Poor Man Survival
Self Reliance
tools for independent minded people…
ISSN 2161-5543
A
Digest of Urban Survival Resources
Imagine
if everyone in the world worked from wherever, whenever and with whoever they
wanted.
According to a recent poll from Gallup called State of the American Workplace, nearly 4 out 10
(39%) companies currently let some employees work remotely.
“Remote work seems to be the wave of the future,” Laura
Vanderkam writes in Fast Company. “A recent
survey of business leaders at the Global Leadership Summit in London found that 34% said
more than half their company’s full-time workforce would be working remotely by
2020. A full 25% said more than three-quarters would not work in a traditional
office by 2020, which is not some far off, futuristic era. It’s six years from
now.”
And as the digital age carpet bombs the cube farms (a legacy of
the Industrial Revolution), people are re-imagining the working lifestyle and,
while saving their employers money on overhead costs, are finding a much more
sane work-life balance than America has been used to.
The benefits of this trend, you can imagine, will reach well
beyond just the confines of America. Being able to work remotely, and without
permission from the culture or the government, is beginning to level the
playing field in places where forced inequities are incredibly vast.
Take, for example, Code
to Inspire (CTI) and the Digital Citizen Fund in Afghanistan -- two
organizations which work to empower Afghan women with economic independence.
“Code to Inspire,” founder Fereshteh Forough writes, “is a
501(c)(3) registered non-profit that is committed to educating female
students in Afghanistan and improving their technical literacy by
teaching them how to code so that they can find future employment
as a freelancer and become entrepreneurs driving innovation.”
“Digital Citizen Fund,” Dr. Ehsan Bayat of the Bayat Foundation
explains, “teaches women how to make money online through skills other than
coding, such as blog writing, social media, and video production.”
If you know little about Afghanistan, here’s why this is
important…
According to Forough, 85% of women in Afghanistan have no formal
education and are illiterate. Women participation in the labor force, thus, is
a paltry 15.7%.
Because it’s still taboo for Afghan women to walk outdoors
unattended, social mobility for women is severely restricted. And in the rare
case when women do make money, it’s still somewhat taboo for them to have
complete control over it.
The solution in the digital age is simple: Empower them to work
remotely and to accept bitcoin.
“Women receive payment in bitcoin,” Bayat explains, “which
allows them to conceal their identity and keep their earnings private. Even
though women can make money in Afghan society through other means, they rarely
have control over it once they have earned it. Bitcoin provides them with
complete control over their earnings and makes them financially independent in
a way that was not previously possible.
“Prior to the bitcoin revolution,” Bayat goes on, “women who
accepted online work were typically paid in American currency, which required
hefty fees from PayPal or bank wires. Roya Mahboob, the co-founder of Digital
Citizen Fund, recalls receiving payment for all the girls in the program in a
single lump sum that she would then divide between them according to their
earnings. This system avoided tremendous bank fees, but put the women in danger
by forcing them to carry large sums of cash. Since bitcoin is anonymous, only
the person getting paid knows when a payment comes in and how much it is worth.
Bitcoin also prevents the need for a bank account, which can be a liability for
a woman in Afghanistan.”
e-residencies are on the rise. Estonia, as one example, allows
foreigners to apply to become an e-resident. Meaning, anyone to open up a
remote company through their digital Estonian citizenship -- sometimes in just
18 minutes flat.
With low start-up and maintenance costs and competitive tax
burdens, a remote Estonian company is a good option for bootstrappers…
10
good reasons why working remotely makes sense
Nick
Hardiman
When employees carry out their duties away from the office,
that's remote working -- also known as telecommuting and telework.
It's not an all-or-nothing definition. Some remote workers, like
travelling salespeople and call center workers, are permanently away from their
organization. Laptop-wielding middle managers regularly dock with the office
mothership. Some employees work remotely only when the office is on fire.
The traditional office is under attack, beaten down by remote
video calls, outsourcing, and workers in coffee bars. It's a threat that the
CEO of Yahoo!, Marissa Mayer, famously tried
to stamp out by forcing all employees to work onsite. But who wants to work
in the old headquarters?
"You know what I want to do today? Commute to the
office!" Said no one. Ever.
