Technology lets work go on despite wintry weather,
As Tuesday’s wintry weather hit, a number of Central Texas workers heeded warnings to stay off icy, slick roads and remain at home — but that didn’t mean they all got the day off from work.
In today’s high-tech, always-connected world, telecommuting is a viable option for workers in many fields.
In fact, in the Austin technology sector, taking a day off for bad weather isn’t really an option, said Barbary Brunner, CEO of the Austin Technology Council.
“Everybody in tech works from wherever we are,” she said. “We’re connected 24/7 and all our productivity and collaboration tools are available online.”
That meant Austin-area tech companies were able to carry on without missing a beat, she said.
“Take a company like BigCommerce — while employees locally may be ice-bound, the fact of the matter is they do business globally,” Brunner said. “Business just keeps going. It’s not even the idea anymore that we’re prepared for this, it’s just the way business is now done. Virtually all productivity software is in the cloud now. You just need a fast internet connection and a password and whatever credentials your company requires, and you can work.”
That’s how the Austin Technology Council powered through on Tuesday.
“Everybody is working from home,” she said. “We’ve been texting and emailing back and forth. Team meetings can happen by Skype. Thanks to all of that, there is sort of no slowdown in pace as it relates to weather.”
The story was similar for Central Texas workers in a number of fields.
Nettie Reynolds, an American Heart Association communications manager, said for her it was a normal 9-5 workday with the exception of the dress code while using Skype for video chats. “Wearing PajamaJeans and a nice shirt!” she reported.
Some kept in touch with co-workers through communications apps such as Slack or Google Hangouts. Annie Hsieh, a software engineer at Austin’s Square Root, said co-workers posted photos on Slack of their workfrom-home setups. “It’s been interesting/fun to see,” she Tweeted.
Austin Film Society CEO Rebecca Campbell had members of her team in Utah for a conference, but others connected to a Salesforce-related meeting via Hangout. Two Austin Film Society locations were closed Tuesday, but the AFS Cinema remained open, she said. “As an employer, I’m grateful for the technology,” Campbell said.
Michael Silverman, car2go North America communications director, said his company suspended service starting at 10 p.m. Monday night and was monitoring the weather to determine when service would resume.
James Eldridge, a drug safety coordinator at Round Rock-based ALK, said Tuesday on Twitter, he was, “Working from home due to weather and questioning why I need to travel to my office more than twice a week in fair weather considering the technology available.”
Even with that technology, the weather did create issues for some workers, especially those with children. Trying to work from home meant a shorter, interrupted or nonexistent workday for some parents, such as David Giesberg, a site reliability engineer at Atlassian, which closed its downtown office Tuesday.
“Instructions were to work from home,” he said. “However, with day care closed, that means taking off from work to take care of a toddler.”
The sound of anxious pets and even more anxious kids were likely a hallmark of many a conference call on this ice day. “Everyone is working remotely,” Austin architect Richard Weiss said. “Every call I have been on has dogs and kids’ TV in the background!”
The trade-off for staying home for some was creature comforts that no Austin business, even the hottest startups, could offer.
Said publicist Jim Hampton via Twitter, “I’ve had to reschedule an interview, a meeting, a media training and had to rewrite my pitch plan for the week, but I’m tweeting this from my bed, where I have pancakes, so it’s overall it’s a good day so far.”