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Tag: Work From Home

  • Amazon Wants Call Center Employees to Work From Home So It Can Close Offices

    Amazon Wants Call Center Employees to Work From Home So It Can Close Offices

    Amazon is bucking a trend among some of the biggest tech companies, urging its call center employees to work from home.

    Many of the world’s biggest tech companies are trying to get their employees to come back to the office in an effort to return to normal. According to a report by Bloomberg, Amazon is taking a different approach by encouraging its US call center employees to work from home. The outlet’s sources indicated the move is driven by the company’s desire to close some offices and save on real estate.

    Read more: Amazon Raising Front-Line Worker Pay to an Average of $19 per Hour

    While a company spokesperson did not comment on real estate plans, they confirmed the preference for remote work in some roles.

    “We’re offering additional members of our customer service team the increased flexibility that comes with working virtually,” Amazon spokesman Brad Glasser told Bloomberg. “We’re working with employees to make sure their transition is seamless while continuing to prioritize best-in-class support for customers.”

    Amazon’s approach is a refreshing alternative to Apple and Google. Both companies have upset employees by aggressively pushing them to return to the office. In contrast, Amazon appears to be acknowledging that some jobs don’t require in-person employees and can be done just as well remotely. Rather than something to avoid, Amazon appears to recognize that it can benefit from such a transition.

  • For Americans, Remote Work = Living the Dream

    For Americans, Remote Work = Living the Dream

    A new poll indicates that two out of five Americans are living the dream, thanks to remote work.

    Work from home (WFH) gained a major boost as a result of the pandemic, but many companies are trying to force a return to the office (RTO). A new poll by OnePoll, on behalf of DoorDash, is giving a major boost to WFH and throwing cold water on RTO plans.

    According to the poll, two in five Americans attribute remote work to their living the dream. In fact, 42% of the 2,000 polled prefer mostly remote work, with only occasional in-office work days. When asked which they would choose exclusively, 26% would choose full remote, while only 9% would choose to be in the office full time.

    Interestingly, the poll also showed how employees are currently working, with 39% spending the majority of their time working remotely. Nearly one-quarter, or 24%, are exclusively remote. Even more telling is the fact that only one in five workers have more in-person workdays than remote.

    Not All Activities Are Equal

    Despite the strong preference for remote work, there are some things the respondents would prefer to do in person. For example, 57% vs 30% prefer in-person one-on-one meetings, while 51% vs 28% prefer in-office activities.

    Similarly, 51% vs 31% prefer in-person social activities and 46% vs 32% prefer in-person happy hours.

    “As companies are looking for solutions to support flexible work, food plays a leading role in maintaining a positive culture. It acts as a catalyst for employees to better connect with their teams, supports employee satisfaction and productivity, and inspires lasting memories through social gatherings over meals,” said Manushika Gabriel, Director & General Manager, DoorDash for Work.

    Overall, the poll should be a warning to companies not to push too hard for RTO policies. While 36% of respondents believe their company’s culture had improved since the pandemic began, roughly half said they planned on leaving their job within the next year. It’s not hard to imagine many of those potential defections may be driven by increasingly aggressive RTO plans.

  • COVID/WFH Has Broken Big Tech

    COVID/WFH Has Broken Big Tech

    In a huge Twitter thread, a big tech insider reveals that COVID and generous work from home privileges are destroying the morale of big tech employees.

    Top 10 Quotes:

    1. Obviously insanely radically leftwing.
    2. COVID/WFH has totally broken people.
    3. Everyone is demoralized.
    4. The Great Resignation is real.
    5. Software engineers which haven’t written code in a year.
    6. Slack bad-mouthing the higher-ups with no repercussions.
    7. It’s very easy to hide and not work with WFH.
    8. There’s no real accountability to anyone.
    9. Bombarded with anti-white, anti-male, woke propaganda.
    10. If Big Tech goes down, the world will probably be better off.

    Hazzard Harrington thread in full via Twitter:

    Obviously insanely radically leftwing. BLM/LGBTQ. Trans flags hanging in office. Pronouns stated before meetings. Special affiliation groups for everyone but white men. All that you’d expect. But COVID/WFH has totally broken people. They are fundamentally weak, often with no social support outside of work. They’re the people with no children, no spouse. Only a dog or cat for emotional support.

    There’s constant talk, even now, about how hard things are for everyone. Often meetings start with going around the room to ask “How is everyone feeling?” Literally, everyone else went on sad rants about their lives. “I’m so MAD a white supremacist shot 3 black men in Kenosha!”

    It’s toxic. When it got to me, I said “Good.” and then a (((lady engineer))) literally proposed that we should not be allowed to answer the question positively. I shit you not. I think it hurt her that I wasn’t as miserable as her. She made some arguments about “vulnerability”. These people not only want you weak, but they also want you to expose your vulnerabilities to them so they can exploit them. They may not intend this explicitly, but whatever twisted ideology they worship ends with this result.

    So back to morale. Everyone is demoralized. This may surprise you since Big Tech is extremely well paid and has been able to WFH throughout the past 2 years. They’ve been given extra days off, extra stipends, bonuses, etc. They never had to fear being laid off. I have some sympathy and can feel some of this myself. It’s normal and natural to work with people in person. WFH can make it easy to overwork. You take fewer breaks, often work past normal working hours. You don’t feel connected to customers or celebrate success in person.

    And as I mentioned, Big Tech is often the only social life for people. I fortunately never made it mine, but my company had all sorts of after-work activities. Sports leagues, game nights, different classes taught by employees. There was a rhythm and connectedness that’s gone. The Great Resignation is real. Many employees are leaving for better jobs. Remote work has (so far) resulted in more job opportunities for those working in Big Tech, especially outside of Silicon Valley. And so we backfill those positions or hire new people, all remote.

