WorkSnug - Connecting mobile workers to the nearest & best places to work

WorkSnug is based here in London, though our users are spread all over the world. We’re also pretty agile - we’re a small team of flexible workers, splitting our work days (and sometimes nights!) between the office, our homes and third-places, like laptop-friendly coffee shops.

That’s why, when it snowed here in London last year, on what became ‘Snow Day’ for stranded employees and ‘Snowmageddon’ for employers (and slow-news day journalists), we weren’t massively affected. But we did notice the meltdown in the city around us (excuse the pun!): buses and underground trains didn’t run, commuters were stuck at home, employers freaked out.

Now London’s workforce is facing an even bigger challenge: the 2012 Olympic Games.

In training

Some businesses are preparing for a meltdown on the scale of 100 ‘Snow Days’. Others are taking a ‘wait and see approach’, thinking the expected disruption will be less like Snow Day and more like the Millennium Bug.

The authorities propose a solution that is two fold: 1) that London’s transport network has to increase its capacity, and 2) that commuters have to decrease their usage - by 30% to avoid severe disruptions.

Flexible working: Going for gold

Is this interesting to our readers outside of London? Well, yes. Studies suggest that problems with London’s transport network aren’t just to do with the Olympics. The Games are an inflection point of a much larger issue, and an opportunity for businesses to consider the broader challenges of work in the 21st century.

White paper: 2012 Olympic Games Roundtable

This white paper (1.4 MB) by workplace consultants AOS Studley is the result of a roundtable discussion with senior HR professionals in London. It presents conclusions drawn from research and resources that suggest that flexible working is the solution to London’s 2012 woes, but also to the challenges of modern work elsewhere.

It also does a good job of clearing up some confusion around flexible working as a term and as a workstyle, and shares case studies of its benefits and successes.

The white paper also makes an interesting point about one of flexible working’s biggest challenges - and it’s one we talked about with Cisco’s Bas Boorsma on our podcast: and that’s the shift in culture and understanding required to make flexible working a success.

Downloads

Download AOS Studley’s white paper on the challenges of the 2012 Olympic Games and flexible working in general here here (1.4 MB), and listen to our podcast on the evolution of work here.

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

Photo credit: paulcoxphotography

We blogged recently about telecom company O2’s ‘off the wall’ idea to suspend local business man Caspar Mason (@caspar01) half-way up a wall in East London to prove that you really can work anywhere.

We tweeted Caspar, whilst he dangled there, and he put us in touch with Gemma Kantecki (@gkantecki_o2uk) at O2, who we’ve interviewed for the latest episode of our podcast. We asked Gemma why she hoisted Caspar, what O2 is doing to support flexible working and her own work-style.

Listen now

You can listen to the interview below, subscribe in iTunes and feast upon past episodes. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Find out more about O2’s Work Anywhere programme for small businesses at o2.co.uk/workanywhere and for Enterprise at o2businessreadiness.co.uk

About Snug Sound

Snug Sound is an audio podcast, presented by WorkSnug community manager San Sharma (@WorkSnugSan), and produced by WorkSnug in association with Plantronics.

It provides wi-fi hopping, coffee-sipping mobile workers a free slice of news, guides and reviews – and helps digital nomads work their best wherever they work.

How to subscribe

You can subscribe to Snug Sound in iTunes or directly via RSS (http://feeds.feedburner.com/SnugSound). You can also listen to Snug Sound via the AudioBoo website and mobile app. It’s better to subscribe, as you’ll automatically get new episodes as they’re released.

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

Music: ‘Wired But Disconnected’ by duckett

We spotted this interesting post on The Millions blog about writing spaces.

Here’s a charming excerpt (and accompanying photo):

Edan Lepucki: Last summer I wrote about my workspace for the deliciously voyeuristic Tumblr site, Write Place, Write Time. The photos show my desk at home, which is my preferred place to write. Since having a baby, though, my apartment and the desk within it are far less calm and tidy, and I’ve had to go elsewhere to work. Most days I write fiction at my neighbors’ kitchen table while the baby plays and eats furniture next door. (Don’t worry, someone is watching him.) Since it feels weird to post a photo of my neighbors’ place, I present you instead with a picture of their dog, Saul. He is my muse. He understands only Spanish. His mohawk is growing out. Que lindo, no?

I write most of my essays for The Millions at Paper or Plastik Cafe, the coffee shop down the block from me. The place boasts excellent coffee, friendly baristas, beautiful high ceilings, and internet access, which I need for all these damn links. Here is a shot of my most recent camp-out. Mine is the only Toshiba on the block, but it’s proud not to be a fancy-pants Mac. Who cares if the bottom is duct-taped together?

