning that isn’t equitable. At least one district in Bothell, Wash., halted the online model it had rolled out to students to address equity issues. Now, the Northshore School District superintendent said, in a letter to families this week, the district has launched a resource page online for families to keep students moving forward. This week, students are being encouraged to create projects that could be useful in relation to the current health situation, such as building a hand-sanitizer dispenser. A petition to restore online learning had over 11,000 signatures on Thursday.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/schools-closed-for-coronavirus-online-work-wont-count-11584643049

Posted on

News You Can Use: 1/29/2020


Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

  • Away C.E.O. Is Back, Just Weeks After Stepping Down

    “Frankly, we let some inaccurate reporting influence the timeline of a transition plan that we had,” Ms. Korey said in an interview last week. With some time and perspective, she said, the company’s board members decided to reverse themselves. “All of us said, ‘It’s not right.’”

    The members of Away’s board say they feel as if they fell victim to management by Twitter mob.

    The company now says it disputes The Verge’s reporting and has hired Elizabeth M. Locke, the lawyer who successfully brought a defamation case against Rolling Stone magazine for a story about a supposed gang rape at the University of Virginia. It is unclear whether Away plans to bring a lawsuit.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/business/steph-korey-away.html

    Who is Steph Korey?

  • Worker burnout is real. Here’s how to spot it.

    Burnout isn’t necessarily due to a heavy workload or long hours; hard workers can be happy workers in the right conditions. And occasional short-term burnout is normal for humans, a sign we need a break. But in the case of chronic, pervasive burnout, Beckstrand says, the primary cause is usually a “negative workplace culture” with deficiencies in six areas: purpose, opportunity, success, appreciation, well-being and connection. To combat employee burnout, says Beckstrand, employers should make a regular practice of acknowledging workers for their unique contributions as individuals, and helping them feel connected to a larger purpose.

    But it’s not all on management to prevent burnout. Beckstrand recommends that workers take burnout as a sign to seek meaningful contact from supervisors and peers — not just to complain or vent, but to admit when they’re stuck, ask for input and seek a broader perspective on how their work supports the overall mission.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/01/16/worker-burnout-is-real-heres-how-spot-it/

  • The changing nature of work is changing our workspaces too

    But according to Macgadie, companies are becoming more sophisticated with how they think about that data. Rather than simply looking at real estate utilisation and the number of bodies that can be safely be squeezed into a certain square footage, they’re increasingly attempting to tie use of space to more tangible business outcomes and metrics.

    “It’s becoming less about efficiency and more about effectiveness. It’s not about density, it’s about whether a space performing a certain task really well. If the output from that space can be quantified and is exceedingly high then that space is really effective,” Macgadie says.

    https://digiday.com/media/office-space-changing-nature-work-quickly-changing-spaces-work/

  • Goodbye, Back Pain? This Office Chair Was Designed by a Trauma Surgeon

    Kneeling chairs emerged in the late-70s, claiming to reduce lower back pain. A few years later, everyone was taking conference calls on exercise balls, the bobbing blobs said to build core strength and zap calories. Various wobbly stools touted similar benefits.

    Then we heard sitting was problematic, so we stood. Contrary evidence emerged: One 2017 study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, followed more than 7,300 workers for 12 years and discovered those who stood for long periods had a twofold increase in heart disease risk.

    When Dr. Turner Osler transitioned from the operating room to an office job where he sat 60 hours a week conducting biostatistics research, the trendy chairs he tried left him achy and unsatisfied. So he decided to adapt the best parts of each for his own design, an active stool dubbed the QOR360 (from $350, qor360.com).

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/goodbye-back-pain-this-office-chair-was-designed-by-a-trauma-surgeon-11579282420

Posted on

News You Can Use: 1/22/2020


Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

  • ‘Culture of venting’: How agencies manage gossip in the workplace

    This culture of venting is also driven by another, more difficult to pin down, force: the very ways people are working today. People are spending more time at work. For individuals who are just entering the workforce, the lines between “work” and “not work” are blurred. Work friends are also regular friends. That means that work-life discussions are also discussions between friends. This can be good for workplace bonding but potentially problematic if it leads to the rapid spread of misinformation.

    Agencies have been doing more to detect and respond to problematic “gossip.” TBWA/Chiat/Day has purchased IBM’s Social Pulse software so as to monitor public channels and posts for potential red flags or specific sentiments. The Martin Agency uses a feedback survey tool called TinyPoll to ask employees quick anonymous questions to identify what exactly workers are concerned about. At another agency, its communications and PR teams peruse the app Fishbowl, as part of the morning routine.

    https://digiday.com/marketing/culture-venting-agencies-manage-gossip-workplace/

  • ‘Techlash’ Hits College Campuses

    At this year’s Golden Globes, Sacha Baron Cohen compared Mark Zuckerberg to the main character in “JoJo Rabbit”: a “naïve, misguided child who spreads Nazi propaganda and only has imaginary friends.”