    We now have employees who have nearly 2 years of tenure who have never met another employee in person, and live alone in some city away from where the office was. This would be fine for a normal person, but again, we’re attracting the family-less urbanites scared of even meeting up with their friends at a restaurant. The churn in jobs also has the major effect of constantly dealing with the overhead of re-assigning projects from people leaving, and onboarding new people. The new employees don’t get enough attention to succeed.

    And the employees that stay end up with a load of work dumped by the former coworkers, plus the responsibility of onboarding the new ones. There are many software engineers who’ve not written a single line of code in the past year.

    While the Woke agitation has slowed due to the productive employees’ ability to simply log off, in addition to the tiredness of the agitators, there is more and more open rebellion regarding pay and profits. “Bring your whole self to work” was the Big Tech mantra. Tell people about your cool hobbies, share your politics (if you’re far left only), share your sex life. This plus the feeling of distance an online-only presence creates has made people braver in speaking their thoughts.

    You used to have the balls to knock on the CEO’s office door or schedule a meeting. Now you can fire off a nasty Slack message straight to her. People will openly write threads and comments throughout Slack bad-mouthing the higher-ups at the company. And they do nothing. It’s unreal what people will write, with no recourse. If it were anything remotely RW, I’m certain they’d be immediately fired, but so long as they’re sufficiently LW or minority (anything but straight white man), they can agitate, complain, do no work, and continue employment.

    And so the entire company has devolved. We’re running on the code written in years past. No major new product initiatives are being launched. Workers complain that they’re understaffed and demoralized. People take constant sick days or don’t show up at all without a record.

    It’s very easy to hide when WFH. With such a flux in employees/management and so much allowance for “mental health”, it’s easy to simply no-show without punishment. We hired a new employee and I pinged them at 1 pm to see if they’d join a meeting. They came 10 minutes later. Said they slept in because they didn’t have anything to work on.

    It’s got to be mind-boggling for someone not in software. On a given day, managers (there are several in weird matrix structure) will say things like “What can I do to support you?” “Do you have enough to work on? Too much?” It’s like emotional support. And you can simply say, “Oh, I’ve had a hard week. Barely slept. Felt sick. Don’t think I can handle much more this week.” There’s no real accountability to anyone. Record profits at the top, because of existing code and product-market fit cruising along, so leaders don’t notice.

    It’s utterly surreal to watch the deterioration. To see how quickly an organization can crumble. And I’m not productive either. I’m constantly bombarded with anti-white, anti-male, woke propaganda. We’ve even had explicit discussions of assigning less work to URMs (under-represented minorities), because “life is really hard for them right now.” This suggestion was from a lesbian white woman with cats. As productive as one person can be, you can’t add value when constantly thwarted. Nobody in IT doing tickets anymore to provision things for you large bureaucracy to gatekeep any actions (needs review by X number of committees including now DEI committees). It’s hard to feel unproductive. I’m not the type who feels great about getting paid to not work, but that’s essentially what I’ve been doing for the last year.

    This problem is the worst in Big Tech, so if Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Amazon Prime, or Netflix go down, the world will probably be better off. It’s not essential. I worry about this apathy spreading to companies that matter. Ones that write software for utilities.

    We had a woman who worked for us who was just awful at her job. Could not understand instructions at all. Could not do the job. Barely spoke English. She wasn’t just not productive, she actually dragged the team down. I worked with my Director to finally get her fired after failing her Performance Improvement Program (PIP). HR told us they can’t fire her because she’s Asian and female and in California, that it’s just simply too hard. This was over 5 years ago.

    You have a certain fire in your 20’s. Ready to reform and change everything. You get noticed when you perform. Promoted, bonuses, etc. But eventually, you keep hitting the same problems or gatekeepers over and over. I recall asking an older coworker (mid-thirties at the time) what drove him, and he said he just does it for the paycheck now. I’m at that point. Lost the fire for career and collecting my paycheck for other purposes in life where the fire has been rekindled.

    I worked remote for 5 years at a prior job and this was never the case. There’s something special about this combo of remote and “your feelings are valid”.

  • AI Helps Restore Trust Between Employers and WFH Workers

    AI Helps Restore Trust Between Employers and WFH Workers

    In the last 24 months we’ve seen enormous changes to our lives. Our work, our healthcare, and just about everything that we do and all the ways in which we interact changed. Now that we’re closing out 2021, we’re seeing many things returning to some form of the old normals. Some of the changes we’ve made, for better or worse, don’t seem to be going anywhere at all. Let’s learn more about WFH workers and their impact below.

    One of those lasting and impacting changes is the switch from working in the office to working from home. Working from home was already on the rise and many employees were wanting to go this route long before the COVID pandemic forced it upon us. However, we never saw the events of 2020 coming and the challenges we are now facing from remote work are something that we must address in order to ensure that remote work remains the positive change that we need it to be. 

    The WFH Trend

    Since 2019, we’ve gone from 4.1% of US employees working from home to 42% in 2021. The number has dropped back down from it’s 69% at the height of the pandemic, but it looks as though working remotely is a permanent addition to the new normal. As such, businesses and their employees are learning to navigate new ways to communicate and new territories of trust and work ethic. 

    For the most part, working from home is seen as a positive for employees. The majority are satisfied with their workspace and available technologies. They’re able to meet project deadlines with fewer interruptions, and they feel motivated to work. Fifty-seven percent of these employees are also more satisfied with their jobs, which means a lower turnover rate, not to mention the 18% decrease in road traffic as a result of working from home. The benefits are well worth the necessary adjustments. 

