Working Anywhere

Google Maps Temporarily Closed or Just Working Remotely

Google's Move To Temporarily Closed

Google has added a "temporarily closed" setting to Google Maps. That's good for businesses that are now shut down and plan to reopen due to the Coronavirus to eventually restore full retail storefront or office activities.

Reality Is

But that's only half the story. In many cases these "temporarily closed" operations really aren't. They've relocated staff to work from home or are operating from remote work locations. In those cases the business is JWR-Just Working Remotely and that's a far cry from being listed as temporarily closed.

My Real Life Experience

A great example I personally experienced this week was with the Apple Store at UTC in San Diego's La Jolla Village area. For years their small business team has been my go to group when it came to buying new Apple gear or getting an upgraded level of service, not usually offered over the phone. In my case I needed to upgrade to one of the new Mac Book Airs, as my youngest Mac Book was from 2015 and my Mac Book Pro was from 2012.  Toss in a 2013 era Mac Book Air, both of which sit around more as paperweights than workhorses for me, and I just had too much deadweight. 

Given all the Apple Stores are temporarily closed, I wrote to the UTC Small Business Team by email on Wednesday. By end of day  I had an email from my Small Business Rep from Apple, who in his email reported that his team was working from home and he was safely located remotely supporting customers, and for their team it was business as usual. It was a polite, very personal note, not some automated digitally processed looking reply. He also thanked me for reaching out and within a few minutes of follow up email exchanges had me in touch with the "business trade in team." The reason the business trade-in team was needed, was due to the fact that while Apple online store encourages trade-ins via the web store, they only take one device per order. Business doesn't have such a limit. 

About an hour after Eric and I dealt with was being purchased, I had a written estimate in hand for the new Air. In parallel, Bri from Phobio, the company that manages the trade-ins for Apple Small Business, had a spreadsheet for me to use that allowed for the submission of what I was trading in, along with very easy to understand set of shipping details, and instructions on how to delete and wipe hard drives and more. I filled out the spreadsheet, returned it to Bri and the next morning I received approval on my trade ins. I accepted the offer, providing banking information, and once the three computers are back with Apple the funds for the trade ins will go directly to my bank by ACH transfer. No checks. No gift cards. Just cold hard electronic cash. While an eCheck is an option, that just adds a layer that's unnecessary. The whole process was easy, as Eric and Bri - thanks to Apple's understanding of  simplifying things - a trait Steve Jobs instilled before his passing.

Yesterday Eric and I wrapped up the sale of a new Mac Book Air that will be here in a few weeks. We spent about 30 minutes talking business, small business, the impact of the Coronavirus and more.  For me, it was the Apple Store Experience I've always had. So while "Temporarily Closed" may be the new status on Google Maps, and the Apple Stores may show up that way, but in this time of "business unusual" it wasn't closed at all. It was business as usual, just working remotely (JWR). 

Maybe Apple Maps should one up Google and add the JWR flag for those businesses like their own because my experience clearly shows that the Apple Store wasn't really closed, just that their team was just working remotely (JWR). 

 

 

What Is The New Normal?

I've been back home for just two days, since a ten day road trip to Boston, Los Angeles and Las Vegas and for me the new normal of WFH doesn't feel strange at all, as I've been working from home since 1992 on a daily basis. But really have been a remote worker since my first job with the Philadelphia Wings way, way back in 1974. Back then remote meant working from the press box at The Spectrum, or from arenas in the USA and Canada reporting the outcome of games to the media when we were on the road, so I guess I can claim the title of being one of the earliest road warriors, so the idea of being home isn't strange. Just the prospect of not going on the road again for a while is. Welcome to my new normal.

Watching all the news, seeing all the companies and people I've touched past and present adapt, and getting comments from colleagues and friends about being "ahead of the curve" as Dialpad founder and CEO Craig Walker texted me during an exchange, or hearing over lunch in Vegas from Xceptional Chairman Larry Johnes "that no one will ever question how much early you were into the idea of  remote work" were all nice to see and hear. But this new normal is a big change even for me.

