Sometimes You Just Can’t Trust A Random Network
At my last position, we worked with personal information that was protected by federal privacy laws, so there were very strict security policies for mobile devices. It wasn’t even possible to access the corporate network remotely unless the IT department had pre-installed a valid security token on the machine. (They joked that security was too important to leave it up to the individual users.) Personal laptops were forbidden, and the only machines allowed on the network were ones that had been built and issued by the IT department. Now they’re even using a Network Access Control system that scans the machine for the latest Windows patches and anti-virus updates — and blocks access until the machine is in compliance.
And I understand why. At my previous job, an IT worker drove 90 miles to visit our site and patch a security hole in the network. After a few hours reviewing every single machine, they eventually found the source of the problem — a single contractor’s laptop which hadn’t performed the last security upgrade. The lesson learned: if there’s a hole, someone will find it.
I’m working remotely at my current position, and we reached the same conclusion the hard way. We collaborate on an online magazine using a blogging platform that had a major security breach in May. We hadn’t performed the last upgrade, and somebody used the hole remotely to install an admin-level account — and then re-wrote our content with invisible links to bolster the pagerank of a spam site. Before we’d identified the problem, Google had dropped our pagerank a full two full two ranks, which I calculate cost us over 30,000 sites visits. It was embarrassing to realize that in this case we were the users who’d skipped the vital security upgrade.
Concerns about security ultimately led me to a hard and fast rule. Sometimes it’s tempting to log in from a cyber cafe or other businesses offering on-the-road internet access — but I just don’t trust them. A network security breach guarantees hours of headaches and stress, so I’m not taking any chances. I worked for a large national corporation, and I trusted the security of their network, even when accessing it remotely. And even now, collaborating on an online platform, I have faith that my internet service provider is running a secure network. But the local coffee shop up the street? Just because they’re online doesn’t mean they’re secure!
“Nomadness”
One consequence of transforming into a digital nomad may be (will be, some could argue) a significantly increased blending of business and personal life depending on the degree of “nomadness”. Most business owners will be familiar with this as so much personal effort goes into nurturing a business. Employees that come and go to a traditional corporate office are more likely to have a cleaner separation of corporate and personal lives.
This leads to a concept of “nomadness” or nomadity where none equates to conventional rigid divisions between business and personal, work and life. High equates to significant intermeshing of business and personal. Digital nomadity is the use of computers and communication tools to facilitate nomadity. Our capability to embrace digital nomadity, if you will, may largely track the age of digital nomads as well as the type of job. There are always exceptions and we need to avoid stereotypes, but younger nomads often grow into change better than older ones. The same is true of corporations – younger corporations may be more willing to change established work conventions than older established ones. Younger workers trying to fit into older establishments may fight to change the status quo – and older workers trying to fit into younger establishments may feel overwhelmed. In some ways, it’s a replay of the internet vs. the brick and mortar companies.
When we can work from anywhere at anytime, our business and personal lives start to merge and adjustments need to occur both from a personal management perspective and a corporate management perspective. Conflicts will occur when we cannot manage both to a reasonable standard, leading to unhappy corporations and unhappy employees (nomads). Companies that install keystroke loggers and spycam software on their systems to monitor nomads are doomed to lose them as soon as another opportunity comes along. Smart filters and no web email are reasonable restrictions on corporate time but will not work for nomads working on personal time.
This leads to a need for tools and conventions to manage and facilitate greater nomadity. One is training to help us (both corporate and employee) make the transition and manage our time division and controls wisely. Another is hardware and software that supports digital nomadity – corporate IT security and control, while still allowing personal freedom to go anywhere and do anything… all in the same machine. We also need to develop commonly accepted policies and conventions that balance the two uses without being obtrusive and confining.
Tackling Three Key Issues In Balancing Work And Life
As it becomes more acceptable in the work environment for employees to space and time shifting, workers are finding a tremendous amount of flexibility in defining where, when and how they work. There is a dark side to this flexibility and that comes in the form of the blending of boundaries between one’s work and one’s life. While technology enables us to receive emails any hour of the day, wherever we are — workers are faced with the challenge of being always on. While the mobile worker has contributed to historically high record levels of productivity, this productivity has its limits.