    Employers are benefitting as well, with thousands of dollars saved on overhead costs and more productivity from happier employees. 

    Trust is a Challenge

    However, one of the challenges with remote work is that the level of trust from employer to employee has decreased with remote work. In fact, 41% of employers are uncertain about their employees’ work ethic, which results in the issue of micromanagement. 

    Employees are feeling this lack of trust and report that micromanagement is the number one cause of stress in their jobs. It is such an obstacle that 69% would consider changing jobs just because of this one issue. Micromanagement is not doing employers any favors either as they see higher turnover rates and less productivity from those who are feeling this stress. They also then must cover the costs of replacing dissatisfied employees who turn elsewhere for work. 

    AI can help businesses and their employees to mitigate some of the trust issues by automating processes that can be automated, such as payroll apps, scheduling, timesheets, online leave management, and on-the-go workforce management. Four out of five employees believe that using AI technology would help improve their job performance, and employers could use these tools to rebuild the environment of trust between them and their employees.

    Learn more about trusting WFH workers in the infographic below:

    Now That Everyone is Working From Home, Who Can We Trust? - TrackTime24.com
    Source: TrackTime24.com
  • Cisco CEO: Customers Preparing For Hybrid Work Model

    Cisco CEO: Customers Preparing For Hybrid Work Model

    “We are really seeing the impact of this hybrid work model,” says Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. “We are seeing the preparation for hybrid work and the return to the office. Customers are absolutely believing this is going to occur and they’re investing in it. Customers are turning to us to help them create the trusted workplace of the future.”

    Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, discusses on CNBC and in their quarterly earnings call how customers absolutely believe that the hybrid work model is in their future:

    Customers Are Preparing For Hybrid Work Environment

    Over the last couple of quarters, we’ve seen significant investment in next-generation wireless infrastructure to be ready for their employees to come to the office. As you load these wireless networks they are going to need campus refresh underneath them, and we’ve seen exactly that. The Catalyst 9000 platform has had four consecutive quarters of increasing growth sequentially.

    We are really seeing the impact of this hybrid work model. We are seeing the preparation for hybrid work and the return to the office. Customers are absolutely believing this is going to occur and they’re investing in it.

    Trusted Workplace of the Future

    Let me now touch on Infrastructure Platforms. We saw strong demand across a majority of our portfolio, led by our next-generation Enterprise Networking and Service Provider solutions, as companies accelerate the modernization of their infrastructure. This modern infrastructure delivers higher performance and faster access to data while offering the best user experience in an increasingly distributed environment.

    Customers are turning to us to help them create the trusted workplace of the future, with Wi-Fi access points, video endpoints, cameras and IoT sensors feeding data into DNA Center and DNA spaces. We’re enabling operations teams to remotely monitor workplace conditions for a safe return to office.

    We’re also working to provide visibility beyond corporate networks, which is increasingly critical as our customers accelerate their adoption of SaaS and cloud solutions for hybrid work. At Cisco Live, we launched the industry’s first enterprise-wide full stack observability offering by integrating ThousandEyes cloud intelligence with our Catalyst switching portfolio and AppDynamics. This provides IT with visibility and actionable insights across both external and internal networks to provide a seamless digital experience for users. And with users more distributed than ever, it is vital that they have the most efficient and secure connection to the cloud.

    Building the Internet of the Future

    Our deep partnerships with Google, Amazon, and Microsoft allow native connectivity from our SD-WAN fabric to each of these cloud offerings. With our technology, customers can reduce deployment times and connect branch offices to cloud workloads in minutes. In our Webscale business, we delivered our sixth consecutive quarter of strong order growth, which increased over 25% in the quarter, and over 50% on a trailing 12-month basis.

    Our Webscale customers are starting their 400 gig upgrade cycles and aggressively pursuing long-haul build-outs while our Carrier customers are exploring new architectures to realize the full potential of 5G. We are building the internet for the future by creating breakthrough innovation with our routing, optical and automation technologies to deliver significant economic benefits.

    Customers Consuming Cisco Technology In New Ways

    Recently, we launched a new routed optical networking solution, integrating our scalable, high-performance routers and Acacia’s pluggable optics, which offers significant cost savings. Last week, we announced our intent to acquire Sedona Systems to extend our cross-work automation platform to build on these capabilities. We also expanded our Silicon One platform, from a routing-focused solution to one which addresses the Webscale switching market, offering 10 networking chips ranging from 3.2 terabits to 25.6 terabits per second, making it the highest performance programmable routing and switching silicon on the market. We know our customers increasingly want to consume Cisco’s technology in new and more flexible ways.

    At Cisco Live, we launched our new As a Service portfolio, Cisco Plus, and our first offer, Cisco Plus Hybrid Cloud, combining our data center compute, networking and storage portfolio. Cisco Plus includes our plans to deliver networking as a service, which will unify networking, Security, and observability across Access, WAN and Cloud domains to deliver an unparalleled experience for our customers.

    Turning to Security, we had a record quarter, surpassing $875 million in revenue, up 13% as we expanded our reach with customers around the world. Our Security strategy is focused on delivering a simple and secure experience. We have an unrivaled ability to provide end-to-end Security capabilities across users, devices, applications and data, on any network or any cloud.

    Powering Business Transformation

    Wellbeing is top of mind for so many right now as we face a new way of working. This is why we launched People Insights to help people monitor and manage their wellbeing. These new features, devices and capabilities combined with Cloud Calling and Cloud Contact Center provide our customers with the most comprehensive and inclusive hybrid work platform.

