Telework Breaking News

Inside Lockheed Martin's wireless security lab
The brains at Lockheed Martin's new wireless-security laboratory are in a race to discover the loopholes and faults in wireless security before terrorists and cyber criminals do. Here's their assessment of the biggest threats to both corporate and military wireless networks.  More..

Teleworking not an experiment at National Science Foundation
While many federal government agencies have struggled to boost telework participation into the double-digits, the National Science Foundation has just over half its staff teleworking. More..

Remote access kit targets 'green workers'
Aruba Networks and Avaya last week touted the green credentials of remote workers after both companies announced they would collaborate on an IP-based voice and data access system for teleworkers. More..

Avaya creates unified communications bundles
Avaya is introducing four bundles of its gear at VoiceCon Orlando that are designed to address specific business needs: teleworkers, mobile workers, home call-center agents, small businesses. The company is also offering a bundle for branch offices for chain stores and banks. More..

Virtual call centers bring offshoring alternative
Rather than choosing offshore providers for cost savings, North American companies find more value in the customer service benefits of staffing virtual call centers with U.S. agents. More..

Like it or not, more federal workers telecommuting
Boosting the ranks of federal employees who telecommute is a slow, sometimes painful process, despite recent legislative efforts to speed up adoption, including the proposed Telework Enhancement Act, which was approved by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in November. More..

Teleworkers can damage main office work environment
A new telework study by management professor Timothy Golden at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute finds that the prevalence of telecommuters in an office can damage non-telecommuting workers' job satisfaction and increase the likelihood that they'll leave the company.  More..

AT&T employees, others sound off on telework cuts
News of AT&T's plans to scale back it telework program set the industry buzzing. Dozens of readers, some who say they are AT&T employees, commented on Network World's recent story about how the telecom company is requiring possibly thousands of home-based employees to give up their virtual offices and return to corporate office sites.  More..

AT&T calls teleworkers back to cubicle life
AT&T, a company that once was a poster child for telecommuting, is downsizing its long-running telework program and requiring employees who work in virtual offices to return to traditional office sites. More..

Female IT workers push for flexible workplaces
Top level management must endorse flexibility and facilitate unique work-life balances to attract women to IT, according to female IT managers. More..

How Cox Communications joined the teleworking revolution
The advantages of having some employees working from home keep adding up. Cable company Cox Communications uses Citrix desktop virtualization to deliver to teleworkers the same software applications used by office workers. The teleworker option also helps Cox recruit and retain employees who might be discouraged by a long and expensive commute. The rising cost of gasoline and the potential impact of disasters on business continuity also contribute to an increase in the number of teleworkers. More..

Sun building collaborative, virtual world for teleworkers
Sun is building a virtual world for its employees that will recreate the real-life interactions of an office, giving workers the ability to move seamlessly from one conversation to another in a collaborative online environment. More..

Co-working: the ultimate in teleworking flexibility
Co-working communities, which combine the relaxed, informal atmosphere of working at home with sociability and cost-sharing of an office, have emerged as alternatives for telecommuters who miss having real human interaction during work. More..

Satellite services and telecommuting not always a pretty mix
Teleworkers should avoid slow and expensive satellite service unless cable, DSL and high-speed wireless are unavailable. It’ll get you online, but VPN access is a challenge. More..

How to optimize teleworkers
Telework requires managers to set productivity standards, establish communications policies, deliver on technology requirements and create clear goals against which to measure teleworkers' success. More..

Father of telecommuting Jack Nilles says security, managing remote workers remain big hurdles
Father of telecommuting Jack Nilles says security, managing remote workers remain big hurdles. More..

Telecommuting goes agile as employees unplug
John Halamka is busy. As CIO of CareGroup Health System in Boston, he’s responsible for making sure four Boston-area hospitals’ critical IT systems are up and running. In addition, he’s helping lead the charge to set national standards to enable interoperable healthcare systems. More..

Legislation promotes federal teleworkers
A pair of senators has introduced legislation that would pump up federal support for telework, enabling more government employees to work from home. More..

Telecommuting: Security a top issue as teleworking grows
Security continues to dominate as IT’s most pressing concern when it comes to supporting a large telecommuting workforce. But while security is a concern, teleworking, especially in the government realm, continues to grow at an impressive clip according to a study released by the CDW Government consultancy today. More..

Enterprises must avoid IP telephony or face attack
Enterprises have been warned to avoid IP telephony for staff engaged in teleworking. More..

Federal managers clueless about telework support, study says
Efforts to increase telework in the federal government have a long way to go. Just 35% of federal managers today say their agencies support telework, according to results of a survey conducted by Telework Exchange and Federal Managers Association and released Monday. More..

Survey: Gov't managers don't see support for telework
Just 35% of U.S. government managers believe their agencies support telecommuting, despite a 7-year-old law requiring agencies to offer telework options to workers, according to a study released Monday. More..

Telecommute. Kill a career?
Employees who frequently telecommute may damage or kill their chances to advance within a particular career. More..

Striving to keep teleworkers happy
IBM’s efforts to create a flexible work environment have been so successful that 40% of its 330,000 employees work from home, on the road, or at a client location on any given day. But a few years ago, the company realized that as its staff became more distributed, employee morale was weakening.  More..

Blue Coat speeds apps to client machines
Blue Coat Systems this week announced plans to add client-side software to its security and acceleration suite to help enterprise IT managers improve application delivery to all types of end users -- including teleworkers and traveling employees. More..