(via The Millions : Where We Write)

Garden shed, spare room, coffee shop: what’s your writing space?

I don’t have a normal work schedule. My “typical” day consists of working from a combination of my car, coffee shops, co-working spaces, my home and client offices.

Arik Hanson (@arikhanson) is the founder of ACH Communications, a digital communications consultancy based in Minneapolis.

Since I spend a decent amount of time in coffee shops, I’ve noticed that more and more corporate and agency-type people are spending time there lately too – and working, not just socialising.

As the workplace continues to “shift”, we’ll most likely see more of this in the years ahead. In fact, some marketing agencies (look at the Fast Horse model here in Minneapolis) are already there.

So, since more people are using coffee shops as workplaces, and I spend a bit of time there myself, I thought I’d share a few tips for what’s worked for me in the past and how you can make sure you’re as productive as possible when you’re “out of the office.”

1. Find the power outlets

You know the guy who walks into a coffee shop and immediately starts roaming the room, scanning the floor boards? Yeah, that’s me. Don’t be that guy. But you need to be sure the coffee house you’re working in has ample outlets.

So, make sure to note which coffee shops have more than one outlet. After all, no outlet means no power cord. And no power cord means dead laptop. Don’t get caught with a dead laptop. It’s a quick productivity killer.

2. Make friends with the baristas

If you plan on spending a fair amount of time at one particular coffee house, start talking with the baristas there. You can only benefit from befriending these folk.

They can and will:

1. Offer you special deals from time to time
2. Give you free coffee, if you’re remotely nice
3. Help you with other ad-hoc questions and issues as they pop up

For advanced coffee shop workers: Reach out to and make friends with the manager. Make sure he or she knows you on a first-name basis.

3. Invest in a killer headset

I used to think this was an age-specific tip. But recently, I’ve noticed more old guys wearing headphones in coffee shops - which is good, because I turn 40 in August and I don’t want to be the only 40-year-old wearing Klipsch headphones in my coffee shop. Good ‘phones tune out all the ambient noise around you. And there’s a lot of ambient noise in a coffee shop. You need good ‘phones. Once you have those, make Pandora your new BFF. (Ed. note: Or Spotify!)

4. Never leave your stuff unattended

Seems like an obvious tip, but I’ve seen some people leave their laptops unattended for 5-10 minutes at a time. Sure, you’d probably be fine. But why risk it with employee or client data just a few keystrokes away? My rule: Take your bag with you everywhere. To the bathroom. To the car. To the other side of the store, in some cases. I take zero risks here. And I’m sure my clients like it that way.

5. Know where the bathrooms are located

If you’re going to spend an hour or two in a coffee house, chances are you’ll use the restroom. Make sure you know where they’re located. And, in some cases, they can be tough to find, so this isn’t as obvious as it might sound.

6. Don’t rely on the free wi-fi

Even though many coffee shops offer free wi-fi, I’ve learned (the hard way) not to count on it - for many reasons: They forget to “turn it on.” It goes in and out. Or, in some cases, some shops just don’t offer it (for free, at least). Not to mention, it’s not always safe. So, always go in having a “plan B” - just in case. My-Fi devices are a good idea – but, they’re not cheap - and unnecessary for most folks who only work remotely a day or two a week. I’d recommend using your phone as a hot spot, if you can.

7. Don’t take conference calls

…and I’ve tried. But taking conference calls in a coffee shop just isn’t a good idea. Number one, it’s fairly rude to those around you. It’s also rude to those on the phone, as coffee shops are very loud and I know that comes through on the other end of the line. You can try a Bluetooth device or headset, but it’s still going to be loud; you may have a tough time hearing folks on the line, and, worse yet, they’ll have a tough time hearing you. So, save your calls for the office (or, the car).

What about you? Do you work out of coffee shops from time to time? Any good insider tips to share?

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

Photo credit: ralphhogaboom

Preparing to take my business on the road was one the most exciting and confusing times in my career. When I decided to leave my office in Austin, TX last August I had no idea what awaited me in Europe and Asia Pacific.  Regardless of my own questions, I still had to get my team on board, find a location and pack my digital tool belt. 

Cora Rodenbusch (@corasauras) is a senior communications manager at PGi (@PGiMeetTweet), a virtual meetings company, providing audio, web and video conferencing solutions to over 75% of Fortune 100.

Straight from my 6 months as a Digital Nomad, below are three steps to taking your show on the road.

Step 1: Get Your Key Stakeholders On Board.

Put yourself in your boss’s shoes and pitch accordingly. Most likely your boss is asking him/herself three questions: Can you do your job outside the office? Could you actually do it better? Will it make you a happier, more satisfied worker? 