    Last week, we announced our intent to acquire Socio Labs. By integrating Slido and Socio Labs into our WebEx platform, we will also be able to provide the most comprehensive internal and external event management solution on the market. In summary, we had a very good quarter. I’m so proud of the continued success of the business transformation our teams are driving.

    Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins: Customers Preparing For Hybrid Work Model
  • Employees Would Forgo $30,000 Raise to Work From Home

    Employees Would Forgo $30,000 Raise to Work From Home

    A new survey has qualified just how much employees want to continue working from home (WFM), to the tune of $30,000.

    As restrictions lift and companies begin opening their doors, many employees are faced with the prospect of going back into the office for the first time in more than a year. While many companies are working on permanent remote or hybrid options, some are insisting on a complete return to in-office normality.

    According to a new survey by Blind, an anonymous network of professionals, a Goldman Sachs professional posed the question: “Would you rather make $30k more switching to a new job that requires you to work in the office, or would you rather keep your current salary but WFH anywhere after covid?”

    An average of 64% of professionals indicated they would prefer WFM, although the number for some specific companies was much higher. For example, 100% of Zillow, 70% of T-Mobile, 89% of Twitter, 71% of Walmart, 69% of Apple, 76% of Salesforce and 73% of Oracle employees would all choose WFM. In fact, Cisco, JPMorgan Chase and Qualcomm were the only companies that fell below the 50% mark.

    The survey is just the latest, and most striking, indication of just how popular WFH really is.

  • Google Finally Embraces Long-Term Hybrid Work

    Google Finally Embraces Long-Term Hybrid Work

    Google has finally embraced long-term hybrid work, paving the way for employees to have more flexibility.

    Google was one of the first major companies to send employees home as a result of the pandemic, and has continued to push back its return-to-office date. Nonetheless, the company had previously sent clear signals that it was all-in on in-office work, even investing billions in new office space.

    The company’s move was unpopular with employees, many of whom started pushing back against the idea of returning to the office full-time. Some even threatened to quit if Google forced their hand. Further complicating the issue was the company’s own financial reports, showing it saves roughly $1 billion a year as a result of remote work.

    It appears Google is beginning to change its tune, finally embracing remote and hybrid work long-term. In a blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai outlined the company’s new policies.

    We’ll move to a hybrid work week where most Googlers spend approximately three days in the office and two days wherever they work best. Since in-office time will be focused on collaboration, your product areas and functions will help decide which days teams will come together in the office. There will also be roles that may need to be on site more than three days a week due to the nature of the work.

    In addition to the hybrid approach, Pichai says Googlers will have far more freedom to choose a different Google location to work from. This will give employees the ability to choose from the company’s many locations around the globe, rather than their job being tied to a single location that may not be ideal for them or their family. The only major limitation will be whether the proposed location has the infrastructure to support a given role.

    In addition, employees will be able to apply for completely remote work, depending on the job in question. As with the location transfers, remote work applications will be evaluated on whether the job can be adequately accomplished, and the team properly supported, remotely.

    Taken together these changes will result in a workforce where around 60% of Googlers are coming together in the office a few days a week, another 20% are working in new office locations, and 20% are working from home.

    With this adjustment to its work plans, Google joins a long list of companies that are fully embracing remote and hybrid work, furthering the workplace transformation the pandemic started.

  • Salesforce Extends Remote Work, Opening HQ in May

    Salesforce Extends Remote Work, Opening HQ in May

    Salesforce has updated its work strategy, extending work-from-home (WFM) till the end of the year.

    Salesforce made headlines in February when it announced it was embracing remote work permanently, giving employees the option to have a hybrid work schedule. Under the company’s new plans, there would be three categories of workers: flex, fully remote and in-office.

    The company expects the majority of its employees to be flex workers, only coming to the office 1-3 days per week. In-office will comprise the smallest percentage, and be in the office 4-5 days. Fully remote workers would be those that live outside a reasonable commute distance, or those with roles that don’t require an office.

    Salesforce is working on reopening its offices, with some 22 locations around the world now open. The company’s first US office and HQ, Salesforce Tower San Francisco, will be open in May. In the meantime, the company is extending its WFM till at least December 31, making any return to the office optional until then.

    The company also shared several insights gleaned from its WFM efforts.

    Thursday has emerged as the most popular day for employees to come to the office, with many employees preferring to start their week at home.

    Productivity has also been impacted, as “employees are 16% more likely to agree they are more productive at home, and 13% more likely to agree that their teams are more productive at home than in the office.” In addition, 20% of WFM employees are more likely to take wellbeing breaks than their office-bound counterparts.

    At the same time, the office is still seen as a superior place for collaboration. In the company’s Sydney location, “64% of collaboration spaces like lounges and conference rooms were utilized; whereas only 24% of desk space was used. And employees working in the office were 19% more likely to have connected socially with a colleague compared to those working from home.”

    As a company that has embraced WFM, Salesforce offers important insights and a roadmap for companies wanting to make a similar transition.

  • Over One Third of Workers Will Quit if WFH Ends

    Over One Third of Workers Will Quit if WFH Ends

    A recent poll is bad news for employers wanting to resume in-office work post-pandemic, with 35% saying they’ll quit if work-from-home (WFH) ends.

    WFM has become the new normal for a large percentage of companies during the pandemic. What happens post-pandemic varies greatly from one company to another. Some companies have fully embraced remote work, and many others have committed to hybrid work options. Still others, however, are determined to bring employees back in-house as soon as possible.

    Employers in the latter category may be in for a rude awakening, according to a poll posted by a Blind user. Blind is an anonymous network of professionals, providing a safe way to exchange ideas, information, tips, and more.

