<ul><li>In countries like the US, China, and the UK, the average round-trip commute is nearly an hour-time that remote workers have become accustomed to redirecting toward more productive or enjoyable activities</li><li>The trade-offs are even worse for super-commuters.</li><li>Roughly 10% of Americans slog through commutes of an hour or more each way.</li><li>Commutes are an obstacle to employees' sense of well-being.</li></ul>

The Commute Is A Nightmare For Many

If employers were to recognize commutes as part of standard working hours, they might be less likely to hire people who lived farther away from the office.The pandemic era has underscored the need for companies to overhaul their conceptions of the role that work plays in employees’ lives.

The Employer Dilemma

Allow employees to count the commute as part of their work day insteadThis might shorten employees' time in the office to just six or seven hours a day.If companies find the idea of sacrificing extra hours of work to be unacceptable, they should reflect on why they’re so comfortable asking employees to give up the same amount of time from their own days.

What Companies Can Do

Commutes are not strictly defined as working hours, but there are examples of policies that show there's room for interpretation.The European Union passed a law in 2016 ruling that if companies require workers to drive around visiting customers or clients, they must pay workers for commute time, and count it toward the 48 hours at which the EU caps the workweek.

The Case for Compensating Workers for Their Commutes

Deducting commute time from the standard workday is one way to help employers understand just what they are asking employees to sacrifice by going back to the office.

career

Career

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

Should commute time be counted as part of the workday?

Anyone who buys goods or services online relies on the five-star rating system for guidance. Digital platforms like Uber, TaskRabbit and Upwork apply the rating system to individual workers. Workers tend to understand the downsides of an overly simplistic rating system. There are many situations in which rating someone's leaving does not accurately show what's happening in the context of their work.

The five-star rating system

The platforms like Uber, TaskRabbit, and Upwork have created a system where the traditional role of the manager has been outsourced to customers and their star-based ratings. This effectively means that the algorithmically mediated customer that monitors and evaluates individuals have given workers a new, digital boss. Individual workers across digital labour platforms actively resist the power of these ratings.

The new digital "boss"

Gig workers- customer interaction is divided into three stages (before, during, and after) that generate distinct forms of worker actions intended to recover some of their control over being rated. With each subsequent stage, workers' ability to resist an unfair rating decrease. Efforts to remain vigilant over a prolonged service encounter while trying to maintain high ratings contributed to feelings of fatigue in workers.

Three work stages

Researchers found that as workers moved through the different job stages, they responded with resistance measures specific to each stage. During the "before" stage, workers had the most leeway to use resistance tactics since customers could not yet rate them. Strategies involve attempts to vet customers, perhaps by calling them with a question to assess their attitudes. When it is suspected that a prospective customer will offer a few stars, the worker will sometimes cancel the job. Some freelancers will demand five stars as a precondition to working with a customer.

The "before" stage tactics

During the second stage, when workers are in the midst of completing a task, their power to resist a customer's demand or complaint is reduced. Tactics at this stage include <ul><li>offering a discount for a high rating, </li><li>spreading a single project over multiple contracts so they can receive multiple high ratings from one customer they know, </li><li>ending work prematurely if a worker suspects interaction is not going well.</li></ul> In a traditional setting, you could talk to a manager if you had a bad customer. But when platforms outsource the middle-manager role, workers are more sensitive in the middle stage.

The second stage tactics

When workers are in the third and final stage, they have the least recourse to push back against low ratings They are left to either file a dispute with the platform or give a customer a low rating.

The third stage tactics

The limitations of labour platform's rating systems and the frustration they produce in workers are showing as problem on the platforms themselves. Across the world, new services emerge that are worker-owened cooperatives where individuals have a say over how their workplaces operate. Yet, in traditional service settings, employers are integrating more technology to get customer ratings across every stage of their experience. Careful consideration should be given to this model of outsourcing control to a customer using a five-star rating system.

Collectively seeking control

Instead of having managers, gig workers are accountable to customer reviews, which creates a number of problems that should be considered.

Instead of having managers, these workers are beholden to customer reviews. The relationship is rocky.

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

business

Business

startup

Startups

How Gig Workers Push Back Against Their “Digital Boss”

This term is used to describe how organizations began leveraging internet users to outsource tasks. Over the years, the notion has been defined in a variety of ways with specific application to business, government, and nonprofit organizations' innovation effort.Examples: Waze (an app where users can report traffic jams and gives directions for the best route) and Airbnb (a travel website where individuals can let out their homes)

Crowdsourcing

Many crowdsourcing platforms have adopted interdependent ideation where customers can be exposed to or inspired by other peoples' ideas when defining their own. However, it showed that a high level of interconnectivity can negatively impact innovativeness among ideas produced.Moreover, using an innovation contest do not stimulate creative performance because with an ever-increasing number of ideas produced, this demotivated participants. Noncompetitive exposure benefits participants more because it inspires creative efforts.

