Working from a Third Place

Krishna Dagli writes to mention a USA Today report on the social and business ramifications of working from a third place - somewhere that is neither home nor office. From the article: "An estimated 30 million Americans, or roughly one-fifth of the nation's workforce, are part of the so-called Kinko's generation, employees who spend significant hours each month working outside of a traditional office. This rootless army is growing 10% annually, according to Gartner Dataquest research. The reason? Corporations are increasingly supportive of teleworking for reasons that range from saving money on office space to needing a backup in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack."

There's another reason...

Free Wifi at places like Panera.

That, and free refills.

Re:There's another reason...

WiFi and 3G cellular networks are a huge reason; they're also a huge security whole. While (I hope) most enterprises have taken security precautions for working in public WiFi networks, I doubt most small and medium sized companies (esp. non-technology ones) are aware of how risky it is. It would be an interesting experiment to park next to Starkbucks and leave a laptop running ethereal, dsniff, etc. on for a couple hours -- something tells me not everyone there is connecting through VPN's, SSH, etc.

Re:There's another reason...

Hole. The word is "hole." Like the one in your head.

Re:There's another reason...

The wireless technologies you mention could enhance rather than degrade security. Without connectivity, you have to carry all your information with you whever you go. That's dangerous. Having connectivity means you can access only what you need, when you need it, reducing the risk. Think of that VA laptop that got stolen with millions of SSN's. If the guy had just been using the laptop for remote desktop over VPN, no information would have been compromised.

Re:There's another reason...

I meant VPN using two-factor authentication of course :)

Biggest attraction=no distraction

I'm a teacher and I like to do work after school at Panera because there are less distractions there. No colleagues/students/parents stopping by to discuss/chat & no temptation to pick up the phone when it rings (& I live out of my district, so I don't bump into people I know there). So many people, like teachers, work longer than their contract indicates, and places like Panera offer a chance to get a great deal of work done during that overtime in a nice environment without distractions & without making your home into a workplace.

(And yes, the state of the US education system is my fault. We give people what they pay for :P )

Halloween

Corporations are increasingly supportive of teleworking for reasons that range from saving money on office space to needing a backup in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack."

BOO!

Now get back to work!

Coool!

to needing a backup in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack

Finally! a real use for the internet which isn't porn related.

Like a screendoor on an employee.

"Corporations are increasingly supportive of teleworking for reasons that range from saving money on office space to needing a backup in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack."

Now even more places for data to leak.

Re:Like a screendoor on an employee.

Hey that's not true! My PC is 100% safe and... damnit.. hang on... fucking pop ups...

....

Fuck it's rebooting again hang on....

HELP!!! MY MOUSE WONT STOP MOVING!!!!

laptops and security

If you want to be able to work from a new location on short notice, a laptop's the only way to go. Set up its networking so it always tunnels to the company's server and runs all communications through that tunnel.

I've heard of a lot of so-called solutions based on USB drives, even bootable ones, but the fact is they all have serious problems security-wise. Even if you're booting - or think you're booting - off the flash drive, by using equipment that's owned or accessible by other people puts your company at risk. The only solution is to also bring your CPU, keyboard input and video output with you; in other words, a laptop PC.

Furthermore...

"This rootless army is growing 10% annually" In fact, in a few years more Americans will work outside of traditional offices than there are working Americans.

Obesity epidemic solved?

From the article: He says waiters here don't hover. Instead, "there's an understanding that for every hour or so you're here, you'll buy something."
Who eats that much at work?

Ah, finally

Now, finally I can make terror work for ME! It's not just the Bush administration anymore!

Human interaction

It's funny, it didn't dawn on me that spending all day in my apartment would drive me crazy, so quickly. But after a week at home, I was ready to go back to working from my office cubicle :)

Don't underestimate just having people around you all day.

I still "work at home", but I go tour local coffee shops and bookstores. At least now, there's movement in the environment.

