The Blog on Meeting Management

It’s no secret that basically no one goes to the office and stays perfectly on task for eight straight hours, five days a week.

From social media notifications to pointless meetings, and long lunches to water cooler chats with other coworkers, a typical office workday can feel like a constant bombardment of distractions from the real work that needs to be done.

You’ll never be able to create a completely distraction-free workplace, but that’s not to say you can’t make some changes to cut down on some of the most common timewaster plaguing offices today. If your 2020 goals include eliminating barriers to efficiency in your office, you’ve come to the right place. These are 30 of the most common frivolous timewasters that can (and should) be eliminated.

Technology can unlock new frontiers for companies—ushering in higher productivity, increased employee satisfaction, and greater revenues.

Unfortunately, far too many companies remain hampered by outdated tech and systems. They let technology phobia kill business growth.

In this article, we’ll explore why companies resist upgrading their technology, how legacy systems can detrimentally impact business, and how to overcome fears and implement new technology.

When it comes to getting work done, collaboration is more critical than ever.

Yet the changing workplace presents new challenges for teams who want to work together more effectively.

Currently, 4.7 million workers in the United States telecommute. These workers need the ability to talk and collaborate in real-time with team members around the globe. Even teams who do work in-office need to be able to work with coworkers around the world.

For example, a developer in San Antonio may need to collaborate with a designer in Chicago. Without the ability to work side-by-side, the success of their projects may suffer.

In addition, younger workers entering the workforce may not be familiar with many of the imperfect tools organizations have relied on for years. It is time to look for a better solution.

Few things are more frustrating than searching for a misplaced item. Just a few moments of searching for your phone — it was just in your hand — is enough to raise your blood pressure.

When it comes to the workplace, however, the stakes are even higher. In addition to stress, workers can waste valuable time looking for an available meeting room, trying to locate a printer, or even just trying to find the coffee cart.

The most important lesson for any aspiring attorney in law school should be learned in their constitutional law class or the thousands of pages of assigned case reading. However, it’s more often one single, non-law concept that will rule the life of any young attorney who goes to work for a firm after they pass their bar exam: Billable hours.

With studies showing that attorneys work three hours for every two they bill, lawyers can easily wind up working 12 to 16 hour days to meet their quotas—sacrificing any semblance of a normal family or social life.

But, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Join us as we explore lawyer billable hours and how they can work to maximize them.

Millennials may have killed the top sheet, but Gen Zers are now pounding at the doors of your open-concept office, ready to force their need for privacy and security down your throats.

Most people already know they’d want nothing to do with a job at Dunder Mifflin.

The fictional paper company from The Office was a poorly managed cubicle farm in a failing industry. The employees ranged from simply disgruntled to downright incompetent to physically, mentally, and emotionally scarring — both for their fellow Dunder Mifflinites and for viewers, who found that the cringe-worthy cast made for an entertaining sitcom, but would be absolute torture to work with in the real world.

And in addition to its myriad problems, Dunder Mifflin had office security policies that would be horrifying in any real office environment (not to mention crazy dangerous). Let’s take a look at some of the biggest office security threats and security best practices — and how, in the world of The Office, none of them seemed to matter.

In recent years, the office workplace has changed dramatically.

Many companies have replaced drab cubicles with open seating, blended spaces, in-office happy hours, and artistic elements.

But, have those shifts really had any impact on worker productivity? And, more importantly, do workers feel these changes have made their working lives easier?

We decided to find out.

Necessity really is the mother of invention.

In 2016, Stanford University student Josh Browder was facing thousands of dollars in parking tickets in New York City. To combat those fees, he created DoNotPay—now dubbed "The World's First Robot Lawyer."

The AI-powered chatbot asks a series of questions before guiding users through the legal process to avoid parking tickets, sue corporations for data breaches, and even get money back when airline prices drop.

DoNotPay might not have really been the first, but it was one of the most visible introductions into how AI and machine learning might impact the future of the legal industry.

In today's world, there are dozens of daily threats to your company’s safety.

That’s why you need to make protecting your property, your data, and your employees a top priority—whether it’s from unauthorized visitors, criminals, violent actors, natural disasters, or even thieves.

Many office buildings use a paper visitor sign-in process or badges to restrict access to sensitive areas of the building. However, these security measures can be easy to overcome.

Take for example a polite employee holding the door for someone they think is a colleague. That single action can put the entire building at risk. And that doesn’t even take into account natural disasters or hackers who can threaten your business without coming anywhere near your building.

Let us guide you through these and other top workplace security threats as well as why a more high-tech solution like visitor management software may be just what you need to keep your business and its workers safe.