Assuming we agree that with the blending of work and life together, certain new stresses are arising in the workplace and at home that influence both job and life satisfaction and can be detrimental to both. Let’s address certain ways that workers and employers are addressing these issues. I suggest we address:
- channels of communication
- building/raising a family
- job security
Channels of communication
The conflict
Wifi, 3G and the Blackberry have all enabled us to be always-on and always accessible. Expectations for quick response and quick resolution has made its impact felt both within organizations as well as with partner firms and customer service. It’s created an interesting conundrum: as we become quicker communicators, we’re expected to perform at least as well in all future communications.
I recently worked in an organization that really was a new type of organization. We employed almost 50 people, all of whom worked at home. Many were work-at-home mothers while others just liked the flexbility of running their own show. No clocks were punched and we could determine our own hours as long as the work expected of us was completed with quality and on time. While clock-punching is no longer the norm, an interesting evolution is taking place in “face time”, or the need to put in a lot of time working just to show everyone else that you’re committed to working hard. While we couldn’t stop over at a colleague’s cube to check on one another, we were monitoring each other via email correspondence or IM activity. It wasn’t uncommon that we were sending messages to one another at 3 am (OK, it was a startup).
The result
People were very strung out and their work and personal lives began to suffer. I realive now, in retrospect, that these problems could have been mitigated by laying out the ground rules at the management level. Instead, we were performing this sick type of game theory. Well, Bill responded last night to my question at 2:30; so, the fact that he’s not responding tonight means he is either ignoring me or hasn’t done what was expected of him.
The solution
Expectations of employees could have been spelled out better. How frequently do we expect you to check your email? If something is urgent, how quickly should you turn to the phone? And given that our schedules were all different (I drove my kids to school while another VP picked his kids up), do I need to be reachable during that family time? These were (and continue to be) sources of stress for management and for employees. It’s a shame — a simple communication policy could help address all these issues. This policy should address expectations at every level, how communications should be used, and define why it’s important to provide breathing room in a wall-less office.
Other strategies for managing personal time and the need to check multiple sources of contact have been addressed by people like Tim Ferris in his post “How to do the impossible“. GTD theory and practice help fill-in the much needed issue of managing communication but for the mobile worker, these issues must be addressed top-down by management, otherwise unneeded stress and passive-aggressive behavior follows suit.
Building/Raising a Family
The conflict
While it used to affect only women, it’s now an issue felt across genders as men are taking on more and more responsibility in the home. As a father of 5 children, this is an issue I feel acutely as I try to build my business and simultaneously continue to strive to be a better father to my children and husband to my wife. The problem is that choosing a career in general and certain career paths in particular requires time, energy and emotional commitments that take away from the greater life issues. Balancing is not static but rather on ongoing juggling of both family demands and work requirements.
The result
I didn’t see my father very much when I was a child. His career path, medicine, entailed enough of a time commitment that he had very little left to share with his family.  Professions (I can’t speak about medicine) have become less monolithic and more flexible in how practitioners choose to practice their qualifications. This flexibility has meant that women and men can ultimately attempt to have it all — a career and a home life. The problems come in different varieties but once up and running, it’s a daily battle between staff meetings and parent-teacher meetings, between face time and family time.
The solution
While no complete solution can exist as time spent away from your family is a zero-sum game in the early days of family building. It just means less of you to go around. But things are changing — Web 2.0 and more specifically, Sales 2.0 are enabling professionals to carve out their own quasi-professions.  Companies should consider hiring more and more not-full time employees with clear expectations of the amount and quality of work that they’re looking for from their staff. Whether it means working on a project basis or just a few hours every day, companies become more limber as they can pay-as-they-go in terms of time from their people. It also requires that today’s worker become more modular in terms of jobs. The days of working for IBM for life are gone and it’s important to understand the new rules. Companies should have an understanding of what each one of their employees is motivated by and work to make it happen.
Job security
The conflict
My father and father-in-law did the same thing for 30 years. My makeup is different and from what I know about my peers, so is theirs.  I’m not looking for that much fidelity from firms that pay me and I’m more in tune to looking out for myself. Whether it’s writing, consulting or marketing my content, I don’t have a whole lot of security in terms of my gig. Yet, I’m comfortable with this form of risk as it gives me more flexibility to live the type of life that encompasses engaging work and family time. Workers and those who employ them wll need to balance security and independence as workers themselves deal with these tough issues.