Managing the Crowd for Success

A recent research study showed that labeling new products as "crowdsourced" can improve market performance because consumers believe that crowdsourced products are addressed to their needs. Moreover, consumers prefer consumer-designed products (depending on the context). Crowdsourcing, when used effectively, is a successful tactic that will resonate with target consumers.

Communicating Crowdsourcing to Consumers

Crowdsourcing has become an essential instrument in every marketer’s toolbox, and recent research provides guidance for how firms can best use the strategy. Managers should ensure that the crowd is heterogeneous so consumers truly benefit from finding each other’s ideas inspirational rather than competitive. 

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

Crowdsourcing for Marketing Success

It’s terribly tough to get into your Zen zone when your phone is buzzing every few minutes. Depending on how chatty your phone is, you may get notifications for everything from emails to retweets. It’s essential you shut these notifications off! You’ll see efficiency skyrocket once you tell your phone to shut its blabbering mouth.&nbsp;

Turn Off Alerts

The news can be a tremendous time sink. The idea that we need to keep up to date on the news is largely outdated. Most of what passes as news today is prettily packaged garbage — it’s trivial, depressing, and unreliable. If something major happens, you’ll find out one way or another. Instead, focus your attention on what’s useful and actionable in your life.

Ignore the News

Exercise energizes rather than exhausts you, contrary to what the couch potatoes might tell you. Some studies have shown that exercise can improve your mood for up to 12 hours following your workout.

Exercise in the Morning

The truth is that most meetings never need more than 30 minutes to accomplish their missions. Many really only need 15 minutes.&nbsp;

Have 30-Minute Meetings

Most of us don’t drink nearly as much water as we should. Our bodies thrive on water — just like the rest of the world!&nbsp;Drinking more water gives you more energy, keeps you healthy, and gives you an excuse to get up for bathroom breaks so you’re not stuck in a chair all day.

Drink Water

It’s easy to burn yourself out if you try to work at full throttle all day long. The truth is that our minds just aren’t designed to work that way.&nbsp;For optimal productivity, try the popular and praised Pomodoro technique — work for 25 minutes, then give yourself a five-minute break.

Give Yourself a Break

When you’re too eager to please, you often end up getting in over your head. You may end up missing deadlines, and despite good intentions, you could end up disappointing others.

Don’t Be Afraid to Say No

Many studies have shown how having pets can promote physical and mental well-being. Employees who are allowed to bring their dogs into the office are less stressed and often report more job satisfaction. There’s nothing like a cuddle with a furry friend to alleviate some of that toxic stress.

Hug Your Dog

Depending on your commute, you may spend hours driving to and from work in your car. Those hours don’t have to be wasted. Make the most of those previously wasted hours:<ul><li> Consider scheduling calls in the morning that you can take during your drive to work. </li><li>Subscribe to popular industry podcasts and listen to them on the way home. </li><li>Stuck waiting at the boarding gate before a flight? Catch up on industry news and articles.</li></ul>

Make the Most of Lost Hours

Do the best you can do in a reasonable amount of time, and then stop.&nbsp;our inner perfectionist can be helpful, but it also needs to be kept in check.&nbsp;

Silence Your Inner Perfectionist

Scheduling requires you to be realistic about what you can get done.&nbsp;Even scheduling free time can be rewarding and can result in a better quality of time spent.&nbsp;

Down With To-Dos, In With Scheduling

Clutter is extremely stress-inducing. A messy desk can make you feel overwhelmed and anxious, so clear those papers, throw out those old paper coffee cups, and feel that heart rate go down.&nbsp;

Declutter That Desk

There are tons of great tools available to help you out.&nbsp;<ul><li>For tracking your time management, try Toggl or Yast.</li><li>Are you a savvy social manager? Go with Hootsuite, which offers a central dashboard for managing all your social media accounts. Also consider Buffer, which makes it super easy to share found articles across various social sites.</li><li>For saving articles to read at your leisure, go with Feedly, Pocket, or Evernote.&nbsp;</li><li>Sick of forgetting passwords? Try LastPass, which keeps tabs and secures all your various passwords for you. If you use numerous accounts in one day (and who doesn’t?).</li></ul>

Equip Yourself With an Arsenal of Productivity Tools

Brussels sprouts have traditionally been the vegetable reviled by children across the country. The truth is that you’ll enjoy those pork chops and potatoes much more if you eliminate the Brussels sprouts first. The same is true for productivity — eliminate your least favorite tasks right off the bat, and you’ll find the rest of your day to be more pleasant and productive.&nbsp;

Begin With Brussels Sprouts

A morning meal gives you the fuel you need to be present and productive at work, so don’t skip it.&nbsp;

Eat Breakfast!