Legitimately working from home

There seems to be 2 kinds of working from home:

1) I'm taking a sickie really and I don't feel like working and look the business has provided me with a good excuse.
2) Legitimate working from home.

Unfortunately the infrastructure at the moment seems to be set up more for type 1, because every employer I've worked for hasn't got their technology right to facilitate type 2. Mind you I'm in IT and require access to a lot more than many non-IT employees might.

I think if you're going to allow work from home, that's a good thing, but for goodness sake unless your business can afford slacking off set some goals that have to be met, and provide the technology.

Field Service

Those of us in Field Service have been doing this ever since the first carpenter put his sack of tools on the back of a mule to go repair an ancient roof or remodel a cooking pit. The home office is something I visit once or twice a year if that. Most of my work is done at a customer worksite, from my car, or occasionally from home to finish paperwork.

Working from Customers' offices

I normally work at home; I've got two employer-provided offices (official one near my customers and my home, which I mainly go to when I need to print lots of stuff or my computer's broken, drop-in space at one near where most of my coworkers live, which I mainly go to for meetings or when I've got something else to do in the City that day). But the other place I often work is at my customers' offices, and the people I work with who have only one or two customers spend more time there.

The technical issues for working from my customer offices are mainly network and network-security related. The traditional solution was to unplug a fax machine and do dialup, but that was always awkward. Wifi is simplifying the issues - most corporate LANs and firewalls aren't designed to have strangers connect PCs behind them and don't always support IPSEC tunnels, but most corporate Wifi networks are outside the firewall, or at least out in a DMZ where it's easier to reach the outside world. I have one customer where one of their wireless networks permits my IPSEC connections and another of their networks seems to kill some part of the connection/authentication process, so depending on which conference room we're in and which way the aether is blowing, I may or may not be able to connect to work, but I can at least reach the open Internet.

Working from an Nth Place

I work "remotely," not some of the time but 95% of the time. I visit headquarters, a few timezones away, once or twice per year. I am in my home office a lot of the time, but if the work I'm doing allows it then I venture out. There is no "third place" for me, however; instead I work from as many different places as I can. My nth place has been a library, cafe, university, park, and even my parents' house.

People are creatures of habit, for sure, and being a regular has its advantages, but I wonder. USA Today focuses on "third place" types, but how many workers in their uberstatistic, the tens of millions of people working outside offices, are actually "nth place" types? USA Today was also lazy in spending their time primarily in one cafe. Are all those tens of millions of people as uncreative as this reporter?

I've also worked from locations I traveled to, blurring the definition of "vacation." No matter where I am and regardless of timezone, I put my full time in for the office during their normal hours of operation. Usually I work from wherever I'm staying, because I am only visiting the area for a short time and I need to be online reliably. Before and after work though, I have ample time to do other business, visit, or explore.

I've often considered closing the gap between my lifestyle now, and one in which I have no permanent home, like Paul Erdos [wikipedia.org] but perhaps with more self reliance ... and of course, with my wife :) BG

It's not what it's cracked up to be

I've been one of these so called root-less workers for six years now and I can tell you it's not what it's cracked up to be.

#1: My company provided me with a cellular 'broadband' card as my primary connection. It works great in city centers, but is horrible if it works at all outside of major metro areas. I love it when it goes into idle mode as well - drops my VPN login, web pages time out on load, etc etc etc.

#2: My company insists it's important to load bloated corporate spyware that forces updates at inopportune moments and suddenly reboots when it's done - many times in the middle of a large email response. No warning, no choice.

#3: They insist on loading Novell services as they do for internal office workers when everything I need is strictly IP based. I got my hand slapped for backing it out, since that also reports back to the mothership daily.

#4: Many cafes that offer WiFi have minimal electrical outlets, so if you don't vulture other laptop users, you don't get to plug in. Not to mention, these environments are not conducive to making business calls with the grinders and blenders singing their harmonious tune - not to mention the vocals: "DECAF VENTI NON FAT SUGARFREE VANILLA LATTE!"

