Tag: telecommuting covid

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The COVID Work from Home Experiment

There has been a great deal of anticipation about the COVID work from home experiment, and it appears that the upside is the many benefits of remote work which has generally improved the performance of office workers by nearly 30% in productivity with very low overhead costs. A huge win in the workforce in the United States of America.

Even with the overwhelmingly positive results and huge benefits to the bottom lines of companies and organizations who have successfully embraced (and cashed-in on) the telecommute work-from-home model has not without its challenges.

At the very least, Internet connectivity, having the basic electronic devices required, being able to have an effective workspace within the home, and managing family around the home office are the basic requirements to have nailed down in the beginning.

The first real concern to show up was paranoia among management. “How can we be expected to trust employees working from home?” The first wave of response was to attempt to initiate surveillance efforts to micromanage remote workers. The results appear to indicate counterproductivity as initial increases in productivity began to decline.

In the new world of the telecommuter, a reasonable degree of trust must be part of the foundation of the teleworking agreement. Employers must find other ways and means of tracking individual employee productivity over time, besides looking over the shoulder of staff members.

After all, they are working from home, which means they could be doing practically anything from drinking on the job to working naked for all we know (and they are).

Nevertheless, for the companies and organizations who fully embrace the idea of staff working from home, their number are up, and expenses are down.

While all the numbers are looking good, it appears that telecommuters in the $150,000-range (and up) are seeing the greatest increase in productivity and value to the employers during this period of time when we are testing the waters of sending workers home to work.

At the same time, other industries that do not translate as well to the telework atmosphere, are barely staying alive, and some of them are closing their doors forever. Channels such as manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, and hospitality, are experiencing the greatest challenges and struggle for survivability during these unprecedented times.

Telecommuters are facing their own set of challenges, such as a general decline of overall mental health, while family viability in workers’ households is declining at an alarming rate, causing some parents to have to make a choice between work and family.

One of the biggest issues for remote workers to tackle is how to manage work tasks amid the various distractions that might vie for one’s attention in a work from home environment. This is in huge contrast to being secluded in a safe and sane corporate office setting, where very little effort need be exerted to focus on tasks at hand.

Instead of the brief interactions that may distract you briefly at the office, home office interruptions may include anything from doorbells, phones ringing, dishes in the sink, impatient children and/or pets desiring attention, and the list goes on and on.

Kids at home who are attending schools remotely online are also a growing concern for telecommuters.

Being able to set up a home office space that has separations from the rest of the household and establishing boundaries seems to help remote workers manage distractions that might otherwise negatively affect their overall performance.

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Latent Entrepreneurship During the Pandemic

This might be the ideal time to unleash your latent entrepreneurship during the pandemic lockdown. Have you ever wondered, “What if I didn’t have to work for anyone?” or, “What if I could be my own boss?” You may have even dipped your toe in the water of entrepreneurship and tried to start your own company but weren’t able to make the leap because you had to make the ends meet. You are a “latentpreneur” or latent entrepreneur.

The Latent Entrepreneur

The latentpreneur  (latent entrepreneur) is someone who desires to be self-employed. Either imagining what it would be like to live life on your own terms, to be your own boss, or actively researching and planning to make a successful transition from working for someone else or slave labor to full self-employment.

If you are a latentpreneur, there is a brilliant mastermind inside you just looking for the opportunity to emerge and carve out your own path to success mastery, but with all your efforts to survive, you were unable to get enough momentum to break through the barrier to your own independence.

You were stuck in servitude to supporting someone else’s dream in order to just make a living. This is the trap that most Americans get stuck in (and corporate America is banking on it). The goal is to find that sweet spot. To pay you just enough to get by, but little enough that you cannot get too far ahead or break free.

Pandemic Opportunity

One of the most exciting things that is taking place, right now, amidst the doom and gloom of the coronavirus pandemic is that latent entrepreneurs are readying the emergence of their dreams to release their entrepreneurship in all its glory.

They are using this time to study, plan, and brainstorm their way into an exciting new life, fully empowered as masters of their own destinies. There is a massive transformation taking place that would not have been possible, if not for the COVID-19 lockdown.

