babiegoose.com

• There will be a shortfall of 3 million workers between the projected workforce and the number of jobs required in the United States by 2016.


• 19% of the entire U.S. workforce holding executive, administrative, and managerial positions will retire in the next five years.


• Within the next seven years, over 33 million individuals in Japan (26% of the population) are expected to be over 65 years old.


• In the U.S., education, public administration, and healthcare and social assistance are among the sectors characterized by early retirement, with median retirement age at 57.1, 58.2, and 60.3, respectively.


• In the year 2000, there were more people receiving pensions in Italy (22 million) than people working (21 million).


• One-child restrictions in China have created a labor shortfall that will impact cheap labor in the region.


• India is expected to have a shortfall of 150,000 IT engineers and 350,000 business process staff by 2010.

Statistics from International Data Corporation - idc.com

in the future, will we have to endure the daily commute to the office?

how many of the jobs that we commute to the office for no longer really require us to be at the office?

I know that I could do my job as long as I had a phone number or an IM program to reach everyone I need to talk to.

net meeting, pc anywhere, timbuktu allow us to view and control another person's desktop remotely.

broadband internet access, VPN, video conferencing, ip phones, file servers, etc. are so commonplace now it is getting to the point where it is strange not to have them.

there will be an increased demand in security, there will be, it will be so much easier to freelance, retired people will easily be able to consult on an as needed basis.

face it - physically being there is no longer necessary.

if you can get remote access, I would most certainly do it - it is much cheaper for me to be wokring from home calling your sorry butt on the phone that it is for me to fly out to where you are, where I just e-mail everyone what they need to do, and people just call me if they have questions. most of the meetings that I go to are only half as productive as they need to be, and the rest of the meetings are pointless.

I guess, companies feel comfortable when they see face in their buildings.

seriously, if you build me a tablet PC the size of a drafting desk, I would never have to print anything out ever...

ok, well not ever, but for the most part...

think about all the money you would save on reducing the amount of real estate you need...

ooohhh... and the amount of gasoline!

drawbacks: it would so easy for companies to try to reach you at all hours of the day (easily mitigated though), separating home and work will be a little more challenging - especially those with kids.

your performance reviews would have to be based on productivity and execution - as opposed to just being there... like so many of the useless jobs out there...

hopefully (though) this does not lead to the increase of decreased interaction between actual people.

seriously though - if I didn't eat lunch with my co-workers, they would never know if I was here or not...

::: ::: :::

"You ain't got no future, Jack! You're an A-1 nut boy."