An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Corporate America is downsizing its real estate footprint as companies allow more employees to work from home, a growing threat to the bottom line of owners of traditional office buildings and a sign that companies are looking for ways to cut costs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. A Reuters analysis of…
Tag: Productivity
Slack Accuses Microsoft of Illegally Crushing Competition
Microsoft is undeniably one of the Big Tech elite, given its size, wealth and stock market value. But the software giant has stood apart from Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple in one important respect: Microsoft, once the bully of the tech world, has escaped antitrust scrutiny so far. Now Slack, whose popular chat and collaboration software has become embedded in the…
Full Text of US State Department Cables Finally Released, Showing Safety In Chinese Lab
Slashdot reader destinyland writes: On April 7th, a Trump campaign advisor told the Los Angeles Times “One way we still win this election is by turning it into a referendum on China.” Within weeks the Washington Post noted “reports that the Trump administration has sought to pressure U.S. intelligence agencies to search for proof of a link between the Wuhan lab…
What Happened When Microsoft Analyzed Its Own Remote Work Patterns?
Harvard Business Review just published a new analysis by the director of Microsoft’s Workplace Analytics team, a director on Microsoft’s workplace intelligence team, and the editor of Microsoft Workplace Insights. “Four months ago we realized that our company, like so many others, was undergoing an immediate and unplanned shift to remote work…” “So, we launched an experiment to measure how the…
Burger-Flipping Robot ‘Flippy’ Gets New Test at White Castle
Remember Flippy, the burger-flipping robot who was fired for being too slow? Since then he’s been busy — and his robotic arm just landed a test gig flipping burgers in a White Castle restaurant in Chicago, reports Mashable:
Since its unveiling in 2018, Flippy has cooked more than 40,000 pounds of fried food — including 9,000 sandwiches at LA’s Dodger Stadium, the…
Google Takes on Zoom and Slack By Bundling Video Calls and Chat Into Gmail for Business Users
Google is making its popular Gmail app more of a productivity powerhouse. From a report: The Alphabet subsidiary is incorporating more applications into the business version of Gmail so that users don’t need to switch to other apps or browser tabs, it could help keep employees satisfied with the company’s business software and not want to adopt alternative services, such as…
Two Steps for L&D to Drive Digital Transformation Post-COVID
By Vinod Bakthavachalam, Senior Data Scientist and Adam Lewis, Skills Transformation Consultant With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing companies to transition to remote work, employees are adapting to new realities. Trying to balance work with life responsibilities during shelter-in-place has led to a decline in productivity for many and uncertainty about the future. Anxiety has risen, […]
The post Two Steps for L&D…
A Moment of Clarity Regarding the Raison d’Etre for the App Store
John Gruber, writing at DaringFireball: Feel free to file Google’s release this week of an update to their iPad Gmail app with support for split-screen multitasking under “better late than never,” but this is so late it borders on the absurd. It’s like the difference between showing up fashionably late and showing up a week after the party. Split-screen multitasking was…
Fujitsu Announces Permanent Work-From-Home Plan
Technology firm Fujitsu announced a new “Work Life Shift” program that will offer unprecedented flexibility to its 80,000 workers in Japan. “Staff will be able to work flexible hours, and working from home will be standard wherever possible,” reports the BBC. From the report: In a statement sent to the BBC, Fujitsu said it “will introduce a new way of working…
Does the Internet Need a New Architecture that Puts Users First?
Two VoIP pioneers argue in a Wired opinion piece that “Treating the internet like a public utility only bolsters the platform giants,” adding “A more secure model starts with control by the people.”
As we rely on the internet more and more for work, social connections, and basic needs, it is time to talk about the future of meaningful online experiences, and…