A Penguin in the Orchard

WiFi Workers

I’m living in a wireless cloud at home. My 2.4 Ghz Linksys access point and WCF11 CF card make the Zaurus the ideal wireless tool at home. I’ll have a laptop one of these days, but for right now, I’m well set for untethered access. There’s actually very little a laptop could do that the Zaurus can’t, anyway.

The New York Times is running a feature titled “The Wi-Fi Boom” in today’s online edition. It’s interesting to realize the potential of pervasive wireless access on the workplace. A few years ago, working at home was the next big revolution. Now, you can work from anywhere.

Wi-Fi is also changing the way that people - at least some young, technologically adept people - go about their work. In Philadelphia, Yvonne Jones, a 33-year-old freelance copywriter, moved her base of operations to a Starbucks about a month ago and said she quickly became “a thousand times” more productive than she was when working at home. “It’s not your house, and you are there for a specific purpose, so the ‘distractions’ aren’t that distracting,” she said.

I understand this idea clearly. I think my parents might have said, “That’s what the workplace is for - it’s not home and it’s a place to work.” That was before work became so hooked into technology and technology became so pervasive.

I like this idea of wireless access further fuzzying the traditional view of work and workplaces. Rather than leaving the definition of the workplace to the employer, it’s left to the employee. If you’re productive and contributing to the company’s bottom line, it shouldn’t matter where you’re working. And, if you’re more productive at Starbuck’s than you might be in the office or at home, what more could an employer ask? The “work anywhere” approach puts the emphasis back on productivity, leaving the decision about a proper workplace enviornment to the employee. I like that.