The future of work

[D_L_P]

Re: The future of work

... this is not a good trend for the print industry as the demand for A3 Dept size copiers and print volumes is likely to permanently diminish over the next 3-5 years as is the need for people to service these devices. A4 product placements are likely to increase as copier sales people begin to lead with these in their quotes.

Good point. Sounds like the demand for the segment 2-4 copiers will be much lower in 3-5 years. Dealers will have to move into production color or high speed B&W copiers to stay afloat. Or expand their IT offerings. Sounds like that service will be in higher demand 3-5 years from now.

I wonder how the seg 1 copiers will fare? I'm sure all this is good news for companies like HP, Lexmark, or Brother. But will the throwaway SOHO equipment win out or the low end dealer equipment win?

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The future of work

Good point. Sounds like the demand for the segment 2-4 copiers will be much lower in 3-5 years. Dealers will have to move into production color or high speed B&W copiers to stay afloat. Or expand their IT offerings. Sounds like that service will be in higher demand 3-5 years from now.

I wonder how the seg 1 copiers will fare? I'm sure all this is good news for companies like HP, Lexmark, or Brother. But will the throwaway SOHO equipment win out or the low end dealer equipment win?

Production print is not even 5% of the market place yet all of the big manufacturers fight bitterly for market share. While the print volumes are high (yet declining) print for pay customers are slow to pay their bills and very demanding.

The much more likely available course of action is to expand their IT offerings with either inhouse staff or partnering with a 3rd party.

Another direction is to diversify into new markets such as label printing, digital signage or items that new categories cater to healthcare.

To be sure, not all industries will be effected equally by the decline in print and the need for onsite service.

Managed IT services could well become the dominant form of dealer revenue where print will only be one part of the customer's spend also referred to as an IT Stack. Many traditional copier dealers focussed solely on hardware sales and cpc click revenue are in danger of losing control of their accounts to Managed IT services providers.

If you are a copier tech and you are unwilling/ unable to learn new skills you will probably become some combination of lower income or unemployed.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The future of work

Airbnb, the home and apartment rental service reported a surge in bookings for the summer. Airbnb revealed that it had more US bookings between May 17 and June 3 than the same time period a year earlier. And it appears the momentum is continuing: Last weekend (June 5 through 7) gross bookings grew year-over-year for the first time since February.

CEO Brian Chesky said he's noticed travelers are preferring to stick to drivable destinations within 200 miles of their home and that customers are booking stays for one week or longer because of the shift to remote working.

"Work from home is becoming working from any home," he told Bloomberg News.

... small local communities are concerned that the influx of new visitors increases the risk of Corona virus infections rapidly overwhelming small rural hospitals with very limited healthcare resources.

[20 year tech]

Re: The future of work

The industry as we knew it has changed to be sure. its been in decline for quite some time but it will not end. When I started in 91 I was told that fax will be gone in 2 years. almost 30 years later I still have fax calls. Folks working from home are not as productive, my sister who works in IT had been working from home for the last 2 months. My state is lifting restrictions and she started working back in her office and is extremely happy to be back there, and in her words "working again" and ordering lunches from local delis and restaurants. we will all adapt and prosper in the end IMHO.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The future of work

Recent global trends and events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have drastically changed the way businesses operate. This sentiment was reflected in a Gallup poll, where more than half of the surveyed at-home workers indicated their preference to continue working remotely as much as possible even after business restrictions are lifted. This shift in mindset from both employees and executives means that businesses need to actively make adjustments, allowing employees to work remotely as part of the "new normal" for workplaces.

- Survey results published by Engine Insights/Smartsheet

- 89% of Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) workers report difficulty working from home during pandemic

- 91% of Millennial (1981-1996) workers report difficulty

- 64% of Gen Z feel the amount of time spent on video calls makes it hard to get their work done

- 61% of Millennials report same

- 85% of Gen Z feel less connected to their teams

- 81% of Millennials report same

- 79% of Gen Z feel less informed about what is going on within their company

- 69% of Millennials report same

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The future of work

[QUOTE=D_L_P;

I wonder how the seg 1 copiers will fare? I'm sure all this is good news for companies like HP, Lexmark, or Brother. But will the throwaway SOHO equipment win out or the low end dealer equipment win?[/QUOTE]

IT Managers could demand that home office workers must use MFP devices that comply with the corporate needs for device security and ease of cloud connectivity.

