Productive Workforce articles

You're feverishly tapping your fingers on your thigh. Looking down at your smartwatch. Notifications and reminders keep alerting you to the next meeting, email, missed calls… You’ve been waiting what seems a lifetime in the brightly lit food court. The bloke in front is ordering black bean beef, honey chicken, and rice. The server heaps spoonfuls onto the plastic plate, buckling under the weight. Time is ticking away. It's 1.28 pm. Your next Zoom meeting ...

Happy new year everyone! I hope you are well-rested and ready to tackle 2023. We finished the year on a high with our Christmas Party and a race around the track in Go Carts. James was the winner on the day, dominating the heats and finals from start to finish. Our team also grew by one, with Jai Raghuvanshi joining our team as a trainee helpdesk analyst. Jai (pronounced Jay) recently graduated from Swinburne, where ...

Ham. Prawns. Oysters.  Hold on, does your mother-in-law eat oysters? Your sister is bringing her new partner. Why does Coles keep running out of glacée cherries? Hold on, is it going to boiling hot on Christmas Day or a washout? Who is going to Queen Vic on the 24th to get the seafood? Maybe it is easier to get it locally? Your mind is spinning. It’s a stressful time. We have all awakened from a ...

You know there has never been a better time to work remotely. Think about it for a moment. Imagine a pandemic had rocked Melbourne in the early 2000s. Back when we used dial-up internet, mobile phones were the size of a brick and your work was done at your desk. And probably with a desktop computer chained to the floor. Let's not forget we were still sending faxes… Now, let's say your boss made the ...

(What does it mean for you?) How often are you standing in the queue for self-serve checkout and wondering where all the staff have gone? Both Coles, Woolies, and soon Aldi offer self-serve checkouts. Like most people, you probably drop into the supermarket on the way home from work. It's always busy. You’ve decided to do a quick Woolies run to grab something for dinner. It probably happens more often than you like. So juggling ...

For decades, Flinders Street Station has played an integral role in Melbourne's life.  The hustle and sounds of peak hour in the city. People rush about and look down at their screens. Everyone is going in every direction, converging on the corner of Flinders and Swanston.  All in the mad scrambled to get into the office.  And many times, made plans for that night with workmates, friends or loved ones.  Catch a show at the ...

Incredibly, VoIP, video conferencing, or Zoom Phone usage has surged by over 210% during the pandemic.  I mean, at one stage, everyone was on Zoom Phone calls or talking about how they had another Zoom call coming up. As you walk around Melbourne now, catch up with your mates for weekend barbie or walk the dog along Elwood foreshore, it's hard to believe we were trying to do all these things on Zoom. Remember in ...

Managed Services Provider (MSP) (Dry and dull) definition of an MSP OK, let's start with the textbook definition of an MSP, thanks to Gartner. A managed service provider (MSP) delivers services, such as network, application, infrastructure and security, via ongoing and regular support and active administration on customers’ premises, in their MSP’s data center (hosting), or in a third-party data center. What is an MSP in English? An MSP will manage and maintain your IT ...

Do you know some of Melbourne's hidden secrets? An underground cheese cellar discreetly located under Spring Street?  Or, if you were looking for some mid-week drinks? You can quench your thirst at one of the secret bars in "a laneway off another laneway". And perhaps the most magical secret of all…a room dedicated to magic and its' history at the State Library. Melbourne is full of hidden gems to explore. But it's only when you take the time to learn from ...

What's more Melbourne than a green and gold W-class tram heading up St Kilda Road past the Arts Centre? The W-class trams were like a long-lost friend. They greeted you while strolling along Melbourne's tree-lined streets and boulevards for decades.  They carried Melburnians from the footy at the 'G... ...down to Acland Street and out to Coburg.  As the years wore on, the trams showed their age with braking problems. Finally, in 1992 the W-class ...