One of the downsides to the fact that people can
work whenever they want is that it's sometimes hard for people to
stop working. According to a study done in Europe, many overly
stressed out workers are asking their bosses to
cut their hours and salary just to gain back some control over
their lives. Meanwhile, many bosses in IT are increasingly worried
that their staff is going to burn out. Of course, a lot of that could
be solved if companies hired more people, but they still seem hesitant
to do so.
Taylorism Gone Mad Or A Better Work-Life Balance?04/15/2004 03:32 PM It's really no surprise that this is happening, but as technology
continues to get better at recording all sorts of things about us, a
new discussion is opening up about employers monitoring employees. Even though
plenty of studies (for years and years and years) have shown that too much
employee monitoring actually harms productivity that won't stop
this new generation from trying. What's interesting here is the way
it's being spun - not as a direct way of improving productivity
(modern Taylorism), but as a better way for employers to help
employeesimpro
ve their work life balance. In other words, the article suggests
that employers can monitor employees' cholesterol levels and stress
levels and realize when they need a break. They (way too easily)
dismiss the idea of privacy by pointing out that privacy doesn't
matter any more (uh... says who?). Even worse, no where do they
explain why it makes sense for the employer to be doing this
kind of monitoring and keeping this kind of data. It seems perfectly
reasonable for employees to monitor themselves this way, but it's not
clear why an employer should have any need to know this information.
A Day in the Life of Work: No Brakes09/20/2004 05:01 AM For wheelchair racer Cheri Blauwet, every day is an exercise in
self-sufficiency, every race a test of faith.
A Day in the Life of Work: Blow Up
A Day in the Life of Work: Blow Up08/20/2004 06:48 AM Glassblower Ned Czohara makes those coiling, bubbling thingies you see
in every mad scientist's lab.
A Day in the Life of Work: Wave Runner
A Day in the Life of Work: Wave Runner05/03/2004 05:18 AM A former lawyer found her true calling as a harbor pilot, steering
1,000-foot tanker ships through Portland's waterways.
A Day in the Life of Work: Prima Donna07/05/2004 06:22 AM For opera prompter Jane Klaviter, all the world's a stage -- and she
has the best seat in the house.
Johnston McLamb Honored Nationally as One of the 50 Best Places to Work SHRM and GPTW Name Top 50 “Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America”
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/12/12/
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His Work Is Still Full of Life (Los Angeles Times)
His Work Is Still Full of Life (Los Angeles Times)06/05/2004 05:51 AM Los Angeles Times - Edwin Shneidman is an old man, and death is often
on his mind. But then, it always has been. Only now it's personal, and
like many people of his age, Shneidman is not ready.
Can Technology Separate Work Life From Personal?
Can Technology Separate Work Life From Personal?12/03/2003 04:58 PM A very interesting opinion piece talking about the separation of work
life from personal life and wondering if technology can help to differentiate the
two. Normally, people blame technology for blurring the two, but
maybe it's time to see if technology can be molded the other way. The
"problem" is that technology keeps us always connected - so it's hard
to let go. You have laptops and pagers and smart phones that all let
you stay connected away from the office. So, David Berlind is
wondering if technology can be made intelligent enough to distinguish
what mode your in and respond accordingly. While it is sometimes nice
to be able to receive email on a pager, it can become overwhelming.
Plus, what if you want to receive personal emails on the pager, but
not work emails at certain times. For example, over the weekend you
don't want to receive work related email, but still should receive
personal emails. At the same time, if there really is important news
coming from work, you still want to see that. So, the system would
need to be smart enough to understand (a) what mode you're in and (b)
whether or not the particular message is important enough to go across
one mode into the other. It's an interesting idea that I haven't seen
discussed anywhere else, but makes a lot of sense. One of the nice
things about technology is that (in theory) we have the power to make
it do what we want. If that technology seems to be taking over our
lives, then why not reprogram the technology to not take over our
lives?
"DARFUR UPDATE: I SYMPATHIZE WITH THESE SENTIMENTS but it won't work: If the Sudanese government can't or won't act, and the threat of international sanctions (the U.S. already has sanctions in place) doesn't work, then troops it must be. The ideal..."
Life Balance 3.2.405/25/2004 07:18 PM Provides a dynamically ordered To Do List driven by your goals, your
desired allocation of time/effort, and feedback.
Life Balance 3.2.2
Life Balance 3.2.211/11/2003 09:11 PM Provides a dynamically ordered ToDo List driven by your goals,
allocation of time and effort, and feedback from accomplishments.
Work work work
Work work work03/13/2003 10:14 AM Working late again. Getting pretty frustraded. The plan was, not to
leave until I fixed this last &#¤!#" thing I'm...
How does 20q work?
