Spotting Burnout in Remote Employees As you would imagine, burnout in the home is remarkably like burnout in the office. The big difference is that there is no longer an office to leave workplace stress behind in. Furthermore, many people can’t help but see the inherent hypocrisy of the situation. Many people have pushed for the capability to work remotely in the past, only to be rebuffed, so now being required to do so can be frustrating. To be clear, these employees aren’t frustrated that they are still able to work, but some of the other impacts of this situation have caused no small amount of friction. For instance, many of the people who were furloughed because of recent events may have been paid as much as four times the amounts that those still working 40-hour weeks. While there’s little that most business owners can do about this, it has caused some negative feelings. These feelings could easily bleed into the work that your staff is doing. Another common factor that contributes to burnout is the loss of any separation between the responsibilities of work and of personal life. Your employees are still human beings, so the idea of not having any break between working from home and working on their home life can be frustrating. Without any downtime to spend recuperating and processing what has been accomplished, it can be hard to see these accomplishments. This is what makes our first tip so important: Establish Boundaries Working remotely doesn’t mean that your work hours change, you should just be working in a different location. Therefore, you need to be vigilant about how long you are working. While it is admirable to want to put in the extra hours, it is ultimately better for your performance (and your business’ budget) to stick to the schedule you would normally keep and spend your personal time taking care of personal things. Working from home also brings with it a new set of potential distractions to draw you away from your work. The people you live with can inadvertently cause a strain on your focus, as can any pets you may keep. Certain temptations are also present in the home that wouldn’t be found in the office, such as streaming services or social media. Establishing a space in your home that is dedicated to work can help you to focus better, especially by assisting you with our next tip. Minimize Distractions We’ve established that the home has plenty of stimuli that can draw your attention away from your tasks and responsibilities. A dedicated workspace helps to minimize these distractions, which in turn allows you to be more productive and reduces your temptation to work longer hours, diminishing the feeling of working all the time. Of course, the expectations that others have of us (or rather, that we think others have of us) can often contribute to the burned-out feelings that so many get. It is important that everyone on your team is able to keep the following in mind: while working from home isn’t the ideal situation for everyone, recent events made it the only feasible means of keeping the business open and operational. A little bit of stress now can help lead to a better future, with a job at a business […]
What are Google Drive Workspaces? As we mentioned, as you and your other users are working on their assigned tasks, the various resources they will need could very well be stored in multiple places in your company’s Google Drive storage. This can create delays in their tasks as they hunt each of these resources down—not the best situation, especially when deadlines must be met. Workspaces allow each user to create quick-access links to assorted documents in Drive, without changing where they are stored. If you have a certain project that needs to be worked on, with the materials needed for that project saved in their own locations, creating a Workspace for that project simply makes it more convenient and time-effective to complete. Once the project is completed, the Workspace can be deleted without affecting the files included at all. How to Create a Workspace Creating your own workspace is remarkably simple to do: In the left-hand menu of Google Drive, navigate to Priority. This will bring you to a page of assorted recent documents and those tied to upcoming meetings, as well as the Workspaces section. Next to the Workspaces title, you will find a button labelled Create. Click it. You will be prompted to name this workspace. Give it a name that ties it back to your project and press Enter. Doing so will open another window, with suggested files to add to it across the top and the option to Choose other files… Clicking this option will pull up an Add to Workspace sidebar, where you can search for and select the items from Drive to include. If you change your mind, the three-dot menu next to each Workspace item gives you the opportunity to remove it without deleting the file itself. That’s all there is to it. From that point forward, you’ll have an exclusive shortcut to all the materials you add to a workspace for your convenience. For more ways to make your workday more convenient, make sure you subscribe to our blog!
