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Examining the dark side of the remote worker

Kevin Fitchard — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:52:33 +0000

The growing global remote workforce has had a big impact on business, giving employees more flexibility to slice and dice their personal and business lives and make the most efficient use of time. But there’s a dark side to detached workforce, as workers find themselves trapped in a mindset that leaves them constantly ‘on the job,’ which could ultimately lead to a loss of productivity, according to a new study by enterprise connectivity provider iPass and the Institute of Work Psychology at the University of Sheffield.

Using data compiled from iPass’ quarterly Mobile Workforce Project reports, the institute’s study (you can see the full text here) found that most remote and mobile workers make the most of their freedom, allowing them to better manage when and where they are on the clock, the study’s author Carolyn Axtell said at GigaOM’s Net:Work conference on Thursday. These employees effectively use downtime such as commuting or waiting for an appointment to get work done in discreet chunks. Those workers are aided by new mobile technologies like smartphones and tablets to get instant access to their workflow — rather than, say, booting up the laptop — which increases their overall productivity. They’re “moving the ball along,” said iPass CTO Barbara Nelson, which is a very efficient way to use a employee’s time.

But the study also found that a sizable number of workers, 26 percent, are using their newfound flexibility to essentially overwork, clocking 15 hours or more a week of extra time. Those extra hours lead to burnout, causing frustration, fatigue and even leading to mistakes or lack of attention to detail.

“If you’re not giving yourself an opportunity to recover and recharge your batteries, it will have an impact on your well-being and your productivity,” Axtell said. The work you do is no longer your best work, and the drop off in efficiency could lead to little net gain or even an overall decline in output and quality.

How do remote employees head off that inclination to overwork? Axtell said it can often be as simple as defining an action that allows a worker to draw a mental line between work and leisure. One home worker surveyed would simply go out the front door, walk around the house and go back inside, creating the illusion of coming home from the job. If you’re a remote worker, how do you draw the line?

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The dark side of mobile work: How can we resist its pull?

Jessica Stillman — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:00:11 +0000

When iPass recently conducted in-depth research into how the explosion in mobile work was affecting workers, they found a stark divide in how the ability to get stuff done nearly anywhere and at any time affected people. Many responded, unsurprisingly, that the freedom to connect added several hours of work to their average week.

More surprising was how those additional hours affected people: About a third told iPass the extra flexibility (and attendant jump in hours worked) added stress to their lives; another third disagreed completely, responding that mobile work made them more relaxed. (It’s assumed the remaining third or so were about equally relaxed with or without mobile work.)

What’s going on here? Dr. Carolyn Axtell of the Institute of Work Psychology at the University of Sheffield recently analyzed the numbers (and will be speaking about her findings at Net:Work), trying to sort out why some workers respond well to the connected lifestyle and some suffer. In the process, she identified three “buffers” that insulate connected workers from the worst effects of a constant connection to professional demands. She describes them as:

Achievement. Many professional workers are lucky enough to be in a position where they really enjoy what they do. They become truly involved and engaged in their work because their jobs provide challenge, recognition, financial rewards and even power. Their work is interesting and motivating and gives them a sense of mastery and achievement, and these characteristics are related to greater well-being and satisfaction

Control. Having greater control over setting one’s own schedule means that work demands can be moved around other obligations to a more suitable time. Research consistently shows that having greater control and autonomy is related to higher wellbeing.

Support. It might be that some of these mobile workers are able to work so many extra hours because they receive a lot support at home for childcare or household duties (e.g., hired help; a spouse who takes on the majority of the childcare duties) and they may also have more support at work (e.g., people to delegate work to). Certainly research has shown that professional managers who work long hours often have such support available. Research has consistently shown that having more support acts as a protection against the greater stress that can result from high job demands.

Certainly having a nanny or a spouse who is handy in the kitchen and willing to man the washing machine is helpful, but not something companies can be expected to provide. Nor are most organizations able to create a sense of achievement in a worker who feels his job is unimportant or uninteresting. But there are things organizations can do to help boost these insulting factors that keep employees safe from connected work stress, according to Axtell.

For example, organizations can allow workers “greater control over their ‘off-job’ time,” which presumably translates to not bombarding them with communications and requests at all hours. This also might amount to giving workers as long a lead time as possible before a task is due, so they can set their own schedule and won’t feel intense pressure to work all hours to meet a tight timeline.

Companies should also “ensure that employees have the right resources to do their job and have the necessary support to overcome obstacles.” This support can come in the form of concrete help like necessary training and adequate information, or as emotional support, such as providing opportunities for employees to bond and relax.

Finally, Axtell suggests managers explicitly encourage workers to set firm boundaries and find time to recharge. Rather than phoning up at 11 p.m. to ask about that meeting next Tuesday, bosses should, “encourage employees to maintain a boundary between home and work and not work excessive hours.”

Is this akin to expecting Darth Vader to ask Luke to stay away from the dark side? At the end of the day, whose responsibility is it to set work-life boundaries in a world of perpetual connectivity, the worker’s or the organization’s?

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Facebook just a healthier smoke break, says iPass

Jessica Stillman — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:00:45 +0000

Just how ubiquitous have smartphones become among mobile workers? According to the latest quarterly Mobile Workforce Report from iPass, 95 percent of mobile workers have one.

That will come as no surprise to plugged-in professionals who have taken a look around at their colleagues lately (though the finding that, for the first time, iPhones have unseated BlackBerry devices as the top choice for respondents may come as happy news to Apple fans), but what impact is this near-universal adoption of smartphones having on knowledge workers’ lives?

