workplace
Work
Use Boundaries To Stay Sane Working From Home
5:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Whether you telecommute a few days a week or work from home full time, working from home isn’t the walk in the park office workers sometimes envision it to be. More »
Work
What’s The Most Stressful Day Of Your Work Week?
4:00AM Adam Pash | Everyone dreads a bad case of the Mondays, but new research suggests that Monday isn’t the most stressful day of the week. In fact, the most stressful time of your work week is Tuesday, 11:45am. More »
Work
Constant Contact With Your Boss Makes You Productive (Seriously)
9:35PM Kevin Purdy | A detailed study of 2,600 IBM workers’ communications found those with “strong connections” to their bosses over IM, email, and social networks generate noticeably more billable hours. Seems unlikely, right? Well, yes and no. More »
Safely Send NSFW Links
5:00AM Adam Pash | Web site NSFW.in is a URL-shrinking web application à la TinyURL with a twist, allowing users to share Not Safe For Work (NSFW) links without fear of compromising your poor, unsuspecting friend. When you follow a NSFW.in link (like this one, which actually is safe), you’ve got to confirm that you are indeed ready to view a web page that’s potentially not safe for a work environment. Confirm, and you’re through, reveling in the work-unfriendly filth of the dirty, dirty link. Now disperse, and share NSFW links across the internet with impunity! More »
Collaborate with Co-Workers Using Google Apps Team Edition
10:00AM Adam Pash | If you’ve always wished your workplace or school would take advantage of the Google Apps suite but it just isn’t happening, Google has released a new, free Google Apps Team Edition designed to implement Google Apps collaboration with nothing more than a set of work email addresses. Once you sign up with Google Apps Team Edition, you and your co-workers can collaborate using Google Docs, Gcal, Gtalk, and a Google Start Page to bring it all together. There’s no Gmail integration since you’re using your work emails, but it’s a very simple and effective new way to centralise work collaboration via Google Apps. Thanks Bryan! Google Apps Team Edition More »
Remind colleagues to lock their computer – or get pranked
8:58AM Sarah Stokely | The Coding Horror blog has written up the art of ‘goating’ – or pulling pranks on your co-workers when they forget to lock their computers. To hear him tell it, it’s a “for their own good” prank-cum-security-reminder. He lists a few of the more gentle “reminders” you can use such as installing the ‘bluescreen of death screensaver’, replacing the desktop with a screenshot of the desktop (and hiding all the visible items on it), switching the mouse from right to left handed, using the video driver settings to rotate the display left, right or upside down, or switching the keyboard layout from QWERTY to Dvorak.
I particularly liked the Clippy parody applet (see picture) and the embarrassing group emails sent out promising to buy the whole office doughnuts, or telling them “I like oranges!”
Some of the ”goating” pranks mentioned were downright nasty and unproductive. But I bet if the CEO of your company drops by your desk to ask you why you like oranges so much, you’ll remember to lock your computer next time.
So have you pranked in the name of security, or been pranked? Details in comments please. :)
Don’t forget to lock your computer [Coding Horror]
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Work
4:30PM Sarah Stokely | Achieving a work/life balance is a tightrope which requires effort from both the worker and their place of work. While we’ve had the communication technology available to support teleworking for years, it doesn’t seem to have taken off, and is more likely to be the domain of the self employed freelance/consultant types. However, employers are cottoning on to the fact that one way to hold onto staff – especially people with children – is to become more flexible. And with a recent survey by the Australian Computer Society putting IT unemployment at a five year low of 3.84%, skilled IT staff may be well placed to make the case for teleworking.
In an opinion piece at CNET, Eric Cinrod quotes figures which suggest that only 13% of American business people think their workplace would let them telework. He goes through a number of reasons why it could benefit not only the employee but the business itself. Worth a read if you’re thinking of making a business case of why you should be able to work from home a couple of days a week, or more.
Making the case for telework [CNET]
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Making the case for telework
4:30PM Sarah Stokely | Achieving a work/life balance is a tightrope which requires effort from both the worker and their place of work. While we’ve had the communication technology available to support teleworking for years, it doesn’t seem to have taken off, and is more likely to be the domain of the self employed freelance/consultant types. However, employers are cottoning on to the fact that one way to hold onto staff – especially people with children – is to become more flexible. And with a recent survey by the Australian Computer Society putting IT unemployment at a five year low of 3.84%, skilled IT staff may be well placed to make the case for teleworking.
In an opinion piece at CNET, Eric Cinrod quotes figures which suggest that only 13% of American business people think their workplace would let them telework. He goes through a number of reasons why it could benefit not only the employee but the business itself. Worth a read if you’re thinking of making a business case of why you should be able to work from home a couple of days a week, or more.
Making the case for telework [CNET]
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