There are different kinds of people who respond differently when given a mandatory period of restraint of isolation. The full spectrum of responses is expressed while the pandemic restrictions are being enforced. On one end of the spectrum, there is apathy, depression, and suicidal ideation, and on the other end of the spectrum, you see increased optimism, creativity, enthusiasm, and determination.

The latentpreneur sees the possibility of a bright future ahead and empowered with increased time on his or her hands, can turn this otherwise negative circumstance into the chrysalis which facilitates the change necessary to make the otherwise seemingly impossible leap to greatness.

Telecommuter Transformation

Even if you are telecommuting and working 40 hours a week from home, you could pick up at least another 10 hours per week (probably more) to focus on your dream building.

Latentpreneurs are capitalizing on those recaptured moments that were previously lost to commuting to and from work or commiserating with other employees in passing, and turning them into precious moments spent building the foundation for their virtual empire.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you found these latent entrepreneurs staying up late, burning the midnight oil researching and making plans.

They are taking this precious opportunity to make a difference in their lives and the world by transforming from latent entrepreneurs to full-on entrepreneurs, putting themselves behind the wheel, and taking charge of their own destinies.

Opportunity Abounds

To latentpreneurs, everything is an opportunity, and no stone is left unturned.

This is a golden opportunity for latentpreneurs all around the world.

I think you will be surprised at what emerges from the ashes of these pandemic flames.

What about you?

 

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Is Pandemic Teleworking a Corporate Conspiracy?

Under the veil of the current COVID-19 pandemic and lingering restrictions and lockdown, corporations have been able to survive by converting operations to telecommuting and moving jobs online to huge benefit to the corporations and first reports seem to indicate that the workers see the conversion as advantageous as well. Is pandemic teleworking a corporate conspiracy?

While there was a growing interest in telecommuting across the nation, there was a growth-spurt which caught on in the shadow of 9/11 promoted by the government, and other industries took note of how important it might be to have staff that could work from home in the event of any disaster, terrorist threat, or pandemic.

Some organizations rejected the idea of enabling staff to telecommute or work from home out of fear. Fear that the working class could not be trusted. These employers and managers feel like they have to micromanage every step their employees take, suspicious that any employee will do as little as possible or nothing at all if they can get away with it and still receive pay.

Then comes the coronavirus outbreak and even the most resistant businesses are faced with hard and fast choices. Do you give up and close your business or quickly find a way to embrace telecommuting to survive? Do you shut down your factory or crowd manufacture?

And those who were resistant to moving jobs online because they could not adequately monitor their staff for fear of slacking off or having employees that would exploit the employer or corporation, new industries sprang to life to meet their concerns and leaving the staff asking the question, “Is your employer spying on you?” and indeed, they are spying on their employees to varying degrees thanks to remote monitoring technologies.

Other technologies experienced growth to meet the need of this expansive growth in telework across the United States, such as videoconferencing, Zoom, and VPN connectivity.

For the other employers and corporations who were already leaning in the direction of telecommuting, the transition was nearly seamless, and this forced experiment delivered staggering results for the corporate number crunchers. The pandemic work from home workforce increased productivity, at huge savings in overhead for the corporations.

It makes you wonder, is there some other purpose at work here, to force people to work from home?

This pandemic lockdown has benefited the ecology of our world amazingly. Mother Earth has not been in such good shape since the industrial revolution, she is healing from the damage we have caused her, right now.

Corporations are more profitable by not having to cater to on-site workforces.

There is a dark side to teleworking which is emerging, but new technologies are emerging to deal with any shortcomings that might be associated with the work-from-homers.

And factories which cannot embrace a crowd manufacturing model, some of them are investing in housing near the factory, hotels, or apartment buildings to accommodate manual laborers which have not been replaced by automation or mechanization.

Is Pandemic Teleworking a Corporate Conspiracy?

Following this pandemic, many corporations and employers will continue to operate remotely, and they are already releasing leases, selling off, or repurposing properties that were necessary to support on-site workers.