This story doesn’t start with a Presidential tweet. It starts with Facebook. After the 2016 presidential election, Facebook came under fire for allowing foreign operatives to influence the outcome of said election. This isn’t even Facebook’s first time dealing with misinformation, and it definitely won’t be the last. Since taking office President Trump has utilized Twitter almost daily to move his administration’s political policy along, criticize political opponents, and give his opinion. With the 2020 election on the horizon, Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey–unlike Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg–stated that he was not going to sit idly by as trusted officials use the platform he created to spread disinformation by tweeting, “We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.” Twitter has implemented a Civic Integrity Policy, in which they have stated that they won’t be used for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes. This policy has left many people critical of Dorsey, and Twitter, for allegedly prioritizing perspectives that ignore a conservative point of view. Twitter proclaims that they were just enforcing their company policy. With the use of Twitter a large part of the White House’s current leadership strategy, President Trump moved quickly signing executive order #13925 – Preventing Online Censorship. The order talked about the immense power social media companies have and how it is crucial that there is some oversight to how these platforms change, edit, and delete information. The Center for Democracy and Technology has filed a federal lawsuit with the President as the defendant stating that the executive order is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment to the Constitution. They’ve also gone on record stating that tech company executives believe that the order will backfire and do more to limit free speech to stem the liability they would be under. This saga is far from over. What are your views? Do you think that Twitter, Facebook, and other social media companies are doing enough? Do you think the White House is overstepping its mandate? Leave your respectful thoughts in the comments section below.
How Data is Collected Honestly, companies and websites acquire your data by asking you for it. Each time you purchase something online, or even just sign into a website to learn more about what they have to offer, you provide your contact information to them. The expectation, however, is that the information that you provide will be properly secured. Unfortunately, this security isn’t always provided as it should be. Many companies will resell the information that they collect to other companies in mass bundles. While this is still a common practice, the increased focus on data protection many individuals have today has led to this kind of behavior becoming more frowned upon. The major concern that persists, however, is that the company that has collected your data can potentially be breached. Consider the kind of thing that these companies regularly collect: your name, birthdate, credit card information, contact information, and many other examples of personally identifiable information (PII). If they are breached, you’re the one facing the brunt of the responsibility. Privacy on the Internet is less-than-ideal as it is. Literally everything done online produces a data trail that points right to you, whether it’s streaming content, messaging someone, everything. This trail, if someone cared to use it, could tell them a lot about you as a person. How to Protect Your Data (and Yourself) As your data carries with it inherent value, you need to protect it as much as you can. Here are a few ways you can help minimize the risks presented to your data: Use good passwords: Your password hygiene is a critically important consideration. You might consider putting together passphrases as an easier-to-remember, but more difficult to guess, alternative. Review the Terms of Service: Check the fine print on any website or mobile app where you’re considering an account. Track your finances: Finding a trustworthy service that can help you manage your finances and provide access to your credit reports can be a useful asset to you. Avoid public Wi-Fi whenever possible: Publicly available Wi-Fi is a hotbed for cyberattacks and malware. It is far better to use your own data plan instead. For more information and insights into how you can protect your business from the risks of a cyberattack, reach out to the professionals at SRS Networks. Give us a call at (831) 758-3636.
