Gridlock's blog

Safe Computing on the Road

DISA is going through the process of moving a bunch of jobs (and workers) as part of a national military realignment to Fort Meade, Maryland. They have built this "telework" center at Fort Meade but it only supports 10 users. Hmmm.... call me crazy but that doesn't sound like too much when you have over 6000 employees. No worries they're going to expand to 50 in a couple months ;) I guess its better to something than nothing at all.

Telecommuters Need to Develop Special Skills

I think "Gather 'Round the Virtual Water Cooler" is very important for a Telepeep. You gotta use whatever means necessary to connect, discuss, collaborate and etc. I really like the "The Best Technology for the Meeting" chart at the end of the article. I would recommend most folks print out the chart and tape it to your desk or monitor. Nothing really new, but everything was put together and summarized quite well.

An article over at TMCnet talks about businesses trying to help workers balance lives.

Work/Live balance is not only important for the workers but for the employers. You've got to keep your staff happy and healthy to keep driving the business.

The first things I thought about when I saw the news on the meltdown/accident in Oakland, CA was (1) traffic is going to really suck in the morning and (2) I hope people can telecommute. I must be drinking too much of the telepeep kool-aid. I'm not familiar with the highways in CA, but if something like that happened in DC or Philly, it would be absolute chaos during the morning commutes for a long time. I hope this wasn't a single point of failure in the Oakland highway system. I remember several years ago when there was a chemical accident on the outer loop of the Capital Beltway, traffic stopped for 8-10 hours.

Here is a relatively funny article I saw on washingtonpost.com on how to "Avoid the Pitfalls of Working From Home"... The only one I seem to have an occasional problem with is #6 "Maintaining a Healthy Balance". I have a tendency to stop into my office and check email at all times of the day. I also will find myself working at night if I have nothing to do. For some reason in my head, I like to try to get ahead of my work, but realistically no matter what I do I'll still have plenty to do the next day. I've definitely have gotten better at my constant need to check my smartphone, now I just need to install a timed lock on my home office door.

Perhaps, I'm getting caught up in semantics, but I find it stange the author uses "Toward Better Teleworker Security" as the title, when she really means remote or mobile security. Why did she call out the Teleworkers - what did we ever do to her or her dog? I suppose the main topic of the article is securing mobile users who connect to untrusted networks and then plug behind the firewall into the corporate network. It's definitely not regarding Teleworkers who spend most if not all their time outside the trusted corporate network.

Now we're talking... In a story reported by FCW.com, a senate bill (Under the bipartisan Telework Enhancement Act of 2007) introduced by Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) would require "agencies to designate a telework-managing officer, who would be responsible for implementing agency telework programs and serve as a liaison between employees and managers." I think the best part of the bill is it "would reverse current telework eligibility law, which states that employees are ineligible to telework unless deemed otherwise by their agencies. If passed, the legislation would make all federal workers eligible unless shown otherwise by their employer. "

Lookie, Lookie... 82 of the 100 best companies allow employees to telecommute at least 20% of the time That's gotta hit home to the Private Sector companies that don't have telework programs. Not only has the Federal Government moved past you, but your peers that are setting the standards for where to work are all over it. The ability to telecommute was also identified as one of the "best benefits" of the companies. Come on private sector companies, get off the schneid and get your program going.

In CDW's Annual Telework Report they found the Federal Government is beating the Private Sector in the adoption of telecommuting. CDW estimates 44% of Federal employees have the option to telework, while it's only 15% in the Private Sector. I'm actually surprised at how high that number is... go Fed! With more opportunities to telework, I wonder if this trend will help them retain and potentially recruit more folks to work for the government. The report also found employees who have the option to telecommute to be happier; happier employees will definitely stick around longer and have less reason to look for another job.