Who are the Top 10 beneficiaries of huge financial growth during the pandemic?

1. Amazon.com
2. eBay Inc.
3. Apple
4. Netflix
5. Alphabet
6. FedEx Corp.
7. United Parcel Service
8. Microsoft Corp.
9. Facebook
10. Zoom

What does the Top 10 COVID profiteers say about the current condition if we follow the money? Is there more going on here than meets the eye?

What does the future hold?

What will the workforce look like post-pandemic?

Are we turning into a society of caged slave labor for increased profit?

Or are we being prepared for new advances in societal living, like The Venus Project?

 

 

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2020 Telecommute Statistics Jobs Online Skyrocketing

There is no doubt if we learned anything in 2020, it was how to increase the number of teleworkers thanks to the coronavirus. 2020 telecommute statistics jobs online skyrocketing and final numbers are yet to come. The resulting lockdown in the USA forced many workers to telecommute and move their job online to keep our country’s economy afloat during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Statistics show a general growth in telecommuting and working from home in the 2000s, from 2001 to 2019, then a huge spike in telecommuters in 2020 thanks to the United States’ response to keep it moving through the lockdown, boasting nearly 80 million workers telecommuting and continuing to raise daily.

Those in non-essential job positions who were able to convert their jobs to telecommuting, working remotely, or from home, they were able to keep their positions and thrive, while others were forced to accept federally-enhanced unemployment compensation while under “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” restrictions.

While these changes in workstyles are considered temporary while those who previously worked in an office or cubicle are now working from home, there is a growing trend that is seeing employers re-evaluating their overhead costs.

Employee productivity is up, and costs to run businesses, organizations, and government agencies have dropped tremendously, as more workers are able to move their jobs online.

There is a good chance that if you are currently working from home that this may not be as temporary as you might have thought. Employers all over our nation are rethinking and reimagining the way businesses and organizations will be run in the future, and you are looking at a significant test run in action right now.

The future will see telecommuting jobs (office workers working from home full or part-time) turning into remote work. You might think that telecommuting and remote-working are one and the same. While they are similar, the main distinction is that a telecommuting job assumes that there is some commuting done to and from work, where the commute has been replaced by working via the Internet or teleconferencing.

Remote work represents the type of job that may be conducted disconnected from any commute to and from the workplace. As such, a worker working from a remote office area or home may well be outside the geographical region where the employer is physically located.

Remote is far more highly sought after by employers because there is little or no physical space requirements which are a drain on overhead costs to accommodate employees at the workplace.

That said, not all teleworkers or remote workers work from home. Many choose to work from Internet cafes, coworking spaces, virtual offices, coffee shops, or other remote location(s) which may include any location where a laptop can be powered or charged, and a connection to the Internet is available.

Of course, there are many jobs that cannot be translated into online positions, but for those who can, this is the growing trend.

And if you are one of the one’s who has found himself or herself in a position to telecommute “temporarily” due to the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown, don’t be surprised when the restrictions are lifted that you discover that all (or nearly all) of your commute has been eliminated.

Employers are already looking for ways to exit their lease contracts, as they are finding that telecommuting and transitioning to jobs online is a far better and more cost-effective way to conduct their affairs.

Telecommuting and jobs online are the new normal.

 

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Non-teleworkers Just Don’t Get It

Many people are working their normal jobs (or as normal as possible) from home during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. They used to have to go to the office every day and work from there, but now their job has moved online, and now they work from home. And people who hear about your working from home, they may not respect your telecommute or have no idea what it means to work from home.

Of course, there are huge advantages to working at home, but there are also a wide variety of disadvantages as well. The biggest problem when you start shifting your work from the office to your home is that your people don’t get what that means.

If you have a family, they think since you’re at home, you should be able to tend to their whims and demands because you are at home (and that might be normally expected when you are at home). They don’t get the idea that while your physical location is at home, but you are actually working, and cannot break character as an effective employee during work hours, except for possibly during your regularly scheduled breaks.

Those people who are trying to move their jobs online and are not able to establish clear boundaries for the family during work hours, experience huge drops in efficiency. Believe me, if your productivity is not increased by working from home, and especially if your efficiency is going down, your days as a telecommuting employee are numbered.

