Nine Shift

Story of the Week: Low Cost or Free Higher Ed Inevitable

We told you the Bernie Sanders revolution was over - - and he won.  Here's proof.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a plan for low or even free tuition not just for New York's community colleges, but also for four year public universities in the state.  It was the first time anyone has proposed lower tuition for four year institutions. 

Attribute this huge breakthrough in education to Gen Y.  To make that clear, Cuomo had Bernie with him at the announcement.

But here's the kicker:  low cost or free higher ed is inevitable, and not just in California and New York.  Sanders told NYT, “Here’s my prediction,” the senator said. “If New York State does it this year, mark my words, state after state will follow.”

....things are looking up....

 

 

 

 

Lady Gaga Can Sing Like They Used To

I guess you had to be there.  There's something about living the times, being there, that gets lost when later generations try it.

Minor Hayward, who has the best swing radio show around, plays only the songs from the 1930s and 1940s, not later remakes. You get to hear what the singers sounded like back then.  Recent singers rarely can match them.  They are wonderful singers, but there's some feel, some emotion, some pain or excitement or water or air singers today cannot breathe.With Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga comes so close she has a huge fan base among senior citizens (reference: conversations with neighbors at my lake New Year's Eve party), including me.  

I'm still gaga over the Lady on the right.

Now We're Cooking With Gas

With change comes the loss of even knowing what the last century was about.  
We lose the people who knew what that way of life was about, of course.  But we even lose the ability to understand it. 

So my favorite football announcer likes to say "Now we're cooking with gas" when the offense 'heats up' and moves the ball down the field.  I like it when he says that. But that's not what that phrase meant.  

In 1900 people cooked on wood or coal stoves.  By 1920 people were cooking on gas stoves.  My grandmother Cora Trist Thorkelson in 1917 taught women how to cook with gas.

 "Now we're cooking with gas" (which I heard when I was growing up) meant we are modern, hip, cool, with it.  

 

 

Thanks NineShifters !

Even more gratifying than national publicity is your appreciation of NineShift.

Here's the latest. Wanda Johnson came up to me at our annual conference and said she has been using the NineShift book for almost ten years at work, with her family, and most poignantly for me - - at her church.  But she never had her OWN copy of the book. She has one now. Thank you Wanda!

Story of the Week: France First to Ban Late Night Emails

They are calling it "the right to disconnect."  
France has become the first nation in the world to give workers the right to avoid work emails outside of work hours.  

See the story here.  It is all about the collapse of 9-to-5  and the "work week" and even "weekends."  As work becomes more 24X7, we need to have leisure time, even fact more leisure time, to be as productive as we need to be.  

This is especially true for those who work from home.  If you have worked from home, you know a)we work longer hours than office workers; and b)we feel really guilty when we take a break from work.  Vive la France! 

Navigating our way in the new workplace will take a few turns til we figure it out.

Average Teleworker a Knowledge Worker

They're not envelope stuffers.  A profile of people who work from home shows they are more likely to be knowledge workers.
Here's what GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com reports.

"On average, a telecommuter is college-educated, 49 years old, and earns an annual salary of $58,000 while working for a company with more than 100 employees. 75% of employees who work from home earn over $65,000 per year, putting them in the upper 80th percentile of all employees, home or office-based."

Another source, FlexJobs.com  gives the same profile, but interestingly says they/we typically work with a company with FEWER than 100 employees, not more. Am thinking one of them made a typo. 

The Silent Revolution: Telework Keeps Growing

Telework, the first of our NineShift predictions, still growing.  
As someone who works from home and is a CEO with a staff, nevertheless I have no idea what the statistics below mean.

Here's what I do know:
1.More people are spending more work time working from home.
2.Productivity is higher, health costs lower, family life better for teleworkers.
3.Our organization just closed a small office and she has started to work from home.

From GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com here's the latest:

• Regular work-at-home, among the non-self-employed population, has grown by 103% since 2005.
• 7 million employees (2.8% of the workforce) now work from home at least half the time.
• The employee population as a whole grew by 1.9% from 2013 to 2014, while employees who telecommuter population grew 5.6%.

 

The Inevitable Still Happening - - Even Under Trump

The 9 NineShifts, and much more, are still moving society forward into the Knowledge Society of the 21st century, despite the uncertain years ahead. 

This month we cover new permanent changes coming onto the scene in 2017, as well as review the ongoing inevitability of the nine shifts we predicted 15 years ago.

Woods next to our cabin up north.  Thanks for your support of NineShift. I still have miles to go before I sleep. 

My 1916 Book Ends Sadly, What Does That Mean for Today?

The Dwelling Place of Light was written in 1916 by the American author Winston Churchill. 

It is about fear of foreigners, especially from Syria (sound familiar), a movement to increase wages (similar to Fight for 15 today) and a movement leader named Sanders (sound familiar?). 

Worn out from the struggle for workers rights, not hopeful about the future for herself and her new daughter, the book ends sadly for the heroine. 

I will admit 2016 ended sadly for most voters in America anyway.  Michelle Obama gave an inspiring tribute to the need for hope. Unquestionably the nine NineShifts will continue to replace work, life and education of the last century.  That is inevitable. But there's this other question. Your thoughts?

New Year's Eve Fireworks Remind Me of 2000

Yes, the world has changed in the last 17 years.

Julie, Willie and I celebrated the new millennium 17 years ago in London. We watched the huge fireworks display with 2 million others, then woke up January 1, 2000 to a new world.  It felt like a new world that day.

And looking back at all the changes in the last 17 years, it still does feel like the world is all different since 1999.

Happy New Year.