My day is more filled than ever with video calls, conference calls and scheduling things. My life is now more Zoom, UberConference, Slack than even before, not because I didn't use them--oh I did for years--but now others who used to be more "weekly call" centric are now engaging more often throughout the day with others, who like me are not, in their company offices and having me join those sessions.

I'm finding that creating Shared Slack Channels is a great way to boost communication flow. People who were previously texting me are now moving into Slack. Files exchanges, previously emailed or sent Google docs/sheets/slides links are now being shared inside Slack. And on a personal note, those closest to me are now calling me more via FaceTime, Messenger, WhatsApp and Google Duo. I've got clients using Signal too. My iPhone or iPad are now is no longer relegated to the kitchen charging stations, as one is usually with me more when I'm using my Pixelbook simply due to iMessage, but back in their normal place when the Mac Book or Mac Book Pro is in use.

Now more than ever, tools like Woven and Calendly are becoming staples for scheduling. Alerts and reminders are key as getting the "ten minute" warning about a scheduled call allows me to gracefully (sometimes) end a call. I'm also finding that I'm setting more meetings to be 25 minutes, not thirty, allowing time to catch up on IM's, emails and even listen to the occasional voice mail for those that leave them.  Most people I know now are texting and asking "when can we talk" and then after agreeing on a time, one of us sends off a calendar item with the appropriate conference bridge based on who, where, and personal preference.

There's also a growing sense of time-shifted communications between friends to help overcome the loneliness of sheltering in place. More and more friends who were short form writers or photo posters only are sharing more on Facebook. Instagram is becoming the creative outpost. LinkedIn is becoming more and more the haven for help and business advice, not simply a job seekers best friend.

What's Next? More Zapier and IFTTT - the two services automate routine tasks and manage services. Already I use them to open my door when I come home. My lights turn off when I go too far from home, and can be programmed to turn on when the lock opens. With the two services I can get notified when someone tweets me, retweets, send me an email to one of my accounts I don't live in during the work day and more, by having the alert sent to me either in Slack or via SMS. With now thousands of combinations of integrations, all based on APIs, the two services allow us to focus on the tasks that need our attention, while the bots do the repetitive work.

Yes, for many, the new normal is a major adjustment, but for me, the adjustment is really about giving in to not getting away to work from anywhere. It's now about "AWFH"--always working from home.

Making The Right Moves

The New York Times has a story this morning about Microsoft and their CEO's decision to move to a Work From Home (WFH) approach in their Redmond HQ and elsewhere. These stories are going to become more and more commonplace. It's not though just about having people working from home, it's what you do with your workers each day.

Here are ten tips to help keep work going:

1. Have a daily audio team stand up. Put it on the calendar.
2. Be available by having your comms apps and services both on your desktop/laptop and your mobile devices
3. Provide your team members their own conferencing service access. Assign each person an account of their own.
4. Know how to check quality of the home internet. Run tests that ensure your connection is stable regularly.
5. Keep things charged. This includes headsets, mobile phones tablets and laptops
6. Make sure access to data is possible. VPN's and other remote access tools will allow work to keep going.
7. Don't over communicate. If you worked part time remotely with your staff don't change the rhythm, but be ready to help others who used to work only in the office.
8. Be respectful of workers private time. Allow them to go into DND (do not disturb) mode throughout the day.
9. Make sure your devices are regularly checked for malware and viruses.
10. Teach your team proper security protocols to allow for safe, private and protected

Uncertain times brings opportunity, with those being managed. Right now the opportunity is to define the future of work and in turn the future of business.

Making Working From Home Work

Two days ago, I wrote about the free offers coming out of telecom companies to help with the Coronavirus situation. Today, I'm seeing that longtime friend, repeat client, and leader at Dialpad, Craig Walker, has penned a nice piece on what Dialpad is doing in light of the Coronavirus with regards to his staff around the globe as well as showing how they are helping businesses adapt to the workplace changes brought on by Corona. As a shareholder in Dialpad, Craig's candor and approach to what he and his team are doing for their staff really comes through.

