From:  www.freshbusinessthinking.com The Telework Association productivity survey, released today, shows that people working at home produce substantially more than when they work in an office. 85% of those surveyed had some improvement in the amount of work they get done. A quarter of those who were able to measure their output reckoned to have an increase greater than 50% and almost all were more productive. Of the total only 5% thought they were less productive. There are a number of reasons for this increased productivity, including: - Saving commuting time - Able to fit work around other commitments - Better able to concentrate - Fewer interruptions - Less stressed Fewer interruptions was the main reason given by nearly a fifth of respondents (18.7%). The ability to fit their work in with their other commitments was top for about 16%. Saving time on commuting was given as the main reason by 15% and this is because at least some of the time saved is then devoted to...

 According to a recent report by the Telework Research Network, full-time employees who work from home 50% of the time can save an estimated $362 on gas per year (assuming gas prices of $2.61 per gallon) and $3,840 on parking, lunch and clothes. Those who drive more than 60 miles round trip, about 11% of workers, can save an average of $5,800 in annual gas expenses by working from home half the time. That means that for every 500 employees who work from home two or three days each week, the U.S. would save more than 3,500 gallons of oil per year. The report, commissioned by the software company Citrix Systems(CTXS)but based on preexisting independent data, also found that an office that encourages employees to work from home at least half of the time can reduce its real estate costs by 18%, including annual electricity savings of 4,400 kilowatt hours per person. Unisys(UIS) was able to reduce its real estate-related costs by 87% by instituting a telecommuting program. IBM(IBM) ha...

As suggested by the International Business Times, working from home can be a positive and rewarding experience for you, your family, and your employer, if you follow a few simple tips: 1. Understand your employer's expectations. Will your job requirements and duties be the same at home as in an office environment? How much support will you receive as a home office worker. Some companies have very stringent guidelines about what equipment and support will be provided by the company and what they will not. Companies will often provide a computer and telephone and will support each, but not a printer or a fax machine, for example. It is important to clarify where your company stands and what they are willing to negotiate on. 2. Be sure you meet and exceed your employer's expectations. You should also make sure your boss knows you are in fact consistently meeting and/or exceeding his/her expectations. You may work 9, 10, 12 hours a day, but it won't matter if your boss doesn't know it ...

From: www.businesswest.com Why Flexible Hours and Telecommuting Are on the Rise In 2003, about 4.4 million Americans were telecommuting, to some extent, instead of showing up at the office. In 2010, that number is expected to surpass 100 million. At the same time, the trend toward allowing employees to work flexible or non-traditional hours has also risen sharply in recent years. Why the surges? As it turns out, even during a recession, companies still value their best talent and are increasingly willing to let them craft a workday around their personal and professional needs. Employers say they benefit because happy workers are productive workers.  It’s no wonder accounting is such an attractive field for women, considering what a leader the industry has been in providing work-life benefits like flexible schedules and telecommuting.  “It’s a retention tool,” said Brenda Olesuk, director of marketing for Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. in Holyoke. “In fact, accounting firms, as a...

  From: www.gcn.com The Office of Personnel Management is urging agencies to use telework and other alternatives to keep government operations running smoothly during the Nuclear Security Summit, which will be held in Washington, D.C. April 12 and 13.  OPM director John Berry issued a memo on April 7 urging federal employees who can work at home or an alternative site to do so, in accordance with their agencies’ telework and alternative work policies. The memo, along with the success of telework during the blizzards of December 2009 and February of this year, suggest that the federal government's wariness about telework may finally be beginning to ease.  Federal employees who work in downtown D.C. are expected to encounter significant commuting delays and travel disruptions on Monday, April 12 ,and Tuesday, April 13, due to road closures, mass transit changes, motorcades and the establishment of security perimeters.  President Barack Obama will meet with the heads of sta...

Although some people had experience with telework arrangements when the snows hit, others were trying it for the first time. Some of that latter group ran into problems that could have been solved in advance. "The biggest lesson on telework was that those who do it regularly did fine during the big shutdown, but those who don't tended to have problems with the configuration of their setup at home," said Jon Eisenberg, a manager at the National Academies, a nonprofit organization that provides scientific advice to agencies. "There are many things that can go wrong, from routers that block [virtual private network] connections to key software missing on computers. For those who regularly connect remotely, these problems have been resolved. But for those who connect rarely, these problems weren't solved and were show-stoppers. Worse, with the closure, normal help-desk service wasn't available to fix the problems." Working from home during a major event brings its own set of problems...

Sounds like one of those Apple commercials except it's the Mac that has all the bugs.... Fixes flaw in browser that hacker team exploited at Pwn2Own to win $15,000! Apple on Monday shipped the latest version of its Safari browser, patching a record 48 vulnerabilities, including one that a pair of hackers exploited in March to win a $15,000 prize. The new browser debuted the same day as Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Safari 5, the first major upgrade to the Mac OS X and Windows browser in a year, fixed four dozen flaws, most of them in WebKit, the open-source engine that powers not only Apple's browser but also Google's Chrome. Apple also updated the previous edition to version 4.1 on Monday. Among the 48 vulnerabilities was the one used by the two-man team of Vincenzo Iozzo and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann to hack an Apple iPhone 3GS in five minutes at the Pwn2Own contest last March, said Aaron Portnoy, security research team ...

From: http://fcw.com For federal employees who have been agitating for years for the right to work part time from home… For lawmakers who have been cajoling agencies to develop telework plans in the event of a national emergency… For personnel management officials who've been working with agency managers to develop sound telecommuting policies… For just about everyone living in the Washington metropolitan area, February’s Snowmageddon was a monumental call to…do something! In theory, the latest generation of networking and mobile technology makes it possible for many federal employees to work in any place where an Internet connection is available. True, government was closed for nearly a week, but as often is the case, work must go on. For example, that was the case for private contractors who stayed on the job and connected. For federal employees, it was not so simple. Many readers commenting on the blizzard of weather-related stories across the Web were outraged all...

So I'm going to talk about my friend Ed again today.  We just met in our normal conference room - the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Ala Moana mall.  This is a very timely article.  I have been saying / complaining for years that I should have one device and just carry around a docking station - EI the cell phone is my life and the Laptop / Netbook / Tablet is just a keyboard and monitor with some storage for the applications I need when I'm mobile.  Maybe just maybe we're finnaly headed in that direction with Apple and the new vertalised desktops coming later this year. From www.computerworld.com: Back when personal computers were the hot new thing, Microsoft and Apple took divergent business model paths. Microsoft was content to let others do the hardware manufacturing and run its OS. Apple, on the other hand, kept its system closed. It controlled hardware design and manufacturing. It wouldn't let its operating system run on other hardware. The result? Microsoft grabbed a m...

According to the Federal Comouter Week, recently the Senate has approved legislation to expand telework opportunities for federal employees, scoring a victory for telework supporters after a setback for a similar bill in the House earlier this month. By unanimous consent, on May 24 the Senate passed the Telework Enhancement Act (S. 707) sponsored by Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio). On May 6, the House failed to pass the Sarbanes telework bill. The House voted under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority for approval. The vote was 268-147. One difference is that the House bill has language that would make federal workers eligible to telework 20 percent of their schedule, while the Senate bill does not contain such a restriction, Auten said. The goal of that language is to ensure that teleworking occurs on a regular basis to maximize the benefits, Auten said. One factor that contributed to the House setback was concern about ...