In one sense, the impact is grim. The survey of 2,300 mobile employees worldwide found that many are giving up exercising and sleep in favor of a constant connection to work.

One in three respondents told iPass they sleep less due to work, with one in four mobile workers reporting less than six hours of shut eye a night
More than half exercise erratically or not all, and 60 percent of the loafers blamed work for their sedentary lifestyle

We’re also emotionally dependent on our gadgets; 59 percent of plugged in workers said they’d be disoriented, lonely or even distraught without their smarthphone.

But one thing smartphones aren’t guilty of, surprisingly, is being a major time suck. We waste only about as much time checking emailing and Facebook and handling technical hiccups than we used to spend on cigarette breaks when that was the most common office addiction: a measly 28 minutes a day.

So in the one column, we’re filling our lungs with fewer toxic chemicals and getting massive amounts of stuff done. But in the other, the new way of working means little sleep and next to no exercise.

Are we better off?

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Want 240 More Work Hours a Year from Employees? Think Mobile!

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:48:08 +0000

The workforce going mobile is no longer the exception but is instead the rule as more employees expect to use their own connected devices in a corporate capacity. While that sounds like an employer’s dream in terms of potentially more productivity through place-shifted work, it opens up the door to enterprise infrastructure and support challenges faced by the rise of the new workplace “mobilocracy.”

Speaking this morning at our Net:Work 2010 event, Evan Kaplan said this mobilocracy expects certain support and services, which he called the “mobile worker bill of rights.” Kaplan, the president and CEO of iPass, an enterprise mobility provider, says these expectations include: staying connected, choice of device, being free of security threats, full I.T. support and a single account in the enterprise. For these rights to be realized by the mobilicracy, Kaplan said enterprises must design infrastructure and services with moblity as a primary factor, not as an afterthought.

Why should companies cater to mobile workers? One key stat from iPass’s research of their 2.5 million users tells the story: those in the mobile workforce end up working much more, to the tune of 240 extra hours per year. These workers find more pockets of time to work on various devices in the new hardware stack, which Kaplan says is a smartphone, tablet and a laptop. Each of these on their own are nothing without supporting services from I.T. and infrastructure, however. The best way to design with mobile in mind, Kaplan said, is to lean on those resources that are already tech-savvy in mobile and cater plans for them. For an extra six weeks of productivity, admitting to the rise of the mobile workforce and then catering to it sure seems like an investment with nothing but upside.

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iPass Adds In-Flight Wi-Fi

Nancy Nally — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:00:19 +0000

The question of whether the Internet should extend into our lives when we are cruising at 30,000 feet has been a heavily debated one. Should airplane cabins be bastions of quiet sanctity from the deluge of information and work that follows us everywhere? Or should we use in-flight Wi-Fi to take advantage of every possible productive moment in our lives, even while traveling?

iPass has just weighed in on which side of that debate its enterprise clients fall on. The enterprise mobility service just announced that it has added Aircell to its available network of services. This means that iPass Mobile Network users will be able to connect to Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi, while staying within the iPass network. Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi is available on all AirTran and Virgin America flights, and on limited American Airlines, Delta, US Airways, United and Air Canada flights. Customers will be charged $4.95 for flights less than 1.5 hours, $9.95 for flights 1.5 to three hours, and $12.95 for flights more than three hours long for using Gogo through iPass.

In the product announcement, iPass explained that this will benefit employees of iPass Mobile Network customers, as connecting to Gogo will be more convenient with iPass, since they will be able to avoid the multiple steps of paying via credit card and filing expense reports after the fact for reimbursement. For enterprises, it should simplify accounting, allow companies access to detailed reports on in-flight network usage, and allow enforcement of VPN and security policies.

For regular users of other airlines, iPass says it expects to add more in-flight Wi-Fi services to its offering in 2010.

iPass leaves no doubt in its announcement that mobile workers are now expected to be working constantly when traveling — even when they are at 30,000 feet:

“The age of inflight Internet connectivity is here and is a huge productivity win for business travelers who need to stay connected and work securely online while in the air,” said Evan Kaplan, president and CEO of iPass. “Airplanes have been the last bastion of mobile worker downtime and iPass and Gogo Inflight Internet provider Aircell are here to close this gap in a way that meets the simplicity, visibility and control requirements of the enterprise.”

Say goodbye to the days of settling back in your seat and watching a movie or reading a book and getting some recharging before that big meeting while you cruise at 30,000 feet. When enterprises consider in-flight Wi-Fi a needed function of their mobile networks, the writing is obviously on the wall (or in the clouds): your airplane seat is now an extension of your office.

Does in-flight Wi-Fi make you feel obligated to work? Would that change if it were part of your employer’s mobile network?

New Service Combines 3G and Wi-Fi For Ubiquitous Connectivity

Jason Harris — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:00:21 +0000

If you’re a road warrior or frequent traveler, what strategy do you have for staying connected to the Internet? Odds are you have use combination of Wi-Fi access, a 3G cellular card, and/or dial-up net access as a last resort.

A new service from iPass combines all three of these ways of getting online. After going after the enterprise market, iPass has launched iPassConnect for consumers. According to the company, they are the first to combine 3G data in the US, wired hotel broadband, and a global dial-up network.

Being a part if iPass will allow you to get online at nearly 1,000 hotspots in 500 airports, from hotels such as Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriot, and from retail location such as Starbucks, McDonalds, and more.

To get strted, sign up and at the iPassConnect website. Currently, the service is only available for Windows computer running Vista, XP, or Windows 2000. Pricing starts out at $29.95/month.

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