The result
Issues surrounding pay and health insurance are just the tip of the iceberg. Firms need to have dependable staff and workers need dependable pay. What’s happened is the beginning of a large movement away from firms to becoming independent contractors. These millions of mobile minions have begun to define “career” differently. The firms who currently contract my work understand this paradigm and have built-in flexibility to work with me on an outsourced basis. I’m not a liability on their balance sheet and provide dependable work when they bring it to me. It’s built on a relationship and seems to work well for both parties.
I’m lucky though. I live in a country (Israel) that has socialized its medical services so I don’t need to attach myself to a given employer just for the benefits. This frees me up to work with as many firms as I can handle. That said, the mobile workforce has to be able to live with uncertainty: visibility in most project pipelines is pretty poor and it requires a lot of work to be able to find new work. While companies employing this mobile model should be able to manage having slimmer staff, there are other firms that need to rely upon “captive” staff for ensuring work get done on schedule and IP stay internal to the firm. Therein lies the rub. How companies can work to untether some staff and yet still have adequate resources and how mobile employees can continue to support their families as at previous levels while also balancing their work/life in their favor.
The solution
Like the solution outlined above in the building/raising family section, the solution for job security requires a new way of addressing staff and work in general. Firms must become more comfortable sourcing staff that is comfortable working outside the confines of the office. In order to mitigate demand planning issues, these firms should also contract time/projects further out than just immediate need to help both the firm feel comfortable that help is there along the way. This longer-term planning ensures that independent workers can plan their revenues and time to continue to provide for their families in this new type of arrangement. For example, in my business, I’m still too small to employ an inhouse web designer.  I have a web designer that I’ve worked with for a while and am comfortable with and giveher 5-7 hours of work every month. I get my needs taken care of and she can bank on these fees and plan other clientele around me.
Summary
There will always be workaholics. Even those who venture outside the typical corporate infrastructure aspire to greatness in their businesses and in their home lives. Better planning for this trend enables both contractor and contractee to understand the rules of the game and plan accordingly. Communication policies and longer-term contractual agreements are just two ways for industry to address these issues.
Supporting A Healthy Mobile Culture
When a worker becomes mobile, they detach themselves from the typical nine-to-five, timecard mentality that is typical for an “office worker”. To that end, tracking a mobile worker’s performance becomes one of goal setting and measuring results rather than measuring attendance. This, for many organizations or managers, is a fundamental cultural shift.
For an organization to have successful mobile workforce, they need to support a healthy “mobile culture”. To start, management must establish clear objectives for their workforce. Mobile workers must understand that their performance is measured (and rewarded) based on the success of fulfilling those objectives, and mobile workers must be empowered with the tools to meet those objectives. One such tool is the ability for them to set their own work schedules, including the right and ability to disconnect from work.
In addition to empowering employees, the organization needs to instill in this “mobile culture” the tenants of a healthy work/life balance. In the same way that the employer often cannot dictate the days/hours to be worked by a mobile employee, they cannot dictate the days/hours to be taken off. The culture should ensure employees that a healthy life outside of work will lead to a longer, stronger career and lead to better results for both the employer and the employee.
Some organizations take the step of enforcing workers to disconnect by removing access to work tools (email, applications, network, mobile devices). This approach flies in the face of the mobile culture’s self-empowerment mantra, so should be avoided.
Periodic reviews of objectives and performance with mobile employees allows the employer to determine whether workloads are appropriate to support a healthy work/life balance. This also offers the opportunity to re-enforce the “mobile culture”.
The Five P’s of the Digital Nomad Ethos.
Power
Carry a plug adapter. My personal choice is one where I can change the plate to fit the socket of my destination. If you have the room, and the need, carry a multi-plug power strip to make sure you have enough sockets for phone, laptop etc. I often travel to many countries on the same trip so only having to carry the single body and the relevant face plates saves me space. The traditional power adapters are too bulky for both carrying and easily fitting in to wall sockets and extension cables in most of the shared office spaces I work in.
Portability
The fine balance between functionality (memory, disk, screen size) and physical size is a difficult one to get right. Making the laptop plus all of the peripherals portable enough takes time and experience. Generally keep to the basics. Use a USB drive to carry the bulk of your storage supply. This will mean the laptop will generally be smaller. The added benefit is that you can plug this into any machine, doesn’t have to be yours could be a client’s machine. I find that my laptop is becoming more of a portal, a means to access data stored on my USB drive or on the extranet.
