Our newest Mobile Workforce Report is out Wednesday and we ask what mobile workers do while remote on a conference call.
For the obvious, most people do email. That’s consistent worldwide, followed by “completing another work task.” And the third most common? Making yourself a cup of coffee or tea.
As mobile workers, we embrace our flexibility with the ability to get more done. However, this productivity means we are often balancing multiple tasks or workshifting to fit more in.
Granted that almost 17% of you never multi-task and I appreciate those kinds of colleagues when I’m leading the call. Here are a few more responses:
Telling your kids to be quiet: 9%
Making other phone calls: 4%
Driving: 19%
Cycling: 0.5%
For those of you that filled in “Other”, here’s what you have to say:
Knit
Chat
Fill out surveys
Exercise
Pay bills
Research the conference topic
or “anything so not to fall into a coma on long calls”
Thanks for taking the time to fill out our survey. Come back tomorrow and see the results on data roaming, mobile work flexibility, and the BYOD vs. security debate.
Looking for a better view than the hotel lobby when working or even just for fun? Take a break and “sightsee” at one of the rooftop bars that overlooks the European city below. Relax and enjoy a drink as you enjoy the view.
You can even take a picture and send it to friends and family back home if you are staying at one of the iPass-enabled hotels, which are located at the Lisbon, London, Berlin, and Oslo hotels from the “10 Best Hotel Rooftop Bars in Europe” list from Fodors.com.
Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom has recently launched a free Wi-Fi network for all guests. With tens of thousands of guests traveling in and out of the park each day, the park is going to need a strong network with sufficient bandwidth to handle all of the traffic. Now, you may be thinking, who needs to connect to Wi-Fi while at the happiest place on earth?
As a matter of fact, Disney World set up the Wi-Fi connection for guests that need to work in order to go on vacation. This way, they have access to their email while in the park, unlike before when signal strength was hard to find and it was common for guests to leave the park periodically to access the internet.
Will there ever be a time when we completely disconnect from technology? How do you feel about the Magic Kingdom having free Wi-Fi? Let us know your thoughts.
Leveraging the iPass Open Mobile Exchange (OMX), dtac is offering its customers (over 23 million subscribers) a seamless global Wi-Fi service on Android smartphones and tablets along with the iPhone and iPad. Enjoy the benefits of “wifi roaming”!
As I mentioned the other day, I should have known what I was going to
be faced with because when I travel internationally, I shut down data
and voice on the smart phone. Of course, I get this weird out of touch
feeling during the day when I am not in range of a hotspot – and when
I am in range, I don’t want to leave. I have been known to sneak the
phone back on to check voice messages or make a few calls – but this
is like having cake (or whatever you are not suppose to have) in the
house during your diet and convincing yourself that you will only have
one bite. Once the voice messages light up my screen, I find myself
having a conversation in my head that the international data roaming
charges really won’t be that bad if I just check my email, and maybe,
just one social media site…
But this Wi-Fi diet at home – this is really hard and I am surprised
at my agitation by the whole thing. Here, I know, that if I turn on
the phone, I won’t get the big international roaming charges. On the
other hand, I break my Wi-Fi diet, and I can’t do that because I
promised Zoe that I could easily do this. But then again, I am
irritating my friends and family by not picking up their calls or
voice messages… and yet it is nice not to be buzzed every few minutes…
So, instead of continuing like a yo-yo on a crash diet, I am going to
build a plan and stick with it. So here are my 5 diet rules to keep me
happily on Wi-Fi:
1. Start the morning right – First thing in the morning; I need to
connect to my home Wi-Fi and check emails, the calendar, and any other
update I am interested in.
2. Get Organized – check the hotspot finder to look for hotspots that
are along my commute or any place I am going to be.
3. Keep up to date – before I head out for lunch, the gym, or the
drive home, take a quick look at email/calendar/news sites, update the
phone. And make the VoiP call before getting into the car.
4. Enjoy the quiet time in the car – listen to music or the game with
no guilt and interruption free.
5. When calling on VoIP and there is no answer, leave a message and
remind them that they need to try you back on VoIP or send an email
and that you will call back again later.
I am hoping that a little organization will keep me from feeling so
out of touch and within easy reach of a hotspot. And I think these
rules are useful for those of you traveling Internationally (with or
without the phone service). So far, I have found 2 hotspots along my
commute with easy parking, as well as a hotspot next to the gym. There
is no reason now why I can’t continue on this in peace.
Our newest Mobile Workforce Report is out Wednesday and we ask what mobile workers do while remote on a conference call.
Looking for a better view than the hotel lobby when working or even just for fun? Take a break and “sightsee” at one of the 