In the first wave of workers suddenly forced to work from home a lot of non coordinated purchases were made of low cost yet costly to operate inkjet MFP print devices.

As business processes and standards become more clearly defined, a second wave of purchases/ leases could occur from the major print providers. This poses new challenges for install technicians to go onsite into employee's homes to connect and repair devices while respecting COVID-19 health precautions. Home offices often have sub standard wireless networks and convoluted personal entertainment systems intermingled.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The future of work

RJ Young an office equipment reseller in the USA has already begun to market these temperature monitors to their customers.

Approx $100.00 month x60.

YouTube

The office equipment industry is well suited to offer and support similar devices.

Although this is a new expense and may sound like a lot, it is far less expensive than bringing in a nurse or attendant a few hours per day.

[20 year tech]

Re: The future of work

RJ Young an office equipment reseller in the USA has already begun to market these temperature monitors to their customers.

Approx $100.00 month x60.

YouTube

The office equipment industry is well suited to offer and support similar devices.

Although this is a new expense and may sound like a lot, it is far less expensive than bringing in a nurse or attendant a few hours per day.

My company selling them as well as several other dealers in the NYC area.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The future of work

In many offices, the copiers and printers are clustered in a small "copier room" designed to keep noise and distractions away from employees.

This room forces many people to frequently enter a small space daily though a single door where the air often does not circulate well and employees collectively touch common surfaces often.

In most cases, office floor plans were designed years ago, with no thought given to infectious diseases let alone protecting employees from returning to work with the common cold.

In the future of work, these copier/printer devices have to be relocated into open spaces with good air circulation as floor plans are redrawn to help employees maintain social distancing. Operating noise and air filtration will become a much more important specification.

Office managers are desperate these days as revenues have fallen due to COVID-19 to reduce operating expenses and may turn to used copiers to fit their reduced budgets.

I am seeing a big demand right now for quality used colour copiers. They rarely are in inventory for more than a week before they are sold. These copiers are often dusty when they first arrive at the dealer with only a second thought given to cleaning out the air filters before the copier is delivered. Air filters are rarely replaced and sometimes only blown out.

We have all seen copiers where the air inlets are clogged with dust on the back of the copier.

Copier basically suck in a lot of air to help cool the inside. Therefore, they have to exhaust a lot of heated air ... but what else is in that air ... could there be coronavirus spores?

Unfortunately, like the office floor plans designed a decade ago, copiers that were designed 5+ years ago were focussed on Energy Star ratings and not so much on air quality.

Buried deep in the MSDS sheets that every manufacturer must provide will their products, is little mention of air quality. I have just reviewed one of my MSDS sheets and the information is much more concerned about a person coming in unlikely contact with toner or developer materials. It was hard to identify air quality on my MSDS sheets.

Air quality has never been a subject of copier sales conversations separating one vendor from another.

I believe the actual measurement is called Total Volatile Organic compounds (TVOCs).

Volatile Organic compounds are a combination of gases and odors emitted from many different toxins and chemicals found in everyday products.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The future of work

For many companies, food plays a big part of workplace culture.

Whether it's free lunches every day, or an occasional perk like pizza or bagels to celebrate an accomplishment, or an extra long meeting with a catered lunch, employers often use free food to reward or motivate their staff.

But workplace lunches could look very different when employees return to the office.

A packed cafeteria, buffet-style meals in conference rooms or buzzing elevators filled with lunch goers at noon won't bode well for social distancing.

"You can't have 40 people in a factory trying to get out the tiny entrance and drive off to Chipotle to wait in line for 30 minutes. That is a very unsafe thing to do." . "In a high rise office tower, you can't have folks all try to pile into an elevator."

"Health and safety are front and center, and that includes how employees access food"

"Businesses are asking about how we can work they safely provide food to their employees -- whether that means providing lunches for employees so they do not need to venture out of the office, or if they need food and beverage service for small gatherings they are having within the office."

If lunch is provided when employees return to the office it will be different.

"It will likely be individually boxed and either distributed by an individual wearing gloves and face covering or will be laid out on tables for employees to queue up and pick up,"

Snacks could be in prepackaged boxes that are distributed twice a day. Drinks will be limited in the fridge with new safety protocols regarding the use of hand sanitizer and paper towels when opening the refrigerators.

"Signage will remind people 'if you touch it, you take it.'"