#5: Recipients of my calls complain of noisy backgrounds, so I have to go out side and talk. Winter sucks for this.


There is some luxury to the practice of being a rootless worker - the scenery does change frequently, I avoid bad coffee/snacks and the people working at these places get to know you and eventually hook you up with a freebie once in awhile.

Shame on companies who try to get off cheap and don't provide proper resources or financial compensation for lack of a decent working environment!

Travelling Consultant

For those who travel for a living, there is an office wherever you can find a network connection. I tried a 3G card from Verizon and wasn't happy with the coverage. I find myself in a Mariott, airport club or Starbucks often enough that free wi-fi and my T-mobile hotspot account are enough. Printing and faxing are the biggest problem. An easy backup method would be appreciated as Windows offline folders are a little unreliable. [Don't bother replying with Linux solution. Not an option.]

I don't like working in Kinkos. Too much like an office! Much prefer Starbucks. Just wish they'd all have a laserprinter in the corner.

Terrorist Attacks

That's actually a good point. I'm going to ask my boss if I can "telework" so that I won't be bothered by the constant terrorist attacks at the office.

Extension Cords!

I always bring an extension cord (a 12' cord with 2-prong plug and 3 outlets) to 3rd-space workplaces. Not only does it let me work from a table that's a little further from the outlet, but I can often convince outlet-hogs to let me plug in my cord and let them plug their stuff into my extension cord.

Share the juice!

I work from home, and couldn't be happier.

I started a new job after being laid off for a bit working from home - aka telecommuting full time. Infact my employer isn't even in the same state i'm at nor within driving distance for a days work!

The secret to telecommuting is community. The people i work with are very friendly and technically savy people - in the community way. They know how to pickup the phone and call, drop me a sametime request and schedule meetings and conference calls to get that person to person chat going.

You have to be organized and willing to work to make it "Work" but it is well worth it. I find myself relaxed, invigorated and the days flying by like no tomorrow.

It does take some getting used to of not having "cube mates" but honestly after working at banks, small shops, development houses, BIG shops and such the small talk isn't exactly worth the hassle of going to work and the real talk i had with people i would consider myself as friends usually ended up getting me in trouble and distracting myself from "working".

I've got a laptop, cable modem, desk, home office (above detached garage) so i even have a place to go to work to and come home from - even though its only 25 feet from the house that can make a difference.

I went from driving an hour each way to walking out my front door and i couldn't be happier. If i want interaction i go hang out at Barnes and Noble, Panera or the local coffee shop and use the wifi to login and get some work done and sip a hot coffee and talk to people often on something that isn't work and the healthy type of distraction that can keep you thinking and out of the day to day drone type work that most of my previous 12 years in IT has been like.

Most importantly, if you work from home or out of the office find a place that respects you for that. Don't accept less money, don't accept less benefits, don't let them treat you like your not part of the team. Places that do that, just don't understand telecommuting, never will and you will hate it.

ah so annoying, let me count the ways...

In no particular order, some things I find annoying in this article:

1. The assumption that you must've used a car to get there, and hence you have to feed the meter all the time. Are these people so addicted to car commuting that they won't give it up even when there's no need to drive anywhere?
2. The lead paragraph assumes that there's something horrible about foggy days. If they bug you so much, what are you doing in San Francisco? If I didn't like cooler weather, I could still be living down in the sun fried Silicon Valley... or for that matter you could move to much cheaper central valley, e.g. around Sacramento -- got to love those 100 degree F summers, eh?
3. The general description of the scene: I hate places like this. Slick "cafes" full of laptop zombies on cell phones. And the reason they go to these places is for the social interaction? Their very presence destroys any social scene that might've been there.
4. The gosh wow brave new world tone of the article: these guys don't even have cubes to work in. Why is this supposed to be such a wonderful work environment? They have to play games to try to discourage other folks for encroaching on their space.

