Office
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Blog
Amazon’s RTO mandate just hit a major roadblock – it doesn’t have enough office space
Amazon’s controversial crackdown on remote working appears to have hit a snag – there isn’t enough room in the office. Staff were originally told to come in five days a week from January. However, according to reports from Bloomberg, the company has now told staff at sites in at least seven cities to carry on working at home for up…
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Considering an RTO mandate? Think again if you want to keep your best talent – ‘brain drain’ is causing havoc for companies pushing staff back into the office, with women and senior staff most likely to quit
Return to office (RTO) mandates can spark a brain drain at companies, according to a new study — and the turnover is highest among women and more senior, skilled employees. The last year has seen high-profile companies such as Amazon end hybrid working in favour of a full return to the office, sparking a backlash from employees. But research led…
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What are return to office (RTO) mandates and why is big tech embracing them?
In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, the workplace landscape has undergone a seismic shift. Remote work, once a rarity, has become a defining feature of modern employment, with many employees and employers seeing its benefits. As the world has transitioned out of crisis mode, a growing trend among organizations in big tech is the implementation of return to office…
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Microsoft 365 outage takes down Office web apps, admin center
Microsoft is investigating a widespread and ongoing Microsoft 365 outage impacting Office web apps and the Microsoft 365 admin center. Since this incident started hours ago, Downdetector has received user reports complaining about problems connecting to Outlook, OneDrive, and other Office 365 apps and services. Affected customers see “We’re experiencing a service outage. All of your open files have been…
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BT orders staff back into the office with “three together, two wherever” policy change
BT has become the latest company to tighten up its hybrid working policy, ordering workers back into the office for three days a week. A memo from chief executive Allison Kirkby said she was changing the company guidance – ‘three together, two wherever’ – to become an official mandate, according to the Financial Times. Office-based staff would be ‘accountable’ for…
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Your office is now absolutely riddled with surveillance equipment
An ever-increasing and concerning array of wireless networking equipment is now being used to track employees around the office, according to new research. A study from Cracked Labs found that technology vendors are using wireless networking infrastructure to pinpoint the location of devices such as smartphones, laptops and so on, in order to track their location. That is paired with…
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Best Space Heaters for a Home Office
Before you buy, decide whether you want the space heater to heat just you or warm up the whole room. Our tests found that not all models do both well. When we test space heaters, we evaluate how high they raise the temperature in a standard-sized room (17×12 feet) in 15 minutes and how well they heat a figure in…
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Microsoft Is Introducing a Bunch of New ‘AI Agents’ in Office
Weeks after making its Copilot AI features free for Microsoft 365 (the successor to Office), subscribers in certain parts of Asia and Oceania (perhaps a precursor of things to come around the world), Microsoft announced at its Ignite conference today that it’s now vastly expanding what Copilot and AI can do in its office apps. The juiciest of the new…
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Best Office Chairs – Consumer Reports
To help guide you through the selection process, we’ve purchased and evaluated 16 office chairs, ranging in price from $90 to $2,340. The list includes models from Amazon, Branch, Herman Miller, Ikea, Staples, and Steelcase. While all are billed as ergonomic, that leaves lots of room for interpretation, our testing reveals. “When you see a chair branded as ergonomic, you…
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Eric Schmidt admits remote work has productivity benefits, but he still wants staff in the office
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has admitted that working from home (WFH) allowances can have a positive impact on productivity, though he still wants staff coming into the office from a personal standpoint. Speaking on The Diary of a CEO podcast, Schmidt said that while he believes in the benefits of in-office work, data indicates that productivity is slightly higher…
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