In addition I carry a U3 drive that allows me to carry a lot of the useful applications and run them on any machine. It is possible to not carry your laptop at all if you plan carefully.
Paper
Get rid of it! More than anything else you carry in your bag paper gets the heaviest and is the easiest to get rid of. Where possible create a soft version of your notes. For initial capture use the small, typically A5, notes books most hotel rooms supply (and their pen). As soon as is practicable enter this into your tool of choice on your laptop. Use a flexible tool that can be used for many purposes. I find Mindjet’s MindManager to be by far the best as I can use it for brainstorming, note taking, project planning and progress and the integration with Microsoft Office means I can output the content easily. Substitute paper based systems with soft versions (David Seah’s emergent task planner, Manager Tools One-on-Ones).
Packing
Get the right sized bag. The problem with the average laptop bag is that they are too big. It is too easy to accumulate junk that adds unnecessary weight (like paper). Choose a bag that allows for organization and ideally allows for you to carry at least one change of clothes in it. This will then become your carry on baggage for those airlines that only allow one piece.
Pipe
Connectivity is king. Mobile based modems (GPRS and EV-DO) are useful but price plans can make them prohibitive. Most major cities have some form of WiFi access from hotspots in coffee shops to MuniNets. Make use of them where you can. If travelling for a week or more consider taking a travel router with you to release yourself from the confines of what the hotel considers to be your optimum working area.
Given unfettered liberty, Mobile workers will excel
Employers who look to control mobile workers will meet with the same rejection that belligerent advertisers have encountered with the youngest generations. Smart advertisers have figured out that if they provide an inspiring, relevant message to a narrowly targeted segment then usually the people receiving those messages are receptive. Smart employers are figuring out the same thing. Appealing to mobile workers requires that they provide a targeted mobile work environment with goals that are tailored to the interests of its employees. Mobile workers who are genuinely interested in the subject material and direction of their company will be ultimately productive.
But even when employees are passionately interested, sometimes they like to know that someone cares about their success and that they’re accomplishing what the company is looking for. That’s why it’s important to have regular personalized interaction — live conversations are best if possible. That creates an opportunity for a business manager to subtly check in on progress of key projects without creating a sense of stifling micromanagement.
Periodic personal check ins will help maintain a good relationship, but it’s important to respect that mobile workers are usually good at sustaining a balance between life and work. They’re also tenacious in meeting the deadlines they commit to. That makes it critical for business managers to position themselves as mentors instead of overbearing “boss” figures.
The word “boss” will generally inspire a host of negative impressions with moble workers and most of them hate supervision. Why? Because they are capable of managing themselves without a “boss” reiterating a set of instructions already apparent. Once again, mobile workers are looking for mentors who are willing to assist them with decisions during difficult crossroads. They aren’t willing to accept “boss” figures in their lives. Mobile workers who aren’t able to manage themselves will be easy to spot because the quality of their output won’t be on par with their peers, and project schedules will become haphazard.
Because mobile workers demand so much liberty in their day-to-day routine it’s critical to pay close attention during the hiring process. Most importantly: is the candidate interested in the position and the overall subject material? Generally it’s easy to gauge interest based on portfolio work or other experience that they can talk about in detail.
Once a group of mobile workers gather and the initial excitement of something new wears off, what keeps them engaged? Two things. The first is their initial interest, and the second is a sense of belonging to something larger that’s moving in a direction with purpose. A sense of belonging doesn’t come from business discussions though, it comes from the jokes and quirks that germinate and grow within and in between business topics. Business managers who encourage some jovial interaction in online forums and playful back and forth will see a group of people forgive some of their differences and meld into a team. When mobile workers can lower barriers and relax, that’s when trust grows, which is the case for almost any human.
Speaking of humans, most have them have personal problems. Personal issues in the workplace are fine and they’ve always been present, perhaps just swept under carpets and camouflaged by various idiosyncratic behaviors. As long as other mobile team members aren’t overburdened by a person’s issues and deadlines are still met regularly it’s fine to accept that people are human and that they have problems. Additionally it’s almost impossible to monitor and crack down on mobile workers addressing their personal issues during work hours because they’re especially adept at finding ways around any barrier erected in front of them.
