The way of a "corridor warrior" or...

Life between the desks!

So what is a "corridor warrior"? Well it is a term I coined when I became deskless in an environment that is not really ready for hot-desking. As a result I effectively "desk squat" where I can, when I can, and plan my day to try and make the best use of my own time across the two main buildings we have in London.

This situation came about recently when I took on a new role. I needed to to free my old desk for the contractor covering my previous role, but there were no desks free where I was going. I could have waited until a desk came free, but instead I decided I needed to exit my old role and start working with my new teams so I just accepted the situation and adapted. Overall it is working OK for me and shows you can teach an old dog new tricks. There has certainly been a liberating element and I have looked at my habits and the functioning of my organisation with fresh eyes. It has also created more changes for me than I expected.

So what is a typical day? Well there is no typical day, well not right now. Some days are full of meetings end-to-end so not much need for a desk anyway. Some days, though few, I can work totally from home. Most days though find me working some of the time from home and the rest in either or both of the main buildings. This works for me as I have what I consider a reasonable commute, around 45-50 minutes door to door.

Work from home can be either at the beginning or end of the day when I have no meetings that need me in the office; instead I can work from my home office on emails, phone calls, drafting or reviewing documents. Strangely my wife was relatively accepting of me leaving the house at 7:30am and rarely being home before 7pm, but is less understanding when I got to my office at 7:30am (then leaving later in the morning) or (having returned early) being in my office up to 7pm.

As I travel by train this makes a number of my journeys fall outside peak travel times and thus a more pleasant experience - that is a good thing.

My adaptation has included having my old desk extension redirected to my Blackberry and I am learning the realities using laptop technology when mobile or of "no fixed abode". The Blackberry has become my mainstay of communication though being a man with big hands and fat(?) fingers I find that if I cut my nails operating my Blackberry is so much harder with all the mis-typing. I have kept a personal phone alongside my Blackberry. While this means I carry two devices during the working day it does allow me to switch off the Blackberry in the evenings and weekends - it is not a Crackberry.

There are some concerns that the diary function on the Blackberry seems to miss some of the updates to the server version of Outlook accessed by my laptop, but I have not yet discerned a pattern. As a result I treat my Blackberry calendar with at least 5% suspicion.

I am using a laptop that has mobility enabled ie access to a reasonable, but limited function set via a 3G or Wifi connection and a security token. In truth I find this painful, the time to fire up a PC is long enough without the added security aspects and the often reduced connectivity. I find I tend to use it most when I can connect it via cable to my home or office LAN. The rest of the time I use the webmail access to Outlook - works fine - and OpenOffice software on my home PC (Windows 7, etc, ect). When in the office I much prefer to find a desk with a desktop I can use albeit temporarily.

I do find that I use the intranet much less - maybe a note for the Communications Departments who see an intranet as the answer to everything. Accessing the intranet via the Blackberry is no use and when I am conencted I am much more focussed on what I do and rarely browse the intranet to pull down information. It is OK to expect that when people have "always on" (well within working hours) PCs they will take time to browse even when on a break, but that does not seem to be my life. When I am not working on something specific I am not connected. Maybe I should schedule specific time to browse the intranet?

A big plus is that I am meeting loads of new people. As I find various desks I find I am speaking with many more people, not just old friends - but then I guess I am an extrovert so you might expect that.

Lastly I find my attitude to paper is changing. I have been someone who found it hard to review a document on screen. Instead I would print most everything I had to read and comment on. Now I have no desk and have to carry everything with me, my interest in carrying paper is dwindling. I do not feel I have the answer yet, but I really hope that the Ipad or something similar will soon offer a real solution as well as replacing the laptop. Instant on, 10 hours battery life, like and easy to carry and read as portrait as well as lightening fast. Well, we can but hope.

All in all, this is working for me, but I think that is down to a collection of factors, not least being my outgoing nature, the location of my home base and my experience of personal change over a number of years. It will be interesting to see how others adjust and adapt and indeed how the organisation will support that. I think the biggest challenges are cultural and technical, areas of change where few company's track record is outstanding.

Maybe more in a few weeks.......