My third place is my Garage..

I have a detached garage and above it i have a 600 square foot room that used to be a toy-train shop that has slowly been remodelled to my "dude room" and now my office. Its great. I have my own private bathroom and everything! i wired the room before i fixed up the walls. I put in a kitchenette with a microwave, fridge, stove, sink, COFFEE MACHINE! and other nice"ities". Its a place i'm fully functional in without having to distract myself but yet a place i can be in for those days when we have upgrades and i need to push the clock to work odd hours. (i'm a database administrator..)

I've got comcast, upgraded to the "pro" account for 8mbit/768k, i've got a Vonage voice line, Vonage fax line, my Cell phone, a company laptop, an extra monitor and plenty of space to work, stretch out and be myself.

I bought a nice speakerphone, got a headset for when i simply want to use Skype and layback during a call (hey its still free for the rest of the year!). Headset can travel with me if want to work from Panera, Barnes in Noble, Borders or other local joints with wifi.

I couldn't ask for more! I drop my daughter off at school, pick her up, make it to her activities, i get to see my wife during lunch and for more than 2 hours in the evening. My car went from seeing 25,000 miles a year to seeing about 4,000.

I find myself closer to my friends, i find myself closer to my community, i find myself more invigorated to do more, achieve more and get more work done. I find myself doing more training, i find myself working on furthering my education, i find myself INTERESTED again.

It takes the right company to know your potential and let you live up to it. Believe me they take security measures that can be annoying but after pushing time at a bank sitting around because i was paid to do one thing and nothing else to busting my balls at places i thought were fun but were just beating me into the ground with work an excuses and getting poor results because of it i'm glad to be here.

My life isn't work, its what i do. Now i do it really well because my work is part of MY Life!

There's Already a Place For This, Called Coworking

Hi. I created Coworking for exactly the reasons in that article. Coworking is community office space for programmers, writers, and anyone who works from home. From our Wiki (http://coworking.pbwiki.com):

"Coworking is cafe-like community/collaboration space for developers, writers and independents.
Or, it's like this: start with a shared office and add cafe culture. Which is the opposite of most modern cafes. ;)"

We already have two spaces in San Francisco, one in the Dog Patch area called The Hat Factory (http://hatfactory.net), and another called Teh Space that is downtown and will be comming up to speed soon. There are groups planning spaces in New York City, Paris, Boston, Chicago -- all over the world. If you go to our wiki, at coworking.pbwiki.com, you can coordinate a space in your own city. Some areas that can't support full time spaces are having Coworking Days, like the one that was just put on in Sausalito, California.

Best,
    Brad Neuberg
    [e-mail]
    http://codinginparadise.org/ [codinginparadise.org]

Raleigh Starbucks CHARGE for WiFi

You have to sign up for some insanely overprived Verizon service. $10/day or by the month. They're going to cut their own throats with this.

I value some face time

My employer has a rather liberal telecommuting policy, which is further enhanced by the fact that most people I work with on a day-to-day basis are in offices that are at least 3 hours away. With the exception of the rare times that I get to have real face time with my co-workers, it really doesn't matter where my physical body is when I work.

The third-place working style really does come in handy. It's great when you can drive to the mechanic on a slow afternoon and hop on to their wireless. I've also used it to extend family visits by telecommuting from my parents' back porch. Sometimes I wonder why my employer paid to relocate me when everyone I work with is at least 140 miles away.

I'm really getting tempted to start taking "work-cations", where I telecommute and travel at the same time.

What about offshoring?

It seems like telework jobs would be way too easy for an employer to move to e.g. India... how are those still around?

Re:10% Growth?

Maybe it just went from 10 people to 11 *shrug*

Re:10% Growth?

As the population grows, so does the workforce.

A 10% growth is entirely possible without necessarily consuming 10% of the total workforce.