Mobile workers have a lot to offer employers who embrace their prerequisite liberty, and who provide mentorship during difficult forks in the road.
Making Everything Mobile
As ubiquitous as mobile devices have become, I’m surprised how it is all somehow less portable. We still need to make long strides in simplicity, convergence, portability, and standardization. It starts with our laptops, smart phones and PDAs. Each one needs an AC adapter to power it and charge the battery. Some incessant workers insist on carrying an extra battery for one or more of these devices. The six pounds becomes twelve. We take along more than just the devices we carry, we bring all of their accessories as well. We make everything mobile, and the manufacturers have to keep up.
Biggest Mobile Challenges
Ergonomics: Finding a spacious, ergonomic, and effective work area.
Greater risk: Having all eggs in one basket, greater risk of losing all information and functionality.
Lack of standardization or integrated features: Having to carry all of the accessories and necessary components is a problem. Universal chargers exist but won’t charge proprietary Li-Ion technology that some vendors such as Dell have. Every international traveler I know instead opts for a Sony or Lenovo laptop for their next purchase so they can have one charger for everything. Being proprietary doesn’t always work out, even when you have a huge existing market share. Look at what happened to IBM with their PS/2 architecture.  Also, a compact, mobile laptop should have an integrated optical drive. There’s a reason we couldn’t wait for the Lenovo x300 to come out. Make that several reasons.
Power issues: Common complaints are short battery life, lack of power outlets, and confusing piles of adapters needed for different countries. Kensington makes a great universal power plug adapter, but it doesn’t have the capacitors built-in to truly adapt to the different voltages.
Everything The Mobile Worker Needs
Battery chargers: Unfortunately when mobile, all of those battery-powered devices need a way to recharge. This has meant carrying one charger per device. I don’t consider that very portable. Companies like iGo make universal AC adapters with a wide variety of charging tips so the mobile worker only needs to bring one charger. Beware of devices with proprietary Lithium Ion technology though. These universal chargers will power the device, but won’t recharge the battery.
Spare batteries: Mobile workers on long international flights that need their devices running for the whole flight may opt to carry additional batteries. There are “air chargers” that can plug into the airplane’s power outlet, but such outlets are not available for all service classes.
Wireless broadband card: I feel this is a “must” for any mobile worker. “WiFi hotspots” are just unsecured Internet access points. We’re talking mobility here. To truly be mobile, one should only need to pull over their car to get on the web.
Carrying cases: We need a protective case for each of our mobile devices. The way to win here is either bring a small enough case that holds all mobile toys or converge the various technologies into one device so there are fewer to carry.
Hands-free options: Cities like Chicago have banned the use of a phone without a headset. Hands-free options have become a must.
Mobile data protection: We have to protect all of that valuable mobile data. More companies are encrypting their mobile devices, but we still need to back up the files. A truly mobile worker will have weeks worth of locally-stored files that are at risk. To protect them might mean carrying an external hard drive to synchronize with. It could mean an automated process that whenever connected to the Internet, the data sync’s with a server back at the main office or to a storage service “in the cloud”.
Support phone numbers: Mobile workers should have their own IT staff’s phone numbers with them and the international support numbers of their wireless providers with them as well. Don’t store these numbers on their mobile device. They need a way to reference this information if they lose their mobile devices.
Eyes on the Prize
The mobile workforce is growing and competition amongst mobile providers is fierce. I feel the companies that will be victorious are the ones that are less proprietary and offer more features in a smaller space, for less money. It sounds simple enough, but how many vendors are actually focusing on this concept?
Mutual Trust & Respect The Key To A Healthy Work/Life Balance
All employer/ employee relationships should be founded on a mutual trust and respect. If the work that is delegated to the employee is of any importance it should be clear to all parties concerned at the end of the week whether or not that work has been completed. Further, it is the employee’s responsibility to exhibit progress on mutually agreed-upon goals to employers and clients on a regular basis.
With regards to maintaining a healthy balance of work and personal life, this is also the sole responsibility of the employee. If the work-load becomes overwhelming, the employee should communicate this to the rest of the team. If the work being produced is lacking, however, it becomes the responsibility of the employer to raise this issue with the employee. Beyond that, ’supervision’ should be reserved for children and adults with special needs. Therefore, mobile workers must consistently manage their time and work-load effectively, and regularly communicate progress to all parties concerned.