The reasons for both messages are clear and simple. All companies have to keep going, as they all have lots to lose, and like so many others, Dialpad can use what they sell to keep their staff working. Equally rewarding to me is to see how Craig and the Dialpad team have basically resurfaced "Dialpad Free" a program I helped launch back in the early winter of 2017 as way of attracting new business. 8x8 has done something similar pushing out a reminder this week about their free video meetings service they announced back in November.

SignalWire also has a good post on being experienced via FreeSwitch when it comes to working from home.

 

 

 

Free Offers Being Made to Get Market Share

Inc has an article on how the major service providers with tools for remote work are all jumping in around the Coronavirus situation, by offering free trials of various services. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and LogMeIn are all looking to gain market share with the free offers. The moves are smart marketing as "stimulating trial" is one of the most successful tactics that can be deployed by a brand. The offers also have a second benefit. They may promote some brand switching as a result because now if you're a Slack based organization, but a Microsoft house, you have no excuse to not give Teams a shot. And if you're a G Suite user, you may want to see what's up with it.

For Cisco, it's an opportunity to showoff and possibly win back some former WebEx users. A lot has changed with WebEx over the past few years, so capitalizing on Covid-19 to get some traction isn't a bad move at all.

But remote work is going to need more than Teams, GoToMeeting, Hangouts, Zoom and WebEx to make people "productie remote workers." The sharing of files, uploading of documents, notifications about actions, all have to be integrated too. New zaps from Zapier that enable richer notifications, updates to documents, and other alerts will start to become the norm. Tracking all this in some reference capable format will be needed. Documentation of who did what, who said what will also become a necessity, as remoteness can lead to both freewheeling, or overlooking of the details.

While Zapier can be looked at as the connectivity between apps that automates routine tasks, the platform is really the connective tissue of so much data being moved from one bucket to another, all in a way that anyone with a basic sense of moving this from here to there can master. Tools like HighTail, WeTransfer, TransferNow, Firefox Send and more are going to see more use too as people working remotely find that not being on the same LAN is slowing them down when it comes to sharing. Slack's file upload to a thread, group or individual is also good as is their integration with Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive. 

For coordination between home and work balance, tools like Calendly and Woven will take on new uses. Before when mom or dad was working in the office, hours were pretty well set in place. Now, with parents or spouses working from home, family members and even neighbors need to understand that WFH doesn't mean a day off. Using  preset calendaring tool links will make it easier for family and friends to see when mom or dad can help with something, like a ride to school, a pick up after or a lift to meet up with friends. It will also allow kids to not schedule friends over who could be making more noise than mom or dad is used to when working in the traditional office. 

Tools that help make remote work happen aren't the end of the solution. It's about putting all the pieces together to allow for home/work balance and easing the frustration that the new remote workers may experience from the start. 

P.S. It was fun to read Shelly Palmer's article on becoming a remote working badass. In reading it I was checking off how much of what he's suggesting I've been doing or the services we're using for as long as most have been around.  Here's my list of what I've done or are doing personally, and within the business:

• Workspace
• Hours
• Rules for Others
• Morning Ritual (I have end of day rituals for different days too)
• Time Management
• Daily Quitting Time (it varies by day, time zone or location)
• Different Phone Number (Google Voice is ideal for this)
• Conference Calls
• Solid Broadband Connection (I once bought a house based on who the provider wasn't)
• Collaborative and Messaging Tools (I can still remember when introducing Slack to the team and Skype as our primary way to communicate)
• Project Management-We have been using Basecamp since Basecamp 1
• GSuite-what a war it was to get some people off of Office or Outlook.
• Acting like you're in the office -now in an apartment building vs. a freestanding house this is key for deliveries and more
• Scheduling calls like meetings -I use UberConference for most of my scheduled calls, sometimes Zoom and even Skype or
• Signal depending on who I'm talking to and have for years.
• Voice check ins--it's like managing by walking around without the exercise
• Daily Stand Ups-even when we don't talk, a short chat solves a lot of issues before they arise. We hold one every day 30 minutes everyone has officially started their day.

