Goodbye ‘Out of Office’ - Guest Blog by Jake Chody
As a principle, Out of Office [OOO] seems fairly logical and necessary, however its use and context reflects a period that appears to be rapidly fading away.
From its inception it has been a means to solidify the barriers of the office, 4 walls which traditionally have been the only portal to productivity. As such, when you weren’t there, you would notify others of your availability – simple. However, this entire construct has been undermined by both access to modern technology and the mind-set that has followed.
With products like Office 365, Google Apps and many more, you are now able to easily work from wherever you have access to internet. With developments in mobile technology such as smartphones, this now translates as everywhere.
What does this imply? Now when you send an OOO, you are probably not saying ‘I don’t have access to what you need’ , you are most likely saying ‘I do – but I will not be helping you right now’ . This has nothing to do with the office, but your state of mind.
At Cloudamour we believe that a company’s staff is the real key to how well the organisation will do and the pace they move at. With a view to increase input, research has shown that telecommuters work between 5 and 7 total hours more per week than non-telecommuters*. This is incredible because, while there is a stigma that home workers reduce their input, the facts show that the contrary is true, resulting in huge benefits to organisations.
Read more about the changes in the modern workplace and what will happen on our full blog post here, or for more information or to trial Office 365 for free, click here.
Guest post by Jake Chody from Microsoft Gold Partner Cloudamour.