How does 20q work?07/02/2004 09:53 AM 20q.net is an online game of 20 questions that apparently starts off
with no knowledge base. It learns from the interactions of the
players. And it is pretty damn impressive. I'd like to know more about
how it works, but I'm having trouble finding any explanations, and
mail to the address given on the site is going unanswered. Anyone know
of a place that discusses how it works? In particular, how does it
come up with the questions? E.g., where does "Does it come in packs?"
come from? TIA (no, not Total Information Awareness.)...
Come work for EFF!
Come work for EFF!06/22/2004 06:48 PM EFF is hiring! EFF is the best employer I've ever had -- including
myself, when I was self-employed, and the company I helped found --
and it's hiring a new Membership Coordinator: the person in charge of
satisfying current members and increasing membership. If this sounds
like you, apply!
The Membership Coordinator reports to the Director of Development and
is a key part of EFF's fundraising team. The MC is responsible for
managing all contact with EFF's 12,000+ members, helping to develop
strategies to grow the membership, processing all donations to EFF,
mailing regular "thank-yous"and renewal notices to donors, ensuring an
efficient donation system, managing the donation pages of the website,
and responding to any issues donors may have. The MC also manages all
aspects of EFF's online shop, including order fulfillment. Additional
responsibilities include various marketing projects, including
oversight of the design and printing of t-shirts, hats, stickers,
brochures, and other materials. The MC also attends a number of
commercial conferences each year, managing the EFF booth presence and
speaking informally with conference attendees.
Mac OS X -- When It Doesn't "Just Work"06/22/2004 01:17 AM I asked her to boot single user... Now that there's an actual
operating system under the covers, people such as myself foolishly
believe we can revive these machines with enough messing around. By
Matt Evans (via MyAppleMenu)
How We Work
How We Work06/20/2004 04:02 PM I thought readers might enjoy a window into how our development
process has evolved. Running the overall development efficiently has
always been one of the challenges at OSAF. Our first development
manager, Michael Toy, decided he didn't like the commute to S.F. or
the open source, non-profit genre as much...
Bad Day at Work?
Bad Day at Work?09/22/2004 01:50 PM Well, things could be worse; check out David Morse’s epic struggle with the system. And those who fret about
Microsoft’s chewing us all up with their ruthless efficiency may
find their worries eased.
Today is/was (you never can tell with these wretched time
zone differences) NotCon
2004, London's premiere low-cost, informal, one-day technology
conference. Friday's MiniNTK promised the unveiling of a new project from
the people behind FaxYourMP and PublicWhip and sure enough, here
it is: TheyWorkForYou.com.
TheyWorkForYou.com is the finest example of a political hack I've ever
seen. It's basically an ultra-user-friendly front-end to the Hansard
public record of all speeches and debates in the houses of commons,
with each MP getting
their own page complete with a summary of their recent performance and
member's interests and a list of their recently recorded parliamentary
appearances.
The community features are pretty impressive as well: you
can add comments to any speech made in any debate, and there's also a
user-populated
glossary which is automatically linked in to the speech
transcripts.
But with all that, the most useful feature is probably the
most subtle: you can subscribe to an RSS feed of your MP's appearances, meaning you can keep track of
everything they say on your behalf. It's simple, powerful and a
perfect example of the political hacker ethic at work.
FC Now: Fun at Work03/24/2005 05:03 PM Yesterday morning I attended an industry event, "Breakfast with a
Leader," to hear our CEO address the crowd. The biggest take-away
presented by Russell Denson? His three priorities, in this order: Have
fun, make sure your employees have fun, and...
Too Much Work03/11/2003 01:22 AM today will be sixth straight day of work, and when it feels like I've
been doing most of the work it's a long time between
In the days they set up Apple Corps they were radical hippies who
challenged the establishment in many ways.
Wouldn't it be nice if they did the same thing now, and made the
music available without rights management systems, under a
non-commercial Creative Commons license that let others reuse their
songs?
It would be a wonderful gesture to the future, recognising that the
Fab Four only succeeded because they were inspired by those who came
before, taking riffs and musical forms from others.
Maybe it'll never happen with the Beatles. However, today's radical
musicians may wish to consider the message that wraps up Justin Cone's
Building on the Pastbefore selling out:
Creativity always builds on the past.
And you're building the past right now.
Share now.
Shape tomorrow.
It should just work01/17/2004 10:47 PM Vendors will have to make utility computing much more accessible if
they want to be successful, says IDC. That's ...
work08/15/2004 11:16 PM
Corporate culture is nothing more than the "crystallization of
the stupidity of a group of people at a given moment", says
Corinne Maier, the author of the slacker manifesto, "Bonjour Paresse". Better read
this before clocking in Monday. (NYT) Grok Description matches for Work-Life Balance Tilting Too Much Towards Work GrokA matches for Work-Life Balance Tilting Too Much Towards Work
Work-Life Balance Tilting Too Much Towards Work
The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