I'll add a few more:

• Softphone for your laptop or desktop
• Quality headset
• Desktop lighting to look good on a conference call
• Mobile app connected to your cloud voice provider's phone system
• Desktop or travel size speakerphone
• HD webcam, not just what's in your laptop or tablet
• iPad -my mini is my all around mobile device of choice 

Where Remote Working Is Smokin'

Down in tobacco road, cities like Ashville North Carolina and Roanoke Virginia are becoming hotbeds of remote work. Today's Roanoke Times has a long article where it highlights a series of local residents who all work remotely, showcasing why the people have chosen Roanoke as their home base.

Key factors are obvious. Quality of life. Affordable housing. Close proximity to transportation that allow the workers to get to the Washington, D.C.  and northern Virginia areas.

What's missing from the story? There's no reference to the quality or providers of broadband. Residential Roanoke is is served mostly by Cox with a bit of the city covered by Xfinity. There's also DSL, not fiber, from Verizon and fixed wireless from All Points Broadband. Wireless carrier coverage, and how people in the area make use of both also wasn't mentioned.

Telecommuting workers need to be able to do more than just log on remotely and be working. The quality of broadband, and wireless, directly impacts how well you can take part in conference calls, be visible in video conferences or video calls. Nothing is worse than starting a call on your cell phone and having the call degrade as your cell signal dissipates due to the "totem pole" effect of mobile communications. Outside of "messaging platforms" none were really highlighted, not even the type of technology used.

I also didn't get a sense of what type of "remote workers" the interview subjects were, or what the actually do. Terms like "consultants" and "software engineers" are bit vague. For example, I can easily be considered a "consultant" but I'm also a virtual CMO. Some consultants and engineers do nothing but coding and writing, but what about supporting the customer, internal or external. How much real time communication is there? How do they do that? Is that work done the one day everyone goes into the office?

Overall the story paints a good picture on why someone would want to live in Roanoke, but before you can decide it's the right place to work from, a richer and more complete picture of the infrastructure is needed to help make a highly informed decision.

.

Salesforce Tells Workers to Work From Home

Yet another tech market leader is going the Work From Home (WFH) route in California. This time, it's Salesforce.

The move comes a few days after they told their Seattle workforce to begin working from home. While the move is for now, just for the month of March, it does call into question what happens to the new SF HQ if the WFH approach continues. All that money sunk into what is now SF's tallest building.  Perhaps it can be converted into to low income housing for the SF homeless.

Benefits of Remote Work

Krisp, the audio enhancing plug in for better conference calls, has a nice recap of facts and stats supporting the benefits of remote work. From a longtime remote worker and remote manager's perspective I'll share my take on their findings below.

1. Remote Work Boosts Growth-in the hay day of Comunicano we were growing in staff and revenue, and remote work led to it as my overhead was people, not real estate.  We paid better and got better. 
   
   
2. The Environment Angle- that angle has been around forever. When we worked with SightSpeed back in the 00's the whole idea of less travel cost and less driving to and from the office was one we regularly pitched to media. 
   
   
3. Employee Productivity-without question. We had soccer moms working while watching their kids play soccer. We had people working from beachfronts on tablets and laptops. There were people working while driving between homes in different states on mobile phones and tablets. We never saw anyone being unproductive. Clients we're happier with our approach of "always" on as we were in all 4 time zones and able to manage their work.
   
   
4. Freelancers-not exactly. A lot of "freelancers" only work for one company. This makes them employees. A good tax accountant  (CPA) for your business will help keep you on the right path. The key is being able to have the freelancers demonstrate they have income from other sources.
   