And remote working is on the rise. A US
federal government report said that 47% of its employees (that's 1,020,034 people — no,
really, more than a million people) were eligible to telework — a big increase
over the year before.
So is the office dying? Is the attraction of working from the
sofa wearing pyjamas just too strong to resist? Last year, a British industry
panel led by national daily The
Guardian and conference call company Powwownow conducted a round-table
discussion to tackle the issue of remote work.
Among their concerns: Can you trust a telecommuter? Does
absenteeism trump presenteeism? What's going to happen next? Here are some of
their conclusions.
1:
Remote workers are less stressed
Daryl Wilkinson, group head of digital development at Nationwide
Building Society, said he wanted to encourage remote working to empower his
staff and as a demonstration to the rest of the company. "There's less
stress in the office and the workplace -- people feel empowered to work in a
way that suits them and suits the business."
2:
Remote workers are well connected
The prevalence of smartphones and social media mean you don't
have to be next to someone to communicate effectively. And new business trends
like remote
administration, cloud-based
project management, video
conferencing, and BYOD are extending the
effectiveness of remote work.
3:
Remote workers cost less
Encouraging different ways of working allows companies to reduce
their rent and property costs, according to Ian Adams, head of head of
strategic marketing development at outsourcing company Mitie.
4:
Absenteeism is good
Not the AWOL type of absenteeism — this is "remote from the
office" absenteeism. "The ability to work remotely eliminates the
necessity for 'presenteeism' — being in the office as much as possible,"
said Jonathan Swan, policy and research officer for Working
Families, a charity specializing in work/life balance.
5:
The new agile workplace creates new jobs
New ways of working require new roles in the organization.
"We're seeing greater collaboration between HR, IT, property and
facilities management and job titles like 'workplace director' making this agile
workplace happen," Adams said.
6:
Remote working provides choice
According to Robert Gorby, marketing director of Powwownow,
remote working provides choice. "Choice is very important. There shouldn't
be a technology-driven compulsion to work in a certain way."
7:
Companies benefit from happier remote employees
Try squeezing a de-stressing lunchtime doze into your office
day. That's right; it's impossible. "It's about working with the grain of
people's lives," Swan said.
8:
Remote workers are more engaged
Nationwide's Wilkinson said, "When you're tweeting with
people in your team close to midnight, it brings home that people are
experiencing something beyond 'doing work' — they're engaged in a different
way."
9:
Remote venues are better than the office
We've all heard about how J.K. Rowling wrote a lot of Harry
Potter in her local coffee
bar.
Now office workers can get some of that action. "Flexible working isn't
just office or home — there may be somewhere near home with better
facilities," said Celia Donne, global operations director of Regus, an office
accommodations provider.
10:
Commuting is bad for you
Even before the workday starts, telecommuting employees are
better off than their physical commuting colleagues. According to the UK
Office of National Statistics, "Commuters have lower life satisfaction, a lower sense
that their daily activities are worthwhile, lower levels of happiness and
higher anxiety on average than non- commuters." And less commuting means a
smaller
carbon footprint, making tree-huggers happier.
The
trend continues
The remote work revolution has been rumbling across industries
for years now, and it isn't over yet. Flexible working is a done deal, but
remote working continues to spread. Andy Lake, editor of flexible work resource
Flexibility, said Department
for Business surveys showed that more than 90% of companies offered flexible
working of some kind, but that this was mostly flexible hours and part-time
working rather than telecommuting.
Expect more staff to disappear from the old cube farm as more
staff convince
their bosses to let them work from home.
Regards,
Nick Hardiman
Contributor, TechRepublic
Contributor, TechRepublic
Big Brother Wants to Track Alcohol Purchases by Collecting
Everyone's Name, Address and Phone Number
Yours for another revolution,
Bruce ‘the Poor Man’
Additional
Resources
The Anatomy of a Breakdown
The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster
Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary
Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival
Affordable Fire
Pits
Nothing better than a blazing fire on a cold winter's night
Nothing better than a blazing fire on a cold winter's night
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2 comments:
Good ideas and resources...
I just lost my job and found some of these ideas pretty good-thanks for sharing
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