    According to the poll, some 35% of users say they would quit if their employers get rid of WFH. Another 11% say they have already negotiated for WFH on a permanent basis. Only 54% said they would return to the office regardless.

    The poll breaks down the results by company, and it’s particularly bad news for Amazon. The company released a memo last week emphasizing its “office-centric culture,” and its intention to bring its employees back to the office by early fall. According to the Blind poll, 43% of Amazon employees will quit once WFM disappears.

    The poll also shows a rise over a LiveCareer poll in January, when 29% of employees said they would quit if WFH was off the table.

    With WFH increasing in popularity, employees would do well to take note and make adjustments.

  • WSJ: Tripadvisor Adopting Hybrid Work Model

    WSJ: Tripadvisor Adopting Hybrid Work Model

    The pandemic and its accompanying restrictions on travel, business, and work, has caused company’s to rethink business models going forward. In other words, businesses like their new focus on being lean and mean, even while they get back to normal sales levels. In a Wall Street Journal article, Tripadvisor CFO, Ernst Teunissen says that the company is going to hold the line on adding back costs. Trip Advisor reduced expenditures by a staggering 32 percent in 2020 as governments worldwide banned and restricted travel.

    “We’re going to very much resist just adding back what we had before just because we can,” Mr. Teunissen said. “You could argue that a company should have the discipline to always do that, but a pandemic really sharpens your focus.”

    Tripadvisor has reduced the company headcount by nearly 62 percent, from 4,194 pre-pandemic to 2.596 currently. Simultaneously, like most other companies, Tripadvisor employees have been predominantly working remotely and for the most part, they plan to continue with that strategy.

    Mr. Teunissen said he is looking closely at Tripadvisor’s real estate footprint to determine how much office space the company will need after the pandemic, as it expects to adopt a hybrid model of remote and office work.

    Tripadvisor has roughly 30 offices spanning about 600,000 square feet and its lease obligations totaled $168 million as of Dec. 31. The company is considering subletting more of its space and, in some cases, moving to smaller locations, Mr. Teunissen said.

  • WSJ: Zoom Is Harder On Extroverts

    WSJ: Zoom Is Harder On Extroverts

    With the massive change toward remote working that has taken place over the last year, different personality types have had to adjust to Zoom. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today that concluded that Zoom video conferencing is surprisingly harder on extroverts than introverts. Experts interviewed said that Zoom is “less satisfying” for extroverts who thrive when talking in-person.

    “One area where extroverts excel is the in-the-moment processing of bodily cues,” says William Lamson, an assistant professor of psychology in clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine. But because video calls are more about talking heads, extroverts end up “using more focus and not likely getting the same reward as a live interaction,” Dr. Lamson says.

    Extroverts don’t do well with the structure of Zoom calls also:

    Extroverts can also chafe at some of the structure and controls that videoconferencing platforms impose on conversations, says Elias Aboujaoude, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University. Functions such as muting, for example, control the conversation in a way that does not happen with in-person conversations, says Dr. Aboujaoude.

    Introverts, on the other hand, do much better with more structure in conversation with workmates:

    “There is less spontaneous water-cooler chitchat, which isn’t necessarily their forte and can sometimes provoke anxiety,” says Dr. Aboujaoude.

    Video meetings feature frequent glitches that can offer some cover to introverts who often worry about how they look to others. “Introverts can be harsh critics of their social performance and second-guess what they have said in social settings,” says Dr. Aboujaoude. 

  • Nearly a Quarter of Professionals Have Left a Big City Due to Remote Work

    Nearly a Quarter of Professionals Have Left a Big City Due to Remote Work

    A new poll has revealed major changes in the American workforce, with some 23% of respondents moving from a big city due to remote work.

    Blind is an anonymous network of verified professionals that communicate, share advice, provide feedback and more. Blind conducted a survey of some 6,135 professionals, between January 29 and February 8, 2021.

    Since work from home (WFM) began, 23% of respondents said they have already relocated out of a major city, while 19% said “not yet,” likely indicating they are at least considering it.

    The cities registering the largest exodus were San Francisco/Bay Area (47%), Seattle (16%) and New York City (14%). Austin, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Raleigh collectively made up another 22%.

    Just as telling is where professionals have opted to move. Austin was the biggest single destination (15%), followed by Seattle (9%), Miami (7%) and Arizona (4%). Interestingly, 66% moved to “other cities,” which included Atlanta, Denver, Honolulu and Nashville. The most unique response was “exploring the US in a minivan while WFH from Airbnb.”

    Blind’s survey is the latest indication that WFM is here to stay. Companies looking to attract top talent will need to provide remote work options to remain competitive.

  • Microsoft Azure and AWS Big Cloud Winners Amid Pandemic

    Microsoft Azure and AWS Big Cloud Winners Amid Pandemic

    As the global pandemic has accelerated cloud adoption, Microsoft Azure and AWS have emerged as the clear winners.

    Flexera has released its 2021 State of Tech Spend Report. As expected, digital transformation and cloud adoption are on the rise. Some 56% of respondents said digital transformation was a top initiative for 2021, as opposed to 54% in 2020. Cloud adoption saw even greater jump, with 48% of respondents making it a top priority in 2021, vs 40% in 2020. Not surprisingly, work from home was the single biggest driver for change, with 74% citing it as the leading factor.

    Of the cloud providers, Microsoft Azure and AWS were the clear winners. Some 61% of respondents said they were going to increase spending on Microsoft Azure in 2021. Similarly, 57% plan on increasing their spending on Microsoft SaaS, while 54% plan on spending more on AWS. Google appears set for more modest gains, with only 31% planning on increased spending on Google Cloud.