   
5. Working from Where-I've worked in my houses, apartments, in WeWorks, Regus suites, Airline lounge conference rooms, hotel suites and of course cafes, wine bars and restaurants all over the world but WFH (working from home) is the easiest and always the most relaxing. Back in 1976 when I was working for the Philadelphia Flyers I had a very big and expensive answering device from Bell of Pennsylvania that I could remotely access in my bedroom so I could be attending high school hockey games and calling in the scores from others that were reported to me nightly. This continued for 14 years where I could be anywhere, and still get the games results into the newspapers. As early as 1974 (when I was 14) I was working in the Press Box of the Philadelphia Wings. Reporters worked from there covering the games. Fax machines were their way of "sending" in their stories or they "dictated" to the sports desk.  Those were early examples of remote working that gave me an easy path into working that way the rest of my life.
   
   
6. Happiness-people who work remotely seem happier. They can be more relaxed in attire, there's no stress of a daily commute and there's less need to "look good" for others. It also gives people more of a voice and the feeling of being heard.
   
   
7. Flexible Work Schedule-Totally. But it's more than just flexible hours, it's the ability to work around your life. For married people with school age kids, being able to work around drop off and pick up hours means a lot to a parent. We scheduled conference calls around those hours and rarely did team members miss client calls. With UberConference in use, and before that GoToMeeting, we recorded the calls and people "caught up" by reviewing the call we uploaded to BaseCamp.
   
   
8. No Commuting- this is another point we made with SightSpeed way back when. But it goes farther. When people can WFH they start their day when they would have driven in to the office and work during what would have been the ride home. That earlier start allows for matters to get handled often before others are working in the office. 
   
   
9. Collaboration, Communication and Loneliness-while tools for collaboration have improved thanks to Slack mostly, which has replaced Skype, as the virtual watercooler and bulletin board. With app integrations that we never had with Skype, Slack has become the center of the "virtual" office. Collaboration tools are getting better, but still are not there. While lots of improvements have been made with conferencing apps, the issues are still remain.  
   
   
10. More Money By Working Remotely - without question the cost of working from home saves businesses money, but also saves worker money as well. No driving, means no gas bill. You don't have to wear business clothing so you save money on dry cleaning bills. Eating at home is cheaper than eating out.

As a proponent for remote work, and as a practitioner of it from an era that didn't have the category until today, the ability to grow the business, and to have your people grow is all about how you approach things. Remote work works.

Being Away Working Anywhere But Now I'm Back

It's been about two years since I posted on this blog that was way ahead in its' early days. In that last post back then I suggested that Regus, along with WeWork needed an affiliate model. Someone at Regus was obviously reading and listening as I just read how they are doing exactly that using a franchising model.

As a long time remote worker, I've watched things change, for the better. Between my local co-working membership and my Regus membership, I'm rarely trapped in the "coffee shop only" mode of finding a place to work. Having those options means I can get out of the house and work in a communal environment, or book a day office if I need some privacy.

Remote working, long a male dominated sector of the workplace world has seen changes. Back in the 00's I pioneered having women working for me from their homes on a consistent basis. One described working for Comunicano as her dream job as it gave her flexibility around her two young daughters. Over time we hired more and more people to work remotely, and some in my home. Eventually, all but one person was "remote" and that person was more of an office admin keeping track of the 20-30 people in the agency at any one time, and more importantly, looking after the business affairs as I was on the road as much as 285 days one year.

Now, as Zapier points out, working remote for women is much more commonplace, and just as we saw in the agency, more businesses are realizing how much more work they can get out of remote working women.  Today, on my team at SkySwitch where I serve as the company's virtual CMO, two of my team now work from home two days a week, and have a flexible afternoon schedule that has them in the office in the morning and then going WFH from 4-6 pm to avoid traffic. In three months of working that way, productivity has been better and quality of work has only gotten better.

While some businesses resist, or just can't be virtual, having worked remotely, some or all of the time since my days in pro-sports, remote work, with the right players, can really be good for a business.