The Virtual Workplace

The Virtual Workplace explores the forces that are driving the virtual workplace and the consequential issues and problems that will influence it: social issues, legal concerns and performance compensations.

An instant #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller and USA Today bestseller! The remote work revolution has been rapidly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations as big as Twitter have learned their employees didn't need an office to get great results, and employees are using the flexibility of remote work to live where they want, ditch their commutes and live a work-life integration that works for them. Remote work is here to stay, and the companies that do it well will have a clear competitive advantage in the future. As founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners, a 100 percent remote organization with 170 employees who work from home, Robert Glazer has discovered that with the right principles, tactics and tools for managing remote employees, many businesses can excel in a virtual world. In this highly actionable book, Glazer shares how he and his team built a remote organization that has been recognized with dozens of awards for its industry performance and company culture. "A timely, practical, and highly informative guide to effective techniques for remote work; of benefit to practitioners or students of business. Highly recommended."—Library Journal, STARRED review How to Thrive in the Virtual Workplace shares insights from the remote employee, manager and leader perspectives, offering a blueprint any person can use to make remote work successful, productive and fulfilling. Learn how to leverage the flexibility of remote work, be more productive while working at home, avoid burnout, lead a team of virtual employees and build an organization that sets the gold standard for virtual work. The remote work revolution is here—the leaders who will build the future are the ones who can lead top performing virtual teams. Learn how to build a world-class organization—office no longer required.

The recent pandemic has clarified the overwhelming connection between the workplace and technology. With thousands of employees suddenly forced to work at home, a large segment of the workforce quickly received crash courses in videoconferencing and other technologies, and society as a whole took a step back to redefine what employment actually means. The virtual workplace is the blending of brick-and-mortar physical places of business with the advanced technologies that now make it possible for workers to perform their duties outside of the office. Trying to regulate in this area requires the application of decades old employment laws to a context never even contemplated by the legislatures that wrote those rules. This book explores the emerging issues of virtual work—defining employment, litigating claims, aggregating cases, unionizing workers, and preventing harassment—and provides clarity to these areas, synthesizing the current case law, statutory rules, and academic literature to provide guidance to workers and companies operating in the technology sector.

"This book compiles authoritative research from scholars worldwide, covering the issues surrounding the influx of information technology to the office environment, from choice and effective use of technologies to necessary participants in the virtual workplace"--Provided by publisher.

The purpose of this book project is to analyze why the workplace is changing so rapidly, identify the enabling factors and understand what we can do to best prepare for the future. The analysis led to four significant factors which are all fundamental to the formation of the future world of work. They are the incredible enabling technologies, changing attitudes, workforce demographics and globalization. The rapid and irreversible coalescing of these factors is creating what is referred to in the book as, "The Virtual World of Work or VWOW." The book covers the changing workplace from the 1960s through to the present, and then looks to see what is emerging next and provides predictions for the future workplace. To assist the readers in tracking their progress, the book provides a segmentation of this time frame into four distinct stages. Each stage is identified by the capabilities specific to the majority of the worker force in each stage. As the work force transitions from one stage to the next, the accumulated enhancements or changes to who, how, where and when tasks are completed is explored. The book project introduces some original thinking and combines this with the knowledge and expertise from the leaders in this new field. The book is organized around five basic questions concerning the virtual world of work. The questions are: ² What is the Virtual World of Work? ² What Factors have Enabled the Virtual World of Work? ² Will the Virtual World of Work Continue? ² How will the Virtual World Work? ² How to Architect the Virtual World of Work? The book covers why the change is happening and how we can better plan for the future virtual world of work. Over 25 million workers in the U.S. work from home at least a few days per month. More and more workers are joining these virtual workers daily and the amount of time worked out of the traditional office is growing even more rapidly. There are literally millions of people who need the information in this book.

Foreword by Scott McNealy The authors have produced an extraordinarily useful book on the numerous facets of the complex teleworking phenomenon. Although their pro-telework position is clear (and persuasively justified), their discussion of each element is thoughtful, balanced, and carefully referenced. Their conceptual paradigm offers a very helpful way to organize and synthesize the vast and growing literature on teleworking, and they have employed it to masterful effect. They have succeeded in producing a work that is equally valuable and relevant to organizations, individual employees, public planners, and academic scholars no small feat. Patricia L. Mokhtarian, University of California, Davis, US At TELUS, teleworking has become an important part of our operating framework. Thousands of our team members telework on a part-time basis and hundreds of our team members telework on a full-time basis. The individual, environmental, social and financial benefits achieved through telework are compelling and real. This book by the Haskayne School of Business offers comprehensive insights that will help TELUS and hopefully many other enterprises to fully realize the great benefits of telework. Josh Blair, TELUS, Canada The first integrative analysis of the virtual workplace s many contributions to sustainable development: a must read for strategists in firms and governments. Ans Kolk, University of Amsterdam Business School, The Netherlands This book is a great reference for senior executives looking to implement telework to enhance their business. As the leading provider of managed IP communications services in North America, MegaPath supports the telework programs of hundreds of companies with IT remote access VPN services. This book addresses the many challenges these companies have faced and the benefits they have derived from telework programs. Greg Davis, MegaPath, US Employees, organizations and society alike should grow the virtual workplace, as the multiple, tangible benefits of telework for each of these three stakeholders largely outweigh the costs. To help stakeholders benefit from the virtual workplace, the authors analyze four key issues: telework adoption, implementation, tracking and impacts. They develop the comprehensive EOS framework to examine both the interaction among employees, organizations and society, and the linkages among telework impacts, tracking, implementation and adoption. Unique features of the book include an integrative framework for increasing telework adoption; practical tips specific to each stakeholder on how best to implement and measure telework; and an analysis of original survey data exploring the virtual workplace adoption decision. Readership for this book includes academic experts on telecommuting, policymakers involved in transportation, human resource or environmental policies, and managers and employees considering telework.

As the economy becomes increasingly global, businesses need employees who can work in teams that cross borders and transcend physical spaces. In Where in the World Is My Team, fictional character Will Williams shares entertaining anecdotes and practical advice to accustom readers to the challenges of a global, virtual workplace. This easy-to-follow guide, ideal for managers and those interested in succeeding in a global economy, introduces new technologies but focuses especially on the six Key Performance Zones for global team collaboration with briefing report summaries to emphasize key points.