Talk to those points, making your pitch as practical as possible. Share your story, be personal, but leave the emotions aside. And most importantly, make sure you’ve fully thought through your plan. Come with all the details such as office hours, cost ownership and accountability, but only speak to them if you feel your stakeholders are ready to hear them. 

For more support check out a recent GreenBlog.PGi.com post on Making a Case for Teleworking.

Once you have been given the green light, bust out the champagne, celebrate and calmly proceed to step 2. 

Step 2: Scout Out a Location

Whether you’re planning on working from home, the coffee shop or a remote island, make sure the internet connectivity is VoIP quality, its quiet enough to take a conference call and you can afford it. Once you’ve found a location that meets this criteria, see if it’s laptop-worker-friendly and if you enjoy being there.  

Step 3: Pack Your Bag

Before you step out the door, make sure your bag is packed. When your office is mobile, it’s best to pack light, so make sure your tools work extra hard. When evaluating a new tool for my digital tool belt, I always ask, is it mobile? Is it global? And most importantly is it social, does it have that human element?

What’s in My Digital Tool Belt:

• Smartphone for Quick Email & Helpful Apps: I live by my TripAdvisor and Worksnug apps. Both help me find the right places to land for a productive day in the “coffice.”
• Solid Video Conferencing Tool:  I use the iMeet® iPad app tool to keep it personal and teleport back to the office when needed. 
• Online Storage: I use Evernote to store important information when on the go. I can access my files on any of my devices and even offline, when en route to my next destination.  
• Emergency Internet: Kindle 3G for free global 3G wireless

Bon voyage fellow teleworker! Don’t miss next week’s Part III of the Digital Nomad 101: Your Guide to Working Outside the Office to find out how to make your teleworking experience a success.  

What would you add to your digital tool belt?

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

(Ed. note: We’re having a bit of a ‘freelancers focus’ this January for those of who whose New Years’ Resolution is to become your own boss! If you do it, make sure you’ve got the essentials in place. You may want to think about insurance, as this guest post from Vicky Pont of PolicyBee points out.)

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

So you’re out on the road, living the life of a mobile worker. That’s all well and good, but what about the hazards you might encounter along the way – is it best to think about insuring yourself against them and their consequences?

Let’s not underestimate the dangers. There are cups of coffee just waiting to tip themselves onto our keyboards; phones and laptops keen to crash to the hard stone floor; light-fingered folk only too keen to help themselves to our belongings, and clumsy passers by ready to catch their foot and trip on the straps of our bags. 

Many of us make the mistake of simply thinking about the value of the hardware we carry around: the laptop, and maybe the mobile phone. Often, mobile phone shops offer you an insurance policy. But that may be limited to a slow replacement or repair service – not exactly ideal if your business activities rely on being contactable at all times.

And it’s the same with your IT equipment. It may be covered under your household insurance - and that might be something you checked when you took out the policy. But a domestic insurance policy will only typically cover you for replacement of lost or damaged hardware, it’s not going to compensate you for the loss of important business data, nor the time lost as you get yourself up and running again. 

Portables insurance

So, the best way to make sure you’re covered is to get yourself some proper, portable business equipment insurance. That way, you can rest assured that the bits and pieces you take out and about are protected against the triple potential threats of loss, damage and theft.

Public liability insurance

Depending on where you are temporarily holed up, it might be advisable to have a public liability insurance policy in place. This will cover you against a claim, in the unlikely event that you can be deemed to have caused an accident – as in the example with the bag strap above. On private property such as in a serviced office or a coffee shop, the owner will normally be liable for incidents that take place on their premises.  

Professional indemnity insurance

Finally, as a responsible flexible worker you should consider protecting yourself with a professional indemnity insurance policy. This covers you if your work doesn’t meet with the client’s expectations. The policy is a cheap down payment against the legal costs of defending a claim against you. Indemnity insurance can handle the dispute, defending your reputation and covering any consequential losses, if they can be proved.

PolicyBee (@PolicyBee) is an online business insurance broker for UK freelancers, consultants and small consultancies. Find out more at www.policybee.co.uk

Photo credit: ul_Marga

The London 2012 Olympics is just a hop, skip and jump away - and WorkSnug is warming up and stretching off in preparation. We need your help!

We’re looking for laptop-toting, coffee-sipping mobile workers to dig into East London and the Olympics area to find the best laptop-friendly workspaces and review them for our website.

We’ll pay the London Living Wage, which is £8.30 per hour, and provide full training in advance.

You should be London-based, have your own laptop and some experience of connecting on the move, like in coffee shops and hotels, etc.

