The Future Is Now!!!

This message came up on one of the screens during church last week, and tbh, I would attend a church who appreciated and got this excited about chips. I definitely gave an AMEN when this happened.

How's work?

Earlier this year, I got a new position within my company.  The evolution of the position has been laughable at best, and confusing & disheartening at worst.  Don’t get me wrong – I love my company and my colleagues, and generally speaking, I have absolutely no complaints and am beyond grateful for what I have.  When it comes right down to it, I am spoiled in regards to my job.  I have tons of flexibility in many aspects, and that includes learning opportunities and ways to captain my own career path.

Having said that, it does seem that every few months, the job has changed.  Back in January or February, I moved into this new position within the team that I had already been working for several years.  However, within just a couple of weeks, the whole team was disseminated and restructured, and it seemed like we were all being restructured every few weeks.  This went on for several months, and I think that only now has the dust started to settle. 

The impact it had on me was that my role was shifted and tossed until it settled under a new department (along with my manager and one colleague).  I’ve worked at the downtown BMore location for many years, and after a few weeks of accepting my new role, they told me that the whole (new) department was going to the Owings Mills location, which is twice the commute time for me. However, at the same time, they changed my role to being a teleworker role, so that I may work from any location, and also from home.  It has worked out pretty well, and I am able to split up my time as needed and be where I need to be for meetings.

The only small sacrifice I’ve had to make was giving up a nice big desk.  I have a desk in Owings Mills (which is home to my tea station… a home for the tea station is non-negotiable)

And even if the desk is ONLY big enough to accommodate the tea, that’s fine. 

It's A Jungle Out There 

I’ve gotten pretty good at being a transient worker, living out of a bag and constantly being armed with wet wipes to clean my desk of the day.  In fact, most of my team functions as nomadic workers, going between locations and most of us working from home on Fridays.  

With so many people being nomadic workers within my company, it does create a bit of a space problem.  With the demand for office space at the various locations being so high, it creates a bit of jungle law.  If I’ve reserved an office (through the appropriate reservation system) for Thursday, and I show up on Thursday morning and someone is squatting at the space, I am kicking them out.  I have yet to encounter an actual negative experience with this, (they know they are in the wrong!) but I fully expect to throw down one day in the future. 

Teleworking Is The Future?

I saw an article recently  (click here for the article) about how many companies are making work from home work for everyone.  I’m not sure if you will be able to access that article without a log in, so I’ll just put one quote from it here.  It talks about the benefits of having employees be more flexible with teleworking:

“The remote work capability has been key in maintaining business continuity through several incidents in recent years including severe snowstorms in the Northeast, an earthquake and tsunami in Japan, 2012 summer Olympics in London, and the events following the [2013] Boston Marathon when people were restricted from leaving their homes,

The great part about teleworking is that you can work from anywhere, any time.  The downswing of teleworking is that you can work from anywhere, any time. There’s not really such thing as a “sick day,” because you can still log in from home and get stuff done, even if you are contagious and mucus-ing all over everything.  So, sometimes it can be hard for people to unplug. Not me, but some people.

The Future Is Now!

A few years back, I quoted one of my favorite managers when in a moment of a fiery conversation, he shouted, 

"THE FUTURE IS NOW!!"  

I scribbled the quote on a post-it, and vowed to not throw it away.  I find every few months, have a chuckle, and re-hide it from myself.

Speaking of future, let’s talk about the wonderful things that have happened just in the past couple of years.  

Some advancements have been slower-coming than others, but just as important, such as my company's inter-office instant messaging program finally enabling the use of memes and gifs:

Some advancements have just left me astounded!  I've asked some of my friends and colleagues what has astounded them in modern inventions, and they helped contribute to this list:

Drones

The other morning on Good Morning America, I watched this really (click here to watch the <5 minute video) cool piece on how drones are coming along.  Drone technology now enables eyes in places we can’t get – for example, they have thermal recognition technology to scope out a burning building to tell firemen when there is a person trapped, and also to find stranded hikers or boaters. 

 They will also send in drones to navigate buildings where there are active shooters to help guide police safely.  Not only can the drones identify the lost, but they can also provide a little bit of help – being able to shine a super bright spotlight on the stranded people so they can be easily identified when aid comes, and carrying a life jacket to those swept away in waters. 

Totally understandable that this kind of technology scares the heck out of some people, but I think it’s pretty cool… for now.

Drones have also opened a whole new realm for photographers and artists.  Even the production folks at my church have been using drones for their camera work, and it is so cool!

Uber/Lyft 

All throughout our lives, we've been told not to get in cars with strangers.  Now, we literally beckon strangers to come pick us up and drive us somewhere, and not even a word needs to be exchanged.

Starbucks App

This is probably only relevant to people who are mega Starbucks users, but especially since there is one in my building in the city, I LOVE the Starbucks app.  All you have to do is open the app, browse the menu, create your drink, confirm location, and BOOM! Within 3-5 minutes, your drink will  be waiting on the counter for you... again with no human interaction necessary!

Press & Seal

Scotty's Number One Favorite Invention is, and has been since I've known him, Press & Seal

For the full understanding of press and seal, see this ad:

Parking

Another colleague told me that she recently used an app where you can pay for a parking meter in a city and find parking and reserve it.  Almost like Parking Panda, but for parking meters.

I even saw an advertisement for these services for boat slips - essentially parking panda for boats!

Of course, my favorite invention is, and has always been, AIR CONDITIONING.  Praised be.

What inventions or services have absolutely impressed you over the past couple of years?