    That these attitudes are shared by undergraduates and graduate students — who are supposed to be imbued with high-minded idealism — is no surprise. In August, the reporter April Glaser wrote about campus techlash for Slate. She found that at Stanford, known for its competitive computer science program, some students said they had no interest in working for a major tech company, while others sought “to push for change from within.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/style/college-tech-recruiting.html

  • How to criticize, from a critic
  • The Humble Office ID Badge Is About to Be Unrecognizable

    Researchers are developing a technology called gait recognition, which uses cameras to identify people based on their body shape and how they move, and say it could one day be implemented in U.S. offices. In places with especially tight security, such as workplaces that handle hazardous materials or heavy machinery, several different ID technologies could be linked to repeatedly identify workers as they move around, says Vir Phoha, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Syracuse University. Video cameras might recognize people’s faces as they enter a building, and later analyze how they walk to identify them again. Software could assess an employee’s typing to verify whether it’s the same person identified earlier in the day.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-humble-office-id-badge-is-about-to-be-unrecognizable-11578333651

  • Sloped Toilet Aims to Curb Employee Bathroom Time

    In a recent Wired article (via BBC News), Mahabir Gill, the founder of the England-based company, StandardToilet, said that his company has created a toilet with a seat that slopes at a 13-degree angle, making it just uncomfortable enough to encourage sitters to vacate after about five minutes of use. Gill told Wired that there are many reasons a time-limiting toilet could be beneficial for people, but ultimately made no bones about it: The reason he and his team made this toilet is to cut down on the amount of time employees spend in the bathroom, and therefore improve a given company’s bottom line. (Insert “bottom line” pun here for all of you who can’t resist the urge.)

    The sloping toilet works exactly as one would expect it to, essentially forcing its occupant into a mild crouch position, which puts a low-level strain on a series of their muscles, including those in their thighs, hips, and calves. As time moves on, the position becomes less and less comfortable, thusly compelling a user to finish their business and stand. Gill told Wired that the mildly uncomfortable position encourages workers “to get off the seat quickly,” although he also said that it’s not steep enough “to cause health issues.” He did note, however, that any seat sloped more than 13 degrees “would cause wider problems.”

    https://nerdist.com/article/sloped-toilet-curb-bathroom-time/

Posted on

News You Can Use: 12/23/2019


Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

  • Survival of the Richest

    This “out of sight, out of mind” externalization of poverty and poison doesn’t go away just because we’ve covered our eyes with VR goggles and immersed ourselves in an alternate reality. If anything, the longer we ignore the social, economic, and environmental repercussions, the more of a problem they become. This, in turn, motivates even more withdrawal, more isolationism and apocalyptic fantasy — and more desperately concocted technologies and business plans. The cycle feeds itself.

    The more committed we are to this view of the world, the more we come to see human beings as the problem and technology as the solution. The very essence of what it means to be human is treated less as a feature than bug. No matter their embedded biases, technologies are declared neutral. Any bad behaviors they induce in us are just a reflection of our own corrupted core. It’s as if some innate human savagery is to blame for our troubles. Just as the inefficiency of a local taxi market can be “solved” with an app that bankrupts human drivers, the vexing inconsistencies of the human psyche can be corrected with a digital or genetic upgrade.

    https://onezero.medium.com/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1

  • What detoxifies a negative work environment?
  • How Sears Lost the American Shopper

    Alan Lacy: If there’s a significant strategic failure on the part of Sears over quite a long period of time, it was the inability to get off mall with a viable, important retail format.

    In my era, we tried the Sears Grand format, basically a big-box store that was right across the highway from Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s. Those first few stores that we did, they were doing $45 million and our mall-based stores were doing $25 million in annual sales.

    We couldn’t build enough stores to really catch up to what was happening at that point with 1,000 new competitive outlets being opened every year by Home Depot, Lowe’s, et cetera.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-sears-lost-the-american-shopper-11552647601?mod=e2tw

  • The Secret to Writing Emails with Military Precision

    A CTA, or call-to-action, is the last bit of an email where you encourage your reader to do something: shop now, learn more, sign up, etc. Sometimes, the CTA is a button, but it doesn’t have to be. It does have to be concise, attention-grabbing and easy to understand. For marketers, CTAs are non-negotiable because they help businesses get more customers.

    In our everyday emails, this device can be just as useful for accomplishing the purpose of our message. Be it organizing a meeting, requesting feedback or assigning a project, a concise, final reminder of what we’re after can improve the utility of any email. In fact, it’s so important that I tend to start my emails with CTAs and work backwards.

    To make your CTAs pop, separate them from the body of the text and play around with bold text and colors. If you have several action items, separate them with bullet points, and try to limit your action items to two per email. Another helpful practice: If you’re addressing multiple recipients, use “@” to assign action items to different people, e.g. “@Pam: review slides and send feedback by Tuesday EOD.” That way, there’s no ambiguity about what’s expected from whom.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/343044