The general productivity consensus is that if a task takes less than two minutes to complete, you should finish it immediately.&nbsp;Whether that means responding to an email or confirming a doctor’s appointment, get those small (but often weighty-feeling) tasks done with, rather than let them collect and snowball.&nbsp;

The Two-Minute Rule

When a hundred little tasks are nibbling at your brain, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lost at sea.&nbsp;However, a little perspective can do you good — remember to not sweat the small stuff. If you’re going to worry, worry about the big things, not the little ones.&nbsp;

Don’t Drown in the Shallow End of the Pool

It’s easy to break a promise to yourself, but it’s much harder to break a commitment you’ve made to another person. Words have weight and power — make vows to friends (and ask them to hold you accountable), and you may find it easier to keep commitments you wouldn’t necessarily hold yourself to.&nbsp;

Verbal Commitments

Losing one night’s sleep is cognitively equivalent to being over the alcohol limit.&nbsp;Equipment needs to be properly cared for to work correctly. Getting a good night’s sleep of seven to eight hours is mandatory.

Get Your Sleep On

Sunday is definitely a day for relaxing, but if you’re often overwhelmed come Monday morning, logging in briefly Sunday evening may help you alleviate some of that Monday mania.You don’t need to make calls or even answer emails — simply assess what your Monday game plan will be, and you’ll sleep a little more soundly.&nbsp;

Sign In on Sunday 

Sometimes the best way to break a bad habit is to make things incredibly difficult for yourself. If you hate that you watch too much TV, keep the remote control in the upstairs closet. While the extreme lengths you take to avoid certain habits can seem excessive, once those habits are broken it will be well worth the struggle.&nbsp;

Make Bad Habits Difficult for Yourself

Setting unrealistic expectations for yourself sets you up for failure. Don’t be afraid to start with baby steps and work up from there. If you want to run a marathon, start by getting out for a run a few days a week.&nbsp;Your goals shouldn’t be lofty ideals you never plan on reaching — they should be real and attainable. Once you meet your goals, create new ones that raise the bar a bit higher.&nbsp;

Make Sure Your Goals Are Realistic

A positive outlook goes a long way toward keeping you happy, healthy, and productive.&nbsp;Count your blessings, and seek out the silver linings.&nbsp;

23. Stay Positive!

It’s terribly tough to get into your Zen zone when your phone is buzzing every few minutes. Depending on how chatty your phone is, you may get notifications for everything from emails to retweets…

productivity

Productivity

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

23 Productivity Hacks That Will Actually Make You Happy

The PR FAQ should be the starting point for all of your other product documents:&nbsp;<ul><li>Engineering team should be able to use PR FAQ as starting point for Scoping. Design team should be able to use PR FAQ as starting point for design documents.</li><li>The sales team should be able to use your PR FAQ to design the sales playbook for the new product&nbsp;</li><li>Marketing should be able to use the PR FAQ to create actual press releases&nbsp;</li><li>Your executive sponsors should be able to use your PR FAQ to understand the resource allocation needed to build the product, etc.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Basic PR FAQ Format

A set of public frequently-asked questions and their answers. This should be a comprehensive list of everything that a customer might want to know about the product.&nbsp;It should include any reasonable question that comes up when discussing the new product/feature with customers and customer-facing teams during the development of the product/feature.&nbsp;

FAQs

A set of private, internal frequently-asked questions and their answers in a format that can be understood by every other stakeholder.&nbsp;An FAQ might include wireframes of a product with a strong UX component, or a link to separate wireframe documents, but the PR should rely on text alone. This will allow all internal stakeholders to get clarity on the product/feature.&nbsp;

Internal FAQs

The PR/FAQ format works because it is:&nbsp;<ol><li>Customer-centric&nbsp;</li><li>Forcing your assumptions to be explicit&nbsp;</li><li>Interpretable by any stakeholder&nbsp;</li><li>Increases the ownership of stakeholders&nbsp;</li><li>Simple enough to be created by any stakeholder&nbsp;</li></ol>

Why does the PR FAQ format work?

There are three main ways that my PR FAQ documents differ from Amazon’s:&nbsp;<ul><li>Allow some design elements&nbsp;</li><li>Allow more details about potential solutions&nbsp;</li><li>Elicit feedback in multiple different ways&nbsp;</li></ul>

How does this PR FAQ format differ from Amazon?

A Press Release (PR) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) is a customer-centric document for designing new products. It is an idealized future “Press Release” (PR) and associated FAQs. The PR FAQ is the…

product

Product & Design

PR FAQs for Product Documents — Everything Product Managers Need to Know

A team that understands and agrees on what one another does is likely to be more high functioning than those who don’t.&nbsp;Roles are generally defined as the positions that each person on a team assumes — for example on a product team you might have a Product Manager role, a Product Designer role, etc.Responsibilities are the specific tasks or duties that team members are expected to carry out as part of their role.