If you want to try them out, be sure to open a new browser window as we don’t want you leaving the article before you get all the tips. Jump to Address Bar: Ctrl+L Let’s say you are scrolling around inside of social media and you see something that piques your interest and want to look it up. Simply press Ctrl+L and it will select the text inside of the address bar. Type in your query and you don’t have to fumble around with a mouse and the cursors to get where you need to go. Quickly Add the Dot Com: Ctrl+Enter How many times have you typed in a command into the address bar and instead of bringing it to the page you thought it was going to, it brings you to a web search for that term? It can be pretty annoying especially if you are always using the website. You can use Ctrl+Enter to ensure that you aren’t opening up a search window of a web address you use routinely. It will add the “www.” and “.com” to the text and take you to the website you thought you were going to. Open a Search in a New Tab: Alt+Enter Just as often you are typing in the address bar to search something. If you want to keep looking at the content on a website, but you want to search something in another tab, simply press Alt+Enter. This will bring the web search up in the next tab. Open a Website in a New Tab: Ctrl+Alt+Enter Using the two together offers the user the ability to open up websites in a new tab without having to write the full address out. Try it with “twitter” in your address bar now. Open Clear Browsing Data: Ctrl+Shift+Delete When you are done browsing, you may want to have control over what kind of cookies and other stuff is left behind from your travels around the web. To bring up options to clear your browsing data, press Ctrl+Shift+Delete. For more great tips check back next week.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the first time many of us have had to deal with this level of threat, and now that businesses start to re-open in an attempt to stagnate a recessionary dive in the economy, there is a lot of ground to cover. Today, we go through the considerations you need to make, and the actions you need to take, to keep your business clear of COVID-19, and what steps to take if the virus makes its way into your business. Mitigation Understand Requirements While stay-at-home orders may be lifted, there are many other regulatory bodies and authorities that will put forth various restrictions for the sake of public health. Whether imposed by federal, state, or local governments, or tailored to a particular industry that has specific requirements for their operations, it is critical that these directives are followed to the letter. In the current situation, this becomes especially important in terms of the standards assigned by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC). Make sure you take the time to check for additional requirements applicable to your business’ industry, in addition to what applies to all businesses. Compliance to ADA Rules Many workplaces may consider testing for COVID-19 before allowing access to a business’ premises by anyone, which itself will require a few decisions to be made (how these tests are administered, who administers them, and the type of test to be used) and for these results to be protected as medical information. The Americans with Disabilities Act and other assorted state laws also outline that these tests are only permitted if there is doubt that an employee can perform their job without posing a threat to themselves or their coworkers. While this standard was deemed to have been met by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, any updates could potentially change whether or not this screening is allowed. Check with your legal counsel before proceeding with these protocols. Office Cleanliness From your workplace to the employees to work there, you need to do everything you can to encourage a cleaner and healthier environment. Provide a few reminders pertaining to basic hygiene practices around the workplace, and make sure that it is cleaned and disinfected properly. Keeping the HVAC systems well-maintained and the office well ventilated also helps. Social Distancing Adoption Of course, we can’t discuss mitigating COVID-19 without bringing up social distancing. While many businesses are notorious for their close-quarter layouts, shared resources, and even their displays of etiquette, these need to be adjusted to maintain the recommended six feet (or more) of distance between people. Stagger shifts and enable telework, put up barriers and mark off boundaries, and discourage in-person meetings. Safety Protocols and Precautions It will also be necessary for you to put new rules and procedures in place to better ensure that your workplace is contributing as little risk as possible for your employees. This means that you will need to assign someone the responsibility of overseeing that all workplace processes are compliant with safety regulations. You will also need to be prepared to provide as many protections as possible for your employees, handle your staff and their potential absences in accordance with the law, and (as we’ll cover below) properly deal with an […]
Maintaining Security While there are many automated precautions that can help defend your business, your real weaknesses are likely derived from your users. Cybercriminals are aware of this and will not hesitate to use it to their advantage. To help counter these efforts, you need to make sure that your employees are aware of the many varieties of threats that might darken your business’ analogous doors. Not only that, your team should be able to recognize these threats as they encounter them and know how to respond appropriately. This means that you need to educate your employees about the threats they should look out for and evaluate their preparedness through testing processes. Basic IT Capabilities On the topic, your entire team should have some basic awareness of best practices, with access to written documentation to help support them. For instance, they should know what is expected of the passwords they create for themselves and how to best use the tools that they are provided, taking backups, and other very important processes. Seeking Out Assistance Of course, should assistance be required (or even if it just makes the employee more comfortable to have a professional watching over them) your team should also know the protocols for reaching their IT support resource to report their given issue, as well as the best means of doing so. At some point, you’re going to have to place your trust into your team. To do that, however, you also need to ensure that they are trustworthy by training them to be. We can help by giving you the technology to support your operations. Find out what else we have to offer by calling us at (831) 758-3636.
