Workplace

Thanks to the pandemic, many folks have found themselves working remotely from home. absurd:joy is developing a virtual office platform that's "built around privacy, comfort and creativity," and is now inviting remote teams to join the beta program.

Even before the pandemic struck in 2020, technology was blurring the boundary between home and work. Pressure to be contactable 24/7 led to calls for "right to disconnect" laws protecting employees – calls that have been increasingly heeded in the COVID era.

A five-year trial in Iceland exploring the effects of a shorter working week is reporting positive outcomes. The results suggest cutting just four or five hours from a work week can lead to increases in worker well-being and improvements in productivity.

New research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests employees are more engaged and less fatigued when given the freedom to take brief, impromptu "microbreaks" whenever they feel the need throughout a workday.

Video calls are handy, but you lose that sense of presence. To make remote meetups a bit more personal, Microsoft has unveiled Mesh, a “mixed reality” platform that lets people work and play together as virtual avatars overlaid on real-world spaces.

One display just isn’t enough for most people. If you’d rather not clutter up your desk with a whole bunch of screens, Lenovo has unveiled ThinkReality A3, a pair of augmented reality glasses that can project up to five virtual displays around you.

Sarcos revealed its Guardian XO robotic exoskeleton at CES 2019. At this year's CES, the robotics specialist and Delta Air Lines announced pilot trials, with Delta employees set to become among the first workers to suit up in the wearable robots.

I don't know when I opened my Dropbox account. It was years ago – probably not long after it was founded in 2007. Since then I've been a fan of the way Dropbox makes saving files in the cloud – and sharing them – quick and easy. But with its newly-announced features, I think it's time for a change.

​It's no secret that jobs which involve a lot of bending, twisting or reaching can cause debilitating injuries. Sometimes, though, it's hard to remember to do those things the right way. The wearable Kinetic Reflex is designed to help workers in that regard, by alerting them to unsafe postures.

In today’s ultra-connected world, with many people often getting work emails sent to their smartphones, a growing number of countries and companies are endorsing “right to disconnect” laws, recreating a much-needed boundary between work and home.

Cemtrex might not be well known in the world of office kit, but that hasn't stopped it launching what it regards as "the most advanced workstation on the market." And with everything it's shoehorned in – including a gesture control system dubbed the "Stark Gesture System" – it may well be.

Many of us don’t need any extra incentive to clock off after work, but in Japan the intense business culture means many workers put in too much overtime. Now, two companies have unveiled a quirky solution: a drone that flies around the office at home time, blasting music to annoy staff into leaving.