February 4, 2010
Dear Everyone:
On our computers at work we all have a software installed called,
“Workpace”. Yes, I know it’s
not a real word, but software developers like to give their products
“clever” names, which have not already been copyrighted by someone else.
We’re not allowed to uninstall Workpace, nor can we exit the
program.
An earlier version did allow exiting the program and a lot of people
would do just that as their first order of business each day.
Now you can’t exit, but you can put it on Standby for the rest of
the day, which effectively shuts it down until the next time you start
up your computer.
So what does Workpace do? It
monitors your mouse and keyboard use.
If you’re using your mouse too much, or doing too much intense
typing, Workpace will pop up with something called a “Micropause”.
You get rid of the Micropause by taking your hands off the
keyboard and mouse for a number of seconds until the Micropause counts
down. The longer you ignore
the Micropause, the longer it takes to count down.
So your best bet is to stop typing as soon as the Micropause pops
up. But some people don’t
like to interrupt their flow of thought and just keep typing.
These tend to be the people who put Workpace on Standby every
morning.
Another thing Workpace does is called a “Workpace Break”.
If you’ve been working too hard, in the software’s opinion, it
will pop up with a Break.
This effectively prevents you from using the computer for five minutes.
The pop-up even “suggests” exercises for you to perform while it
is preventing you from doing your work.
Needless to say, some people find this very frustrating.
And another thing, Workpace reports on you to your supervisor.
Yes,
Big Brother is, indeed, watching.
Actually, the supervisor doesn’t get any of the raw data, which
is being recorded and stored somewhere.
All the supervisor gets is a report if you are, or are not, “in
compliance” with certain parameters in Workpace.
So if you’re one of those people who put the software on Standby every
morning, Workpace reports you as “out of compliance.”
What the supervisor does about it is another question.
But you can bet the supervisor’s manager is also told who is “out
of compliance.”
So why all this monitoring?
Because the leading cause of
workers' compensation in today’s world is
Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI).
Guess what causes RSIs?
Working too hard and long on the computer, of course.
But I found out that there are ways to work with Workpace, if you just
put in a little effort and think ahead.
For instance, Workpace comes with some default settings based on
the assumption that everyone works from 9:00 to 5:00.
You can adjust these settings to better fit in with the real
world.
For instance, the default mid-morning break comes at 10:30.
I reset it to 9:50.
And I reset lunch time to 11:00, mid-afternoon break to 1:50 and end of
the day to 4:00. As for
those pesky Workpace Breaks that come up at the most inopportune times
possible? I discovered that
you can start a Break whenever you want.
So if I’m heading down the hall for something, I’ll tell Workpace
to start a Break, lock my computer and leave.
By the time I return, the Break is over and Workpace has set back
to zero.
That’s the key. By resetting
it back to zero, Workpace thinks you only just started working.
It doesn’t know that you’ve been working non-stop, except for
Micropauses, since 7:00 AM.
As for the mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks, at about 10 minutes
before 10:00 and 2:00: Lots
of our people have meetings that start at 10:00 and 2:00.
10 minutes before then I tell Workpace to give itself a Break and
go down the hall to ring a set of wind chimes that we have hanging from
a magnet in the hallway.
That’s the signal for everyone who can stop their work and come into the
Team Room to do some group Safety Stretching.
There’s even a “Scorecard” mounted on the wall each month.
After stretching, each person who participated puts a colored
sticker on the Scorecard for their name and the date.
At the end of each month we hold a drawing of names.
The more times you participate, the more times your name goes
into the drawing. And you
can bet the manager looks at that scorecard and sees how often, or not,
anyone participates.
Safety Stretching by itself is boring.
But thanks to “Jeannie”, who picked up some
Trivial Pursuit games
for me at a second-hand shop, we read Trivia questions and answers,
which often lead to a lot of laughter which is also good for you.
And then everyone goes back to work rested and refreshed.
Try it, you’ll like it.
Love, as always,
Pete
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