Once you’ve explained how things are, you can ask your family if they’d like to support the team. Maybe they can pick up some of the chores and help out around the house.

If you have a family or not, for sure your friends don’t get it. Your friends are expecting you to be available for lunch and unlimited phone conversations since you’re working from home.

Unless your friends are also working from home, they have no frame of reference about how it looks to be telecommuting or working from home.

Again, it’s up to you to educate your friends about what it’s like to being employed to work from your home. This is much easier if your telecommuting arrangement with your employer is highly structured with specific work hours and break times. This will be much easier to explain to both friends and family and once they are able to wrap their head around it, they will be more capable of honoring your work from home model.

If you don’t have a strict schedule, you will be miles ahead and more successful in your work from home arrangement by creating a specific work schedule for your telecommuting or job online.

We’ve learned this from at-home workers who have successfully conducted business from home long before the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to telecommute or move your job online. By far, the establishment of regular business hours has increased their survivability and success over time.

Regular hours for conducting business also increases your quality of life, otherwise, you might either fall behind or find yourself working yourself to death.

Some people do not accept calls during work hours or let them know that they can return their call at a later specific time outside of your work schedule.

Americans are doing the best they can to make the best of an uncomfortable situation during the coronavirus lockdown and finding ways to keep your job while telecommuting and working from home has been hugely advantageous.

The most interesting point to realize is that following the pandemic, when the restrictions are lifted, this will have changed the way business is conducted in the United States of America and possibly the world.

 

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Telecommute as Jobs Move Online Post COVID-19 Pandemic

The world is rapidly changing and you are charged with the task of adapting to this reality that is altering the way we do business, the way we live and work, more from home than ever before thanks to the COVID pandemic, but it’s more than that.

Government agencies have been running on minimal capacity with limited resources, with many federal, state, and municipal employees downsized, furloughed, or forced to work from home or telecommute. While the idea of having to telecommute as an alternative to losing your job altogether, it made sense to move your job online, which felt like punishment at first due to the coronavirus.

Then something unexpected happened; those who were forced to work from home rather than commute to and from their respective offices, liked it. Not only did they regain the time spent getting to and from work, but they had more flexibility during their work hours at home.

And the employers liked it. Employee productivity shot up a surprising 18% and the cost of doing business was reduced dramatically. So impressive are these results, that there is an underlying intention that after the pandemic restrictions are lifted

The way we conduct business will change forever.

Agencies are already preparing to cancel their leases for office space, cutting all extraneous expenses. No rent, no lights, heating, cooling, cleaning, maintenance, all gone, and the employees are more effective working from home.

This is the future of how we conduct business in the United States and possibly the world.

This new format for conducting business from home or telecommuting has affected nearly every form of business, as we are forced to conduct business online, via phone, and deliver goods and services by other means than having customers visit a traditional retail establishment.

It is more important for businesses to quickly adapt to this new migration to conducting business online as soon as possible, and for those who do not, they may not be able to survive this metamorphosis.

Nearly every type of business is affected. Even labor-intensive businesses, much of the administrative and management staff can opt out of work-related and telecommute, increasing their efficacy and reducing unnecessary costs and overhead.

But this means changing the way we live, as jobs move from brick and mortar to our homes.

Many people are not working now, and when you are able to go back to work, there’s a good chance that the jobs that will be available are going to be… You guessed it:

Telecommuting and Jobs Online

This is the nature of the new world which is emerging from the rubble of the COVID-19 pandemic in America, and possibly the world.

Will you be ready?

The time is now to start carving out a place in your home where you can work uninterrupted while integrating into this new normal.

A way to access the Internet is of vital importance, and while the world is shifting into this new direction new methods of making access available to the World Wide Web will be critical. We are already seeing this in school children who are having to attend school online.

We are frantically trying to make the Internet available to all including underdeveloped areas and underprivileged children who would not otherwise have the necessary equipment or connectivity to participate in school online.

Buckle up and get ready for an entirely new future outlook, compliments to 2020.