Along the same lines, community coffee pots are likely to go away. "Some employers are transitioning employees away from a communal coffee pot and are supplying them with discounts or gift cards to local coffee shops or supplying travel mugs to bring in their own"

Cafeterias could shift to offering more pre-packaged meals and brown bag lunches.

Offices that used to offer buffets and food stations prepped in its kitchens for meetings and events for its members are now serving individually-packaged meals.

Community breakfasts and lunches are also going to look different. Instead of people congregating in a common space to eat, individually-wrapped meals will be at a pickup station to minimize contact.

Kitchen staff members also face increased safety measures. They have to change into a company-provided uniform and have their temperature checked before entering the space. They've also reduced the number of vendors they work with that provide food and other supplies.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The future of work

Working mothers are quitting to take care of their kids, and the US job market may never be the same


America's parents are going through a year of tough choices, and it isn't getting any easier. With the school year starting, many have to choose between their jobs and staying home to take care of their kids.

More often than not, this burden falls on mothers.

One in five working-age adults is unemployed because Covid-19 upended their child care arrangements, according to new research from the Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve. And of those not working, women are nearly three times more likely than men to remain home for the kids.

The choice that isn't really a choice.


Kelly Bebout, a mom in California who's been in her health care job for nearly a decade, said she's able to take 12 weeks of leave when the school year starts to support her children in distance learning. What happens after that is uncertain.

"I fully expect to have to choose between my family and my job of almost 10 years very soon, which really isn't a choice," she told CNN Business. "It will mean being unemployed for the first time in my adult life, but my family has to come first."

Katie Simon from Michigan has also been weighing the decision of whether to quit her job since the pandemic started.
"I had to fight for my employer to continue to allow me to work from home because we had no options for child care ... They had suggested I take a voluntary layoff with no promise of return," she said.

But staying at home and forgoing a paycheck is a choice many are unable to make. For single parents, quitting work may not be a option.

When the Covid lockdown left millions of people laid off or furloughed, Washington's CARES Act added $600 per week to boost regular unemployment benefits. This made it possible for people to make ends meet while they were stuck at home. But the booster has since expired -- with no new plan from Congress -- and optional joblessness looks a lot less feasible at the moment.

"We cannot ignore that many people just cannot quit their jobs," said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

Some employees might be able to work remotely for longer while their children continue schooling from home. But that's not an option for people who have to be present at their jobs, such as health care workers or those returning to a retail job.
Distance learning in groups, or pods, for school-age kids might offer some respite here. But many households will continue to struggle.

Working mothers are quitting to take care of their kids, and the US job market may never be the same - CNN

At the end of last year, America's labor force was more or less split evenly between men and women. In fact, at 50.04%, women held slightly more jobs than men in December. It was the first time that happened in nearly a decade. After the pandemic, it could take a long time until we get back there.

[20 year tech]

Re: The future of work

Here in the states it varies by region. where I live in southern New England schools will be opening as scheduled. my opinion is that communities are sticking there toes in the water to see what happens. Policies can change quickly and as needed. being furloughed and a large part my territory being schools I want the schools open. The big problem is not the kids but staff and others (bus drivers,techs janitors)also kids getting infected and bringing the virus home to house mates. that is the problem.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The future of work

Companies of all sizes are understandably desperate to get back to work. The prevailing blueprint for doing so seems to be one of adapting pre-COVID norms in the short term to account for the virus, using social distancing, masks, staff shifts or schedules, etc., on the assumption that a widely available vaccine will sooner or later herald and enable a full return to those norms.

The next normal: Why going back to work isn't going to work | ZDNet

But will the Next Normal really just be the Old Normal plus protection? And even if it's possible to do so, should companies really aim to return to the status quo? The virus and our reaction to it have accelerated an emerging shift in our conventional ways of doing things. Companies that return to the old ways without understanding that shift are likely to fail.

The first part of this story is simple enough:

1. COVID-19 is a virus.
2. Viruses are usually spread by physical proximity. They rarely survive for long outside of a living "host."
3. One person can infect many people at the same time if they're all in a physical group.
4. This means a virus can spread very quickly across a population that likes to form physical groups and where individuals move from group to group.
5. In that case, a particularly nasty virus could devastate the entire population.
6. To avoid that eventuality, in March 2020 we stopped forming physical groups.
7. As soon as we did, tens of millions of people lost their jobs and the economy collapsed more or less overnight,

To repeat, as soon as we stopped forming in groups, the economy fell apart. And it wasn't just the economy. Despite all the obvious differences between commerce, education, healthcare, entertainment, travel and hospitality, religion and other institutions, they were all organized in the exact same way; a commercial, cultural and social world based on physical grouping, aggregation, massing, or centralization of employees, customers, students, patients, worshipers, travelers, fans and spectators, old people, prisoners, and others, into controlled environments where the associated functions (employment, commerce, education, healthcare, religion, etc.) took place.