    The forecast looks even worse for IBM and Oracle. Respondents plan on increasing their spending on IBM Cloud a mere 16%, with 14% planning to decrease spending. While 20% said they planned on increasing spending on Oracle Infrastructure Cloud, 13% plan on decreased spending. The outlook is even worse for Oracle Licensed Software, with 22% planning to increase spending, as opposed to 25% planning to decrease expenditures.

    Flexera’s report is an important look into the cloud industry and the ongoing digital transformation, and is even better news for Microsoft and AWS.

  • Wedbush: Microsoft Has ‘Unparalleled’ Cloud Advantages

    Wedbush: Microsoft Has ‘Unparalleled’ Cloud Advantages

    Dan Ives, Wedbush Senior Technology Analyst, is bullish on Microsoft thanks to its “unparalleled” advantages in cloud transition.

    Microsoft’s Azure platform is currently in second place in the cloud market, behind AWS. In spite of that, Azure has been growing rapidly, outpacing the market at large. In particular, Microsoft has been making headway at the expense of AWS and third-place rival Google Cloud.

    Ives doesn’t see that stopping, thanks to the unique position Microsoft is in, in combination with continued work-from-home trends.

    “Deal flow looks strong heading into the rest of FY21 as we estimate that Microsoft is still only ~35% through penetrating its unparalleled installed base on the cloud transition,” Ives said, according to Markets Insider. “To this point, we believe Azure’s cloud momentum is still in its early days of playing out within the company’s massive installed base and the Office 365 transition for both consumer/enterprise is providing growth tailwinds over the next few years.”

    As a result of these factors, Ives sees the company’s stock hitting $260 per share next year, an increase of 16% over the current price.

    “From a valuation basis, even if we take a 10%+ haircut to the cloud and enterprise growth drivers, we are still looking at what we value as a $1 trillion valuation cloud franchise for Redmond,” he added.

  • Bill Gates: Over 50% Of Business Travel To Go Away Permanently

    Bill Gates: Over 50% Of Business Travel To Go Away Permanently

    Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says that over 50% of business travel and 30% of time in the office will never come back even after pandemic restrictions are lifted:

    My prediction would be that over 50% of business travel and over 30% of days in the office will go away. Now it’s not the gold standard that to fly all the way here to sit in front of me that. You can do the virtual connection. It will be a very high threshold to actually doing that business trip. There will be ways that you can work from home a lot of the time. Some companies will be extreme on one end or the other.

    I just don’t like talking to African leaders and I always feel bad for African leaders. There are so many conferences in Europe and the US that they are expected to come to. Yet, their job in their countries is so important like their education or health system or collecting taxes or disability. Yet, they spend half their time on all these trips. The fact is now we can do a 20-minute call as needed and touch with base them. It’s been pretty impressive how a lot has gotten done. We will go to the office somewhat. We will do some business travel but dramatically less.

    The fact that the (video communication) software doesn’t have any sort of serendipitous thing of people you run into after the meeting or gathering thing, there is some work to be done there. So no I haven’t run into somebody and made a new friendship. There is something missing there.

    Bill Gates: Over 50% Of Business Travel To Go Away Permanently
  • Study: Remote Work Hurting Employee Engagement

    Study: Remote Work Hurting Employee Engagement

    The massive shift toward remote work during the pandemic is making it tougher for employees to stay engaged and motivated according to a report by employee assessment firm Questionmark.

    Since millions of employees have been working from home, companies are facing significant challenges in maintaining an engaged and motivated workforce. This not only impacts productivity but it also is key to high retention rates. According to research by LinkedIn, 94% of employees are likely to remain with a company
    longer if they believe their employer is investing in their career.

    Employers also know that an engaged employee is a happy and productive employee. A recent survey noted in the report found that 41% of employees feel their career development has stalled during the first months of the pandemic and 9% believe they have gone backward.

    Based on conversations with customers, here are the four common obstacles to
    building an engaged and motivated workforce:

    1. Lack of career development – people are more likely to move jobs to develop their career than for money. Some 41% believe their careers have stalled in recent months.1
    2. Feeling less valued – managers play a crucial role in encouraging and motivating staff. But when working remotely, they can’t rely on facial cues and body language to check if praise is needed.
    3. Disconnected from colleagues – employees miss the social interaction they enjoyed with co-workers. Team spirit can suffer as a result.
    4. Uncertainty and anxiety – when workers worry that their job is on the line it increases anxiety and undermines performance. A survey suggests 75% of workers believe that living amidst a pandemic has increased their stress levels.

    “Now more than ever, employers need to ensure that they give staff the support they need to perform at their best,” says Questionmark CEO Lars Pedersen. “The ability of employees to adapt to changing circumstances and learn new skills will be at the heart of surviving a period of economic uncertainty.”

    “The decisions that employers make around engaging and motivating staff really matter. Data from online staff assessments can give employers the information they need to make good people decisions. Leaders can ensure employees get the support, training and development they need to thrive.”

    https://www.questionmark.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Report-Engaging_a_Remote_Workforce.pdf
  • Airbnb: Working From ‘Any Home’ Huge 2021 Trend

    Airbnb: Working From ‘Any Home’ Huge 2021 Trend

    An Airbnb commissioned survey reveals that the work at home trend will be transforming into the ‘working from any home’ in 2021. The survey conducted by ClearPath Strategies says that 83% of employees are in favor of relocating as part of remote working. Over 25% believe they will be able to ‘live where they want to and work remotely’. This would assume that many companies will not require employees to come into physical locations on a regular basis for group meetings or strategy sessions.