How to facilitate a team roles and responsibilities workshop

<ul><li>Understanding what each person contributes and is responsible for is a big part of working well together and succeeding as a team.</li><li>You might need to run this exercise if you’re a new team that needs to align or an existing team that has lost its way on who is responsible for what.&nbsp;</li><li>This may mean that team members think that another person is taking taking care of a particular responsibility, but that isn’t happening.&nbsp;</li><li>This can result in frustration and inefficiencies in ways of working, for example.</li></ul>

Clarifying Roles And Responsibilities

It is beneficial to start any workshop with the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ to save time and head off these sorts of questions:<ul><li>What = working together to understand the team’s roles and responsibilities</li><li>Why = to clarify the team’s expectations of one another so that you can work well together</li><li>How = a one hour workshop with the following agenda</li></ul>

Facilitating a team roles and responsibilities workshop

Draw a grid up on a whiteboard with enough space to list out the different roles on the team. Leave a space spare for ‘unassigned responsibilities’ — we’ll come back to that later on.Go around the room and ask each team member to tell you their job role — if you have both Front and Back-End developers you can just list them as “Developer” in the grid — keep it high level. You should end up with something that looks like this:

Identify the roles on your team 

Each team member writes down the top 3–5 things that they believe they are responsible for in their own role on Post-It notes and then rank them in order of priority. Put these to one side once they’re done.

Exercise: Each team member to clarify their responsibilities

Now ask each team member to write down what they believe the 1–2 main priorities of each of the other roles on the team are.Responsibilities that don’t have a clear owner may also come up during this exercise — ask the team to note those down also for discussion later on.

Exercise: Think about teammates’ responsibilities 

Pick one person to start — your Product Manager, for example. Ask them to read out what they wrote down as their top 3–5 priorities and place them in the relevant square on the grid.Next, ask each member of the team to read out what they wrote down as the top 1–2 priorities for the Product Manager on the team.The Product Manager can accept or politely decline the responsibilities that other team members have written down for their role.If they decline then the team needs to figure out which role that responsibility should be assigned to.

Exercise: Discuss each role 

At the end of the exercise it will become clear if the team is aligned or if there are some unassigned responsibilities that need owners. Next steps might include resolving who owns these and following up with the relevant parties who can help to resolve things.Assign someone to write up the findings and share with the team.

Identify next steps 

A team that understands and agrees on what one another does is likely to be more high functioning than those who don’t. Here’s how to clarify roles and responsibilities on your team… Roles are…

There is a huge demand for data scientists to mine data for insights. It has led product teams to use data to focus on four specific outcomes.&nbsp;<ul><li>Evaluating the health of a product or business by monitoring the metrics to ensure you are on the right track.</li><li>Ensuring that the right products and features get built. Typically data scientists help design experiments and identify data-Informed hypotheses on phenomena.</li><li>Forecast outcomes and Power production systems. Data scientists train machine learning models of a phenomenon to forecast future trends.</li><li>Set roadmap and strategy for the product.</li></ul>

Data science matters

Data scientists have multiple roles that vary across companies and industries. Generally, there are two main types of data scientists.<ul><li>Product analysts focus on setting goals and informing product strategies. They help improve products by evaluating their health and providing product decisions.</li><li>Algorithm developers. Their main task is to use the data to improve product performance. They mainly use machine learning and other algorithmic techniques to make predictions.</li></ul> In summary, product analysts are data-informed, while algorithm developers are data-driven.

The role of a data scientist

Data-informed decisions will continue to be important for the next few decades, while data-driven decision making can only improve with the help of informed data.The difference between data-informed decision making and data-driven decision making:<ul><li>Setting goals. Goals are measurable and quantifiable. Identifying and tracking goals are becoming increasingly data-driven. But setting the right quarterly and annual goals can only be partly automated.</li><li>The process of defining a roadmap and strategy is mostly data-informed.</li><li>Forecasting outcomes are primarily data-driven.</li></ul>

Evolution of data science

Data science uses data to extract knowledge and insights. Data science is one of the fastest-growing functions. However, it is still in its infancy and needs room to develop organically.

Definition of data science

The world will become more data-driven over time but data-informed decision making will continue to be impactful.

Should commute time be counted as part of the workday?

How Gig Workers Push Back Against Their “Digital Boss”

Crowdsourcing for Marketing Success

23 Productivity Hacks That Will Actually Make You Happy

PR FAQs for Product Documents — Everything Product Managers Need to Know

Evelyn Lopez