The second part of the story, the part about our current state, is more complicated. It's complicated because it wasn't planned, intentional or chosen, and because it isn't "normal." We are, in effect, in an extended state of emergency, an abnormal or exceptional set of circumstances. No one believes that this is a way to run an economy or live a social life.


The negative impact of this limbo or pause between normals on us individually and collectively has been huge. Quite apart from the terrible loss of life and livelihood, we have witnessed a string of business failures and bankruptcies. We have seen disadvantaged communities hit the hardest, and we have all experienced first hand the emotional and psychological effects of isolation and immobilization. And yet there have been notable business successes and other positive outcomes as well, including:

• The rapid adoption of remote communications tools both for business and personal use.
• The acceleration of ecommerce, spearheaded by Amazon, which achieved a 10-year growth in three months according to a recent McKinsey study.
• The accompanying rise in-home delivery services like Doordash.
• The long-awaited emergence of telemedicine.
• The success of the individual fitness and well-being retail sector (e.g Peloton, Lululemon).
• The success of the home improvement retail sector (e.g. Home Depot, Restoration Hardware).
• The phenomenal response by front line workers.
• The explosion in individual creativity and learning.
• The noticeable improvement in air quality.
• The "return" of birds and other wildlife.

The big learning here is it is possible to be successful without being centralized. And, in fact, it seems that it might be possible not only for companies to be successful but also for individuals and even for the environment at the same time. In other words, centralization is a choice, not an inevitability or necessity, and there is an emerging alternative that may be more resilient in the face of a systemic threat.

Which brings us to the third part of our story, the part about what comes next, aka the Next Normal.

This part hasn't been written yet and it's the part we're all agog for. But based on what we learned in parts one and two about life before and during the pandemic, here's what is likely to happen.

Most companies will instinctively aspire and plan to return to work and resume life as normal.

There will be an initial phase, already underway in parts at least, which is about grouping in lower densities while the virus remains a threat but nevertheless returning to the same organizational model as before.

And then there will be a gradual "redensification" as the number of new cases flattens and reduce until we get to full normality with the widespread availability of an effective vaccine.

This path will take months and will not be smooth or linear but it's clear that most are working with that mental model.

And yet the path to success will increasingly lead away from the centralized model of old and toward the model we have seen emerge most clearly over the last six months or so. This is the model of decentralization, of increasing numbers of employees choosing to work from the home offices they've been equipping recently, of increasing numbers of consumers and business customers continuing to choose ecommerce, of increasing numbers and types of services including medical ones being delivered virtually, of increasing numbers and types of different education and learning models emerging beyond the physical school, of increasing volumes and types of goods, perhaps including vaccines, being delivered to people's homes by distributed fleets of autonomous vehicles. All these things empower connected individuals, reduce friction, and give them increasing autonomy while creating a world of new opportunities for companies.

This is not to say that all forms of the congregation are dead. Coming together to celebrate, to play, and to worship is a deeply embedded need within us. But in a world of change, disruption, and uncertainty, centralization turns out to be a fragile model. Decentralization appears to be more resilient and more in tune with the needs of individuals as well as companies for success. The Next Normal is decentralization.

[Tricky]

Re: The future of work

I don't buy this post-apocalyptic bullshit however what I have noticed is that there are far fewer cars on the road when I drive to work.

[Phil B.]

Re: The future of work

as long as cuntry leaders.. and governors/mayor keep on the ' Lock down ' theories y'all will have to continue to worry about your paychecks.

Glad I made the switch to 'indy' work... while y'all are sitting around with your thumbs up your collective asses I am driving working surviving ....

that's why I agree with Hank Williams Jr...

Hank Williams, Jr. - "A Country Boy Can Survive" (Official Music Video) - YouTube

and yes I even have time to launch the boat in the water!

btw I fixed my hull MYSELF and the motor also! you can't stomp on us nor hold us down! USAUSAUSA!