Posts Tagged: Workplace

The Telework Cost Benefit Argument – It’s Reduced Stress; No It’s Decreased Cost

Even before our most recent March snow day, the savings to the Federal government for employees who continue to work while at home has topped $32 million, based on a study conducted by the Global Workplace Analytics and Telework Research Network and quoted in the March 3th edition of Wired Workplace. The weather this winterRead… Read more »

The Importance of “Diversity Thinking” — and Compliance

All federal employees should be mindful of the importance of workforce diversity, especially federal managers. Executive Order 13583 was signed by President Obama in August 2011: Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce. According to E.O. 13583: “Our Nation derives strength from the diversity of its population andRead… Read more »

The Flexibility Test: Does Your Organization Have a Flexibility Culture?

The principal difference between the 21st century workplace and the 20th century (19th century?) work culture in which so many of us live is flexibility. While some organizations have made a commitment to an outcomes-based approach to meeting mission objectives, others are still stuck in a compliance culture that values by-the-book processes and policies overRead… Read more »

Workplace Mobility: The Rise of the Third Space

If you are committed to exploring options for workplace mobility, then you should check out an organization called New Ways of Working (NewWOW). This organization, a consortium that focuses on alternative workplace solutions, has just released a benchmarking study based on data from July 2013 that sheds light on what is happening in the privateRead… Read more »

Back to the Office: The Value of Place and the Office Family

It’s time for those of us who promote a mobile work concept that seeks to get people out of the office to celebrate what happens when they are in the office. We have seen the articles quoting Federal workers on how happy they are to be back at work after the shutdown. And many ofRead… Read more »

Good Read: Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker on a Culture of Communication

Originally posted on #GovLife. Or as I’d like to call this post, Everything I Learned About Workplace Culture, I Learned From Warby Parker. But seriously. For those of you who don’t know about Warby Parker (I may need a moment to re-evaluate our friendship), they’re one of the small business darlings from New York thatRead… Read more »

Your Mobility Plan – Time to Re-Think Your Workday

We spend a lot of time talking about why the mobile workplace is important, how to create a mobile workplace, what technology to use, and how to overcome manager resistance. All of these topics are important, but I thought it might be worthwhile to consider how one person makes it work on a regular basis.Read… Read more »

Show Gratitude

Quote: “Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” –J.B. Massieu Are you friendly and helpful at work? If not, now is a good time to start. Always come to work cheerful and in a good mood, regardless of the problems you may be facing in your personal life or in your professional life. Express gratitudeRead… Read more »

Tours of Duty: Matching Workplace Flexibility with Career Flexibility

Have you seen the interesting article in the June Harvard Business Review by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, and Chris Yeh called “Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee Compact”? It gives us a new way to think about our careers – with an emphasis on increased flexibility. Instead of thinking of a career as a seriesRead… Read more »

Should Flexibility be a Reward for High Quality Performance?

There are a great many insights we can get on the Federal workforce by looking at the Best Places to Work survey conducted by Partnership for Public Service, but one struck me as particularly revealing. In looking at the data from the 2012 survey, we can see that only four in ten Federal employees believeRead… Read more »