    One in five of those surveyed have relocated their living situation during the pandemic either temporarily or permanently, according to the survey. Surprisingly, 60% of parents are very or somewhat likely to consider working remotely and traveling with their children if schools continue to be disrupted.

    Not so surprisingly, Airbnb says that from July to September of this year, there has been a 128% increase in guest reviews mentioning “relocation”, “relocate”, “remote work” and “trying a new neighborhood” in comparison to the same time frame last year.

    There is also a big trend out of cities and into suburbs and rural areas. Since the pandemic started, 24% of people say they moved to a suburb and 21% to a rural area. Additionally, Airbnb reveals that those that can work from anywhere are booking longer stays of two or more weeks.

    One of the ways travelers are taking advantage of this trend is trying before they buy–turning to Airbnb to test new neighborhoods and cities before making a long-term commitment. From July to September this year, there has been a 128 percent increase in guest reviews mentioning “relocation”, “relocate”, “remote work” and “trying a new neighborhood” in comparison to the same time frame last year. 

    Source: Airbnb
  • VMware COO: We Are So Happy That Zoom Exists

    VMware COO: We Are So Happy That Zoom Exists

    VMware COO Sanjay Poonen says that Zoom has changed the future of work:

    We are so happy that Zoom exists. When I was last in a pandemic in 2008 I was at SAP and we were all in a room sitting by a telepresence machine. It was so hot and only 10 or 15 people could sit at the same time. Then I first saw Zoom on my phone and it was beautiful. We obviously want to balance work and life and be in this place where we are concerned about both our physical and mental health. Physical health is important but mental health is equally important.

    We’re obviously helping companies through the pandemic. We’ve just adopted some best practices. We think we’re going to create Work 2.0. In the future of work-force-ware, we make it the best to work in any location. I recently had a lady that was going to do a global demand gen job. Initially, we would have thought that she could have done that job from Palo Alto only. She’s now doing that job from Sydney and doing an incredible job.

    We want to make VMware the best place to work. Then at the end of the day, each person has got to find their personal space by which they figure out the things that trample them back to work. Every day for me it’s my faith, my family, my friends. I’ve got a routine, whether it’s biking or whatever lets you get prepared for the next day. We are potentially going to be in this for the long haul.

    VMware COO Sanjay Poonen: We Are So Happy That Zoom Exists
  • Dropbox CEO: Virtual First Reinvents Work

    Dropbox CEO: Virtual First Reinvents Work

    “We call our approach Virtual First where most focused and solo work happens at home,” says Dropbox CEO Drew Houston. “Then because in-person collaboration is still critical for building teams and relationships and culture we’re turning our offices into collaborative spaces. We call these spaces Dropbox Studios. I feel as a company that we can only live out our mission if we’re on the leading edge of how we work ourselves.”

    “We also hope this Virtual First approach will give us the best of remote and in-person work, balancing flexibility with human connection, and creating a more level playing field for everyone,” notes the Dropbox Team blog. “We’re living through a challenging time. But we believe it brings an opportunity to redesign the way we work for the better.”

    Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, says that starting today, Dropbox is becoming a Virtual First company. Remote work will be the primary experience for all employees and the day-to-day default for individual work:

    Virtual First Reinvents Work

    I don’t think anyone could have imagined how the entire world went to working from home overnight in the most traumatic and abrupt way possible. We see that the shift to distributed work is going to continue beyond when the lockdown ends. What’s interesting is the vast majority of our employees have said that they don’t want to return to the way things were before. They don’t want to lose the flexibility. They don’t want to go back to commuting. We’ve seen this with a lot of companies.

    We saw this as a unique opportunity to reinvent how we work and rethink this completely. It’s a little different from some of the other approaches. We thought about how do we combine the best elements of the remote and in-person experience. We call our approach Virtual First where most focused and solo work happens at home. Then because in-person collaboration is still critical for building teams and relationships and culture we’re turning our offices into collaborative spaces. We call these spaces Dropbox Studios. This is better than going fully remote or just sort of letting people figure it out for themselves.

    Fully remote cuts out the in-person experience which we think is critical to work. In a lot of the hybrid models which are saying work from home whenever you want to, we think risks the worst of both worlds situation where you don’t get the sense of community in an office and you don’t get the same level of flexibility.

    Shift To Distributed Work Is Massive Opportunity

    It’s a transition. Over time we’re not going to need as much physical space. That’s part of the explicit design here. Sure, there are some efficiencies on costs that result from that or result from being able to hire in lower-cost locations or allowing employees to live in lower-cost locations. But you need to solve for more than just costs. The primary factor for us is that the vast majority of our team wanted to preserve a lot of the benefits they were getting from working from home.

    There are a lot of issues with remote work but most importantly our customers and all the world have shifted to working in a distributed way. We see this as massively increasing our opportunity because there are all of these pain points and ways that we can improve the remote working experience. I feel as a company that we can only do that and we can only live out our mission if we’re on the leading edge of how we work ourselves.

    Dropbox CEO Drew Houston: Virtual First Reinvents Work
  • Box CEO: Pandemic Opened Up New Way Of Working

    Box CEO: Pandemic Opened Up New Way Of Working

    “It’s been a funny journey working remotely,” says Box CEO Aaron Levie. “A month or two into the pandemic I distinctly remembered that we actually started our company completely remotely. The move to this remote work style is causing us to realize how different managing and leading businesses and executing can be if we were able to take advantage of virtual technology more even when we go back to the office. This completely opens up a new way of working.”

    Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, discusses at the CNBC @Work Summit how remote working that was forced upon companies has actually opened them up to a completely new way of working:

    It’s Been A Funny Journey Working Remotely

    It’s been a funny journey working remotely. A month or two into the pandemic I actually distinctly remembered that wait a second, we actually started our company completely remotely. My co-founder and I were going to two different colleges at the time and so the whole business was run over instant messaging. Before we had Slack we had AOL Instant Messenger. Before we had Okta we had really bad passwords. We were a remote company and we started our own product because we wanted to make it so people could easily access and share files from anywhere. That was the origin of the business.

    Fast forward 15 years later, we have 2,000 employees, we work in offices, we have a lot of the standard ways you think about when scaling up the company. When we had to instantly move to a remote and distributed way of working it really hit me how much of the work style that gets embedded into our companies are really actually things that just carried forward from the 20th Century when everything was analog and everything was done in person. All communication was done between people either through written communication or just a meeting.

    Pandemic Opened Up New Way Of Working

    You realize that when you go virtual and you go remote there is actually so much potential to be able to work in a digital-first way. When you think about a team meeting as an example, so many of our meetings are arbitrarily sized to the number of people that fit into a conference room. So it’s kind of bizarre that work just happens to be the six to twelve people that can fit into a conference room space. Certainly for software projects or a particular team that’s a pretty good logical size. But that’s not the right size that contributes to a brainstorm. That’s not inherently the right size of people that you want when you’re communicating information and getting the best ideas around how to go drive the business.

    So having that Slack channel with 150 people in it that cuts across different parts of the organization we are able to get contributions from people that would have never been in that conference room previously. That completely opens up a new way of working. Think of what you now do on video and the ability to include voices and ideas from people that previously wouldn’t have spoken up or wouldn’t have had an easy opportunity to contribute to some particular part of the business or strategy or have a two-way dialogue on a really important business topic.

    Real Potential That We Want To Continue

    We had a meeting with all of our top 200 leaders in the company last week and that was a complete bidirectional discussion in a way that would never have been possible in person. That’s usually a person with a microphone just communicating outward to everybody in the business and not actually having it be a dialogue to get feedback. The move to this remote work style is causing us to realize actually how different management and leading businesses and executing can be if we were able to take advantage of virtual technology more even when we go back to the office.

    None of this requires you to be remote it’s just sort of the remote that was forced upon all of us to the point that we are now realizing that there is actually some real potential here that we want to continue to maintain going forward.

  • Twilio CEO: COVID Accelerated Digital Transformation

    Twilio CEO: COVID Accelerated Digital Transformation

    “Even ahead of COVID, the market for companies who are undergoing digital transformation and who need to use digital technologies to compete and win in the modern economy was enormous,” says Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson. “COVID has been a tailwind to Twilio business but really is an acceleration of the trends that have gone on for the last 10 to 20 years as a result of digital transformation in nearly every kind of company.”

    Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio, discusses how COVID has accelerated the massive movement toward digital transformation by enterprises:

    COVID Accelerated Digital Transformation

    Even ahead of COVID, the market for companies who are undergoing digital transformation and who need to use digital technologies to compete and win in the modern economy was enormous. What COVID did is it accelerated many of the initiatives, many of the use cases, the things that companies needed to build to be competitive in this digital era were accelerated.

    They were accelerated because of COVID, because of social distancing, work from home, and migrating a lot of these business processes to software and into the cloud and modernizing all of this. COVID has been a tailwind to Twilio business but really is an acceleration of the trends that have gone on for the last 10 to 20 years as a result of digital transformation in nearly every kind of company.

    I’m Not Very Concerned About Microsoft

    I’m not very concerned (about new competitors like Microsoft). It’s the same reason that (I wasn’t concerned) when Amazon started building products in the communication space or Facebook or Google or even Blackberry once announced that they were going to compete with Twilio. First of all, we’re no stranger to competition. This is a huge market. It’s no surprise that a wide variety of companies have products in the communications domain.

    We compete by focusing on our customers, listening to what they need, and building differentiated APIs, a differentiated platform, and a differentiated super network. We’ve got a 12-year head start on anybody entering the space. The last thing I’ll add is that we are not a company that is very focused on competition. We’re focused on our customers. That focus has driven us for the last 12 years and has served us very well. We will continue to focus on the things our customers need in this enormous market and be able to take a lot of market share.

    Digital-Native Companies Want APIs That Work

    Strangely, I don’t think Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wakes up every day thinking about Twilio. But we are also no stranger to pricing competition. In fact, that is how most companies have tried to compete with us through our 12-year history. They come in with an inferior product and they say we’re going to be cheaper. But it turns out that the biggest enterprises on the planet or digital-native companies, what they want are APIs that work, mature, scalable, and that work everywhere around the world.

    We’ve invested a tremendous amount of time and money to build the leading platform out there and what we found is that customers value that. So we’re no stranger to people trying to undercut us on price. What we think and what we hear from our customers is that they want quality, they want reliability, and they want HIPAA compliance. They want all sorts of capabilities that let them power their business and that’s what we offer.

    Low-Code, No-Code, and Yo-Code

    Low-code is a really exciting area. There are three buckets. There’s low-code, no-code, and then yo-code for the people who love to write code, developers. We’ve got products really for that whole spectrum. The typical way a developer might build on top of Twilio is to write code and host it themselves. We have a Twilio Functions product that allows us to host the software for our customers. Then we have Twilio Studio which is a drag and drop designer for the non-developer to be able to build out sophisticated workflows like interactive voice response systems on top of Twilio.

    We have embraced really all three of those categories of builders. We do believe that at every enterprise there is a large number of builders with different skill sets who are building the future of how those companies engage with their customers. We want to enable all those people to succeed on Twilio.

    Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson: COVID Accelerated Digital Transformation