It’s expected to be around 3 days work - and we need you to start ASAP! If you’re interested, drop us an email at hello@worksnug.com

Photo credit: lilivanili

Ladies, gentlemen, WorkSnuggers: Episode 7 of our work-style podcast is out now! Stream it, download it, treasure it - and tell us what you think in the comments. If you like it, subscribe in iTunes and gorge yourself on past episodes.

About Snug Sound

Snug Sound is an audio podcast, presented by WorkSnug community manager San Sharma, and produced by WorkSnug in association with Plantronics.

It provides wi-fi hopping, coffee-sipping mobile workers a free slice of news, guides and reviews – and helps digital nomads work their best wherever they work.

This episode

In this episode, WorkSnug San (@WorkSnugSan) chats to author and ideas man Ian Sanders (@iansanders) about why you don’t need a business plan to start a business and how coffee shops are the new business incubators.

How to subscribe

You can subscribe to Snug Sound in iTunes or directly via RSS (http://feeds.feedburner.com/SnugSound). You can also listen to Snug Sound via the AudioBoo website and mobile app or just below. It’s better to subscribe, as you’ll automatically get new episodes as they’re released.

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

Music: ‘Wired But Disconnected’ by duckett

In the final part of the ‘Knowledge Work and Place’ series, Jim Ware (@thefutureofwork) applies his thinking about the way her works (Part one) and the ‘Italian masters’ (Part two) to the modern workplace, and asks: why do we try to do it all in one place?

I, like most “knowledge workers” spend almost all my work time in a fairly traditional office environment – four walls, a desk, some filing cabinets, and shelves full of books. Sure, there might be a family photo or two on the wall, and maybe a picture drawn by a child, but the fact is that no matter what I am trying to accomplish on a given day, the place where I am is almost always the same (yes, I usually hold team meetings in a conference room, and sometimes I even have a meaningful “meeting” in a cafeteria or a coffee shop, but let’s face it, most of the time I use the same place to read, write, analyse, list, sort, file, talk on the phone, and even meet with colleagues – at least when I’m not on airplane or in some drab hotel room far from home).

What if I had lots of places to choose among, and could move from one to another as I moved from one task to another? My instinct tells me I’d be a lot more creative in some kinds of places (rooms filled with art work, or with outdoor photos or large windows – or literally outdoor places), more analytic in others (a library, or a bare-bones office?), and thoughtful and reflective in yet another place (a church? a mountain retreat? a sailboat? a café?).

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

I recently had an opportunity to visit several innovative office facilities, some of them one-company endeavours and some multi-company shared “third places.”

One facility in particular was exceptionally impressive – open workspaces with low or no dividers, light and bright colours, lots of windows and natural light. I can’t help but think I’d be creative and energised if I worked there regularly. The folks who are fortunate enough to have access to that place seemed highly engaged with their work and – when working collaboratively – with their colleagues.

But the deeper lesson for me was the incredible variety of spaces and places in that one facility. There were several different “zones” with different workstation layouts (some were traditional 8x8’s, some used the increasingly popular 120-degree designs), but there were also several enclosed “personal harbours” for two- or three-person meetings, private heads-down work, or phone conversations; a “kitchen” and café area with informal lounge furniture groupings; an outdoor patio area; and several more traditional conference rooms of varying sizes and designs.

How effective is that kind of workplace? In this example, it’s a pilot project that’s only been open for a few months, so the jury is still out. But the early reports are that the folks who “inhabit” the facility are highly satisfied, and their managers are too. It’s hard to ask for more.

I think you get my point. When there are so many different kinds of knowledge work, why do we so often try to do it all in one kind of place? How much creativity and innovation have we lost forever by plopping people who do different kinds of work from day to day and even hour to hour into those all-too-common, drab, one-size-misfits-all, cube farms?

Jim Ware is a former Harvard Business School professor, founder and director of The Future of Work…unlimited, a research and advisory services firm based in Berkeley, California. Jim also serves as Global Research Director of Occupiers Journal, Ltd., and is a partner in FutureWork Forum, a London-based consortium that advises private and public sector organisations on future workforce and workplace challenges.

Photo credit: katiew

This infographic from iPass, based on findings from their Mobile Workforce Report, shows how enterprise is going crazy for mobile technology.

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

But there are pros and cons.

The iPass survey revealed that mobile workers put in 240 more hours a year than non-mobile employees. One in four mobile employees sleep less than six hours a night with one in three claiming less sleep because of work. 60 percent also blame work for not getting as much exercise as they should.

Check out the infographic below and let us know what you think.

Are mobile workers really working hard or hardly working?

Workforce Mobilemania