#Dear21YearOldMe

#Dear21YearOldMe

There is a profound lesson here for anyone who is about to enter their first work place, agency, environment.  We all fall, We all stumble. Some of us get demented by it. Some us enjoy the trek. Make sure its the right path, and keep picking yourself up. The choices are yours.  I wish I had known that at 21. 

“Work hard, Play hard”  goes without saying, though getting the balance right can be a bit of a challenge, particularly when the holiday season arrives. Seasonal work loads equal seasonal work entertainment. Culture is everything.  It’s where you spend most of your time during the day.  Your colleagues (if you so wish to choose) will be closer to you than your own family. 

Little brother who? nope, that intern is now your new little brother. 

No matter how hard your day has been at work the only person it comes down to; you.  The power of this is enormous. 

You can’t control if your client gives you briefs with 24 hour deadlines, what you can control is the way in which you decide to handle it. 

Above all, Don't be afraid to make mistakes. 

That's what your 20's are for! 

Office Musical Chairs

Hot desking is a term that is used when a desk has no specific owner, and is shared by a system 'first come first served'. This article underlines both pro's and con's to hot desking, as we explore which....

Office Musical Chairs- Hot or Not 

Pros':

With the term "Hot Desking" branded mainly in and around the creative industry, this term has now been adopted across a wide variety of sectors.
With the new and approved Internet and phone signals the fade of the permanent desk area. Increase in flexible hours, combined with the tightening of company belts see's this as having a positive impact, as it results in staff working remotely or from home; Less heads equals less over heads. 

Cons:

Of course you will have them rare day's when too many staff will decide to work from within the office, and the demand for desks will be too high. Not just that, but if you have an organisation that doesn't have the best telephone system, it can prove to be a real headache transferring through calls- Trust us we know form experience!

A more recent example was the BBC in Media City UK HQ, were employees were told to hot desk and clear paper work in preparation for the next occupants. What upset all the staff was the fact there was nowhere to keep their work safe, perhaps the BBC could have avoided this- if only they had lockers of some sort?

A good compromise of this is Coca Cola, as they moved London offices in April 2014. They decided against desk-hopping, and instead opted to alternative working environments encouraging flexibility.  

Of course for some, office space can be spared, but for many, this isn't possible. With the help of a good planning and design manager, pitfalls can be prematurely avoided.
For instance, breakout areas can also be doubled as work stations, if the right furniture is fitted then this would be work wonders for a happy workplace!

Of course it depends on the type of business and infrastructure you have; however, with the right modifications and design work, hot desking can work.

Conclusion:

The practise can certainly make up part of the solution for instance, if a colleague is at home sick, then it would make sense to replace another team member at their desk, enforcing at the same time 'Team Engagement', as it forces colleagues to speak to a member of the team they perhaps wouldn't normally.
This has the power to spark conversation and inspiration in one another, as well as build a stronger office team. 

Hot desking should definitely not be viewed as a one size fits all.

What will the future of the staff environment in years to come? will the traditional office cease to exist at all?
Perhaps the modern office will become a lot more flexible by making the best use of available technology and space? Although the transition will take many years, the future adoption of collaborations and communication will bee in essence what provokes the movement. 

Privacy In the Digital Age

Is Privacy Dead?

We find ourselves in the same predicament that we were in nearly 200 years ago, with the invention of the photograph and telecommunications. We have privacy issue laws with social media giants such as Facebook regarding how much information a company can collect on us, and for what reason.  Soon there will come a day when marketers will need to take a degree in law in order to proceed with digital marketing!

A recent court case in the US really caught my attention as it highlights this issue perfectly. The question is, do you think the right verdict was reached?

Riley V. California and United States V. Wurie.

Two famous U.S court cases were recently brought to the Supreme Courts, and the amicus briefs were filed in ‘Riley vs. California’ and ‘United States vs. Wurie’. In both cases, after the arrest of a suspect, law enforcement officers searched the arrestee’s cell phone without obtaining a warrant from a judge. Unsurprisingly, the suspect argued that examining the content of the phone without obtaining a warrant, had violated his constitutional rights. The Police argued that they had the right to search at the time of the arrest for their officers’ safety (in case suspects could potentially use their phone to detonate a bomb, or summon for accomplices).

Ultimately, the Supreme Judges had to determine if the constitution ‘protects’ the contents of a mobile phone from a search warrant arrest. They had to go right back to 1^st March 1792 when the fourth amendment was adopted. In June 2014, Supreme judges unanimously ruled (9-0) that the search incident to arrest exception does not extend to a cell phone, and that the police force will still need to obtain a search warrant in order to search an arrestee’s phone after the arrest has been made.

Here in the UK, it seems the Police have the right to search mobile devices, by copying everything off the device and processing it at a later date.

Here is an article from the Independent explaining more on the UK Police laws.

Undoubtedly at some point, the US Supreme Court’s decision will result in a UK debate over whether or not the same laws should be applied here.

What lawsuits such as these illustrate is that some laws of the horse and cart era have to be urgently reviewed in order to be relevant to our modern day digital society. Especially as the cracks of the old laws are now starting to show, and Internet ‘Privacy leaks’ become the norm that people have to deal with.

As always, we’d love to hear from you. Do privacy laws mean anything nowadays? Has technology evolved too fast to keep up with our own human rights?