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Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »April 27, 2007 — CIO —
Since many people work nights and weekends while at home, companies should expect and accept that those same workers might do at least some nonwork-related activities while at the office.
Not that it should get out of hand, but a bit of personal time during the workday can be healthy for the person, and for the business.
The majority of executives and managers already think that in the course of a typical workday their subordinates spend up to 10 percent of their time on nonwork-related activities, such as Web surfing and socializing, with 43 percent spending more than that. "Most employees work at least eight hours doing what they get paid to do, and intersperse personal matters when they have time," said one respondent in the global survey by NFI Research.
Those few who work only eight hours in a day probably have time for personal matters during personal time. It is the majority that falls outside that group. "When the average workday extends to nine and 10 hours a day, personal issues do creep into regular work hours," said another respondent.
"If you net the amount of time spent on business outside the workplace with the personal time spent during the work day, most people would be at way less than zero on this scale," said another.
The reality is that the demarcation between work and personal life is not as clean as it once was. With total, all-the-time connectivity and constant communication (even on vacation), there can be overlap between where work and where personal life occur. "The time at work doing personal work issue has completely blurred, since more and more employees do work stuff from their home, on the road, on cell phones," said one manager. "It is now more an issue of total productivity."
Another way to balance work and non-work related activities can be based on busy and non-busy seasons. "The amount varies in relation to the amount of work available," said one respondent. "During our slow summer months, a lot more latitude if given."
"Our work is very seasonal so my staff will spend very little time on personal matters during our busy time," one executive said. "However, during our slower time they might spend as much as half of their time on personal matters." Said another: "I spend probably 15 percent of a day on my own activities. But I also do some work on Saturday and Sunday. I have tried reducing the non-productive time in order to avoid weekend work, but it just doesn't work for me. I'm more successful working every day and dealing with personal matters part of every day."