Attacking Businesses During COVID-19 The deadly novel coronavirus is still in the forefront of most people’s thoughts, and as a result, many people remain home. With so many people kept from going out, people are relying on the Internet. Some businesses have shifted to remote, some haven’t but rely on online orders and support, and many others are effectively out of work, putting a lot of people online at once. For scammers and hackers, this is an ideal situation. They have taken this opportunity to set up spoofed websites that are designed specifically to get people to let their guard down enough so they can gain access to their accounts, including their business’ accounts. Unfortunately, this has become extremely common. Of the 1.2 million new COVID-19-related domains that have been built during the time spanning March 9-to-April 26 nearly 86,600 malicious websites have been created. 80 percent of those distribute malware if interacted with. An incredible amount of COVID-19 spam and phishing messages have also appeared. Some fraudulent email campaigns have claimed to come from the IRS, the CDC, healthcare organizations, and other companies. Protecting Your Business from Scams What are you to do with so many obvious (and some not-so-obvious) scams? You need to stay vigilant and remember that even though you are at home, on your home computer, that you need to function like you are on your workstation in the office. All the best practices you’ve been trained on in the office apply now and should be maintained. They include: Watch out for phishing – Whether it’s through email, messaging, or social media, keeping a skeptical eye out for phishing emails and spoofed websites will go far in keeping your business secure. Use strong passwords – Managing your passwords and keeping them up-to-date with the latest security best practices can go a long way toward securing your business. Keep data backed up and safe – Just because you are working from home doesn’t mean that your data is any less important. Keep it backed up and secured with antivirus and a comprehensive firewall. The IT professionals at SRS Networks have the experience needed to keep your business’ network secure during these hard times. Call us today at (831) 758-3636 to learn more.
Laptops and Remote Work Recent events have made a device’s portability a major selling point, as it makes it easier for work to be done from home. However, rather than moving back and forth to the office, these laptops have effectively become ad-hoc desktops—never moving, and as a result, rarely being unplugged. Is This Bad for the Battery? The answer to this question depends quite a bit on how old the device you are using from home is. In the not-so-distant past, the batteries found in a mobile device were made up of much different compounds and materials. This left them vulnerable to overloading if left plugged in, damaging the battery and (among other impacts) reducing its lifespan. Today, the batteries that manufacturers use are made of a lithium-polymer or a lithium-ion. This means that, rather than overloading, any extra power can be diverted to the device directly, supplying power while the battery waits in reserve. Additional Battery Concerns Of course, overcharging isn’t the only risk presented by leaving a device plugged in. As anyone who has used a laptop before will likely know, they can get extremely hot as they operate while connected to a power source. This prolonged exposure to heat can also cause some damages that could harm the battery over time and diminish its performance. A study by Battery University demonstrated that different temperatures could reduce the battery’s overall capacity when it is always plugged in. The cooler the temperature, the smaller the impact to the battery. This tells us that, at least under the right conditions, leaving your laptop plugged in is okay to do… if you have the means to keep it cool. For more advice and direct assistance with your business’ technology, the team at SRS Networks is available. To learn more about what we can do, give us a call at (831) 758-3636.
Block Sender Of all the things that make managing email difficult, spam has to be at the top of the list. In fact, it can be downright dangerous. Spam can be reduced, but it’s very difficult to eliminate entirely, so it’s important to be diligent. Outlook’s spam filter is very well received, but a couple manual tweaks will improve it even more. The Block Sender option is pretty straightforward. You choose an email sent from an address that you identify as spam, you right-click on the email, choose junk from the dropdown menu, and click Block Sender. This will ensure that you don’t get any more email from that address. Outlook’s Rules Obviously, you want your email to work for you. Fortunately, Outlook’s rules are incredibly flexible, and dynamic. To make Outlook yours, you will want to spend some time and assess how to change these rules to fit your needs. Let’s try a simple change: Say you are working on a project and you want to direct all the emails that come in about that project into a custom folder in Outlook. You can make a rule that completes this function for you. Just select the first email you want to move into a custom folder. Go to Home > Rules > Create Rule at which time you will be prompted with “When I get email with the selected conditions (Subject, From, Sent to) do the following”. After which you will enter the conditions that will set the filter allowing you to see the emails that you want. Outlook is a solid tool that has a lot of features that can help you be more productive. Call SRS Networks today at (831) 758-3636 to talk to one of our IT professionals about working with Microsoft Office 365.