Re: IBM is having a Yahoo moment: No more working from home

[Lin Sims <ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com>]

There's been at least one study that suggests that the "open work space
environment" (I had to look that up; yech!) doesn't inspire any more
collaboration than having private offices; however, people who have private
or semi-private offices seem to have far lower levels of stress.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidburkus/2016/06/21/why-your-open-office-workspace-doesnt-work/#4f89804216d0

I miss working at Telcordia. Managers had private offices, and everyone
else had semi-private (2 people per room) offices. Solid cinder block walls
and a solid door. Ah, peace.

On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 9:31 AM, Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> IBM and Yahoo aside, I do perceive value in certain sociability aspects of
> being on-prem.
>
> But at one client whose facility I frequent one a month or so, all are
> engaged in meetings all day, every day. I leave wondering how anyone
> actually does any work. And Mr. ImAllImportant marketing guy wants to
> quibble that medical device user manual reading audiences (if any exist)
> that no one will understand what "unwell" means (he wants it to read, "not
> feel well").
>
> Further, I just read in the local edition of the Business Review that yet
> another company has bought a building and is going to create an open
> workspace environment. No thanks.
>
> At least my HP cubicle afforded some degree of privacy, and it was common
> to let team members know when one was "on critical path" (read: don't bug
> me right now). From what I've read, all the open workspace does is promote
> more slacking off, not desired "team building" (unless that definition has
> come to mean playing fraternity house pranks).
>
> Once upon a time I had a high-ceilinged 12' x12' office with a door I could
> shut. If I needed to attend a meeting, no problem. If I needed to coach an
> engineer how to construct an actual useful UI, no problem. If I needed to
> go in the lab to bang on a piece of kit, I could. Yet when I needed some
> freakin' quiet think-and-do time, I could retreat to my man cave and have
> at it with no interruptions.
>
> Today I have a nicer man cave at home, from where I do my clients' work. At
> the medical device place, all they give me is a study carrel, a crappy lamp
> that can't be positioned such that I'm not looking directly into it, and no
> external monitor (they all have twin 24" units in their cubicles). My
> handler was put off when I insisted on going back to my nearby hotel room
> between their all-important cross-dysfunctional meetings. There I had set
> up my external keyboard and 24" rotating monitor with my laptop, along with
> Bose SoundLink Mini. I had all of the peace and quiet I needed (except for
> the snowplow at 4:00 am one morning)âespecially during one very intense
> 1-1/2 hour critical path where 150+ pages were flying as I hastened to
> update yet another iteration.
>
> Chris Morton
>
>
>
> â Substantive Editing â Technical Writing â Proofreading
>                      â Marketing Expertise â Mentoring
> Click to
> <http://t.sidekickopen68.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nM
> JN7t5XYgdnqQxW7fsH3H4XrddKW1pNgV-56dMhqf2Q-c6C02?t=https%3A%
> 2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fpub%2Fchris-morton%2F2%2F166%
> 2F6ba&si=6020636811198464&pi=4ba8e002-4d27-4f88-dc26-e24f9998f2c4>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 9:04 AM, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com>
> wrote:
>
> > The idea of working shoulder-to-shoulder is not exciting to introverts
> > like me.
> >
> > If the introverts have options, they will skedaddle.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:
> > techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
> > Stuart Burnfield
> > Sent: Friday, February 10, 2017 8:51 AM
> > To: 'Techwr-l' <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> > Subject: Re: IBM is having a Yahoo moment: No more working from home
> >
> > It sounds a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
> >
> > IBM is a vast, surprisingly decentralized, enterprise so it's hard to sum
> > up in simple terms. But if you poke around on ibm.com and browse the
> > marketing material that's written by marketing people and not technical
> > people, you'll find a lot of "I don't understand what this means"
> > translated from English into marketing jargon.
> >
> > Getting the writers to sit with other marketing people who don't
> > understand what it means either isn't going to help with that.
> >
> > If cutting payroll really is the unstated goal, this will work. A lot of
> > good people who can leave will leave because they have options. Some
> staff
> > who suspect they won't thrive on the job market will stay.
> >
> > If the real target is lack of productivity from some remote workers, this
> > is a ham-fisted way of going about it. It's a management problem that
> could
> > be solved by better management.
> >
> >  > "I know this is hard ... But we have gotten to a place where  > we're
> > excited about the path forward."
> >
> > <retch>
> >
> > Stuart
> >
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy
> and
> > content development | http://techwhirl.com
> >
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >
> > You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com -dot- 
> >
> > To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> > techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> >
> >
> > Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
> > http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and
> > info.
> >
> > Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our
> online
> > magazine at http://techwhirl.com
> >
> > Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public
> > email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
> > Information contained in this e-mail transmission is privileged and
> > confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, do not
> > read, distribute or reproduce this transmission (including any
> > attachments). If you have received this e-mail in error, please
> immediately
> > notify the sender by telephone or email reply.
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy
> and
> > content development | http://techwhirl.com
> >
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >
> > You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com -dot- 
> >
> > To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> > techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> >
> >
> > Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
> > http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and
> > info.
> >
> > Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our
> online
> > magazine at http://techwhirl.com
> >
> > Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public
> > email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
> >
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and
> content development | http://techwhirl.com
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com -dot- 
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
> http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and
> info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online
> magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public
> email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>



-- 
Lin Sims
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives