Open plan office space may inhibit concentration and productivity

William Belk of Rocket Fueled People is reporting something that many of us have known for a while now: Open plan office space is the worst if you need quiet to concentrate and, y’know, actually get things done: Their work appears to be geared toward tech workers, but the open plan office fad has spreadContinue reading “Open plan office space may inhibit concentration and productivity”

Using Slack in the internal audit department

I love the idea of Slack. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s collaboration software for teams that replaces a lot of what we’re currently using email to do. It’s main features as far as I can tell are persistent chat rooms (channels), direct messaging, and file sharing with cloud integration. It would beContinue reading “Using Slack in the internal audit department”

WSJ on why work tech sucks

You’ll have to hurry before Rupert puts it behind a paywall and blocks Google from indexing it, but the WSJ had a good article recently about technology in the workplace. At the office, you’ve got a sluggish computer running aging software, and the email system routinely badgers you to delete messages after you blow throughContinue reading “WSJ on why work tech sucks”

Google Docs to surpass Office in a year

Now this is interesting. Comments from Google’s president of the enterprise division indicate he believes that Google Docs will “reach a ‘point of capability’ next year that it will serve the ‘vast majority’s needs.’” He acknowledged that Docs is currently “much less mature” than Google Mail or Calendar. “We know it. We wouldn’t ask peopleContinue reading “Google Docs to surpass Office in a year”

Preview Microsoft Office 2007 in the browser

As long as your browser is Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, you can take the latest edition of Microsoft Office for a test drive without having to install a thing. Experience the bliss of the ribbon, the new UI metaphor that has already won my heart over. I loathe still having to do my workContinue reading “Preview Microsoft Office 2007 in the browser”