@lesley-westerfer
active 1 month, 2 weeks ago-
Lesley Westerfer wrote a new post, Tesla’s Use of AI: The Future of Autonomous Driving?, on the site Lesley Westerfer 2 months ago
Just a few months ago, Tesla’s founder, Elon Musk, compared the company’s Autopilot AI system to Google’s search engine, acknowledging that they believe their system is superior to other driver-assistance syste […]
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 1 week ago
Seriously – Smart House was so good 🙂 I live in the Philly suburbs and use PECO – I had no idea they had a service like this!
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 1 week ago
Sean – that’s super interesting! Thanks for sharing the article. I definitely think a combination of these types of tools could really helping with our costs and pollution.
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 1 week ago
Katherine – I love that you pulled pets into the IoT! I am all for making sure my pups are healthy and happy as well, and like you mentioned it’s hard to know what they want or need. I actually didn’t know wearables existed in this market already, and I am surprised I didn’t know more about these products. I wonder if the marketers didn’t have a…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer wrote a new post, IoT: Ready to Make Us More Energy-Efficient?, on the site Digital Marketing MKTG 5604 Fall 2020 2 months, 1 week ago
What is the Internet of Things?
The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) is quite complex yet super simple. It means taking all the things in the and connecting them to the internet, and how these things w […]-
Lesley, that is crazy you bring up energy with the IoT. Just last week I was reading a BBC article about a study in Tucson using streetlights and satellite imagery (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54721921). They found that dimming the streetlights did little to change the amount of light pollution. I think if they combined this study with a city wide IoT, like you talked about, they could measure in real time what changes are having the most impact.
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Sean – that’s super interesting! Thanks for sharing the article. I definitely think a combination of these types of tools could really helping with our costs and pollution.
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Smart House was my favorite DCOM!
I think this is a really interesting post. A lot of our clients at my job are electric utilities (like PECO in the Philadelphia area) and one of the ways they are attempting to fight climate change is by promoting their Smart Meters (https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/energy/what-are-energy-smart-meters-and-should-you-have-them-fitted/). Essentially, these meters are supposed to do what your Samsung SmartThings device does – reduce the amount of energy at home. According to our clients, this leads to both 1) a lower utility bill and 2) overall less of an effect on the environment. However, from my understanding, it’s tough to know what kind of cumulative effect these Smart Meters actually have on energy efficiency. I really liked your idea to use these kinds of devices in public spaces too. I think this would give us a better understanding of how much IoT could help protect our planet.
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Seriously – Smart House was so good 🙂 I live in the Philly suburbs and use PECO – I had no idea they had a service like this!
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Great post Gabi! It’s crazy to think how far this industry has come. I remember the days of using Limewire and downloading terrible versions of CDS/songs – and how mad artists were because they were obviously losing money from sales (rightfully so). Spotify seemed to develop the product the right way at the right time (when the industry was…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Great article Kassi! I definitely think Amazon was disruptive when they entered the market and had unique selling prepositions that made them stand out from the other online retailers you mentioned, although a lot of that has changed just over the last two years. I am a HUGE Amazon Prime fan but a lot of times I find myself ordering from Target…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer wrote a new post, Burnout Is Real and It’s Getting Worse, on the site Lesley Westerfer 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Burnout is too common of a term, especially during the current pandemic. The work-life-balance that Americans experience is somewhat non-existent and I know I can definitely relate to this problem, and I am not […]
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Definitely agree Sean! And a big part of the tool I think would be beneficial is for employers to truly understand where their employees are spending their time and what type of projects are contributing to their burnout so it can be avoided.
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Jen – yes the word “fatigued” is definitely overused and exhausting right now! I think the audience could differ depending on the variation of the product. I imagine this tool or platform could have different widgets that could be used depending on the type of company and what they wanted for their employees. Like I mentioned to Julia above, some…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Kelly – I am in the exact same boat as you! I work for a health system as well and they decided post-COVID we will move to a mostly remote work model. It’s so nice to hear your work and team are already focused on mental health, so implementing a tool like this one would probably be an easy move.
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Dan – after reading your post I definitely think our issues and possible solutions are really aligned. I try to workout during the day, but my equipment is in my home office and I can’t get away from the Outlook notifications, and I just feel like I am ALWAYS at work (which we kind of are!). It’s good you are trying to break up your time away from…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 3 weeks ago
I completely feel your pain about working from home full-time. It’s really hard to separate the two and makes burnout a real issue. I love that your company already puts wellness first with the meditation and exercise classes! Because of that, I think your company would be the type to invest in this type of software to help promote mental health…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 4 weeks ago
Yes! Totally agree – I definitely see it being a hybrid platform that would have different features depending on what the company wants it for, including time tracking. I used something like that when I worked for an agency so we could keep track of client hours and not go over what they paid for.
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 2 months, 4 weeks ago
Julia – you make a great point and it’s something I thought about too! I thought to myself, “Would I use something like this?!” The answer is yes but there definitely needs be a balance between “watching” and more reports of what type of work takes too much time and what work is requiring you to login past work hours. I would love my manager to…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer wrote a new post, Burnout Is Real and It’s Getting Worse, on the site Digital Marketing MKTG 5604 Fall 2020 2 months, 4 weeks ago
Burnout is too common of a term, especially during the current pandemic. The work-life-balance that Americans experience is somewhat non-existent and I know I can definitely relate to this problem, and I am not […]
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This sounds like a great solution. I’m a proponent of allowing employees to permanently work from home and think the benefits far outweigh the cons when it’s implemented correctly (This Sam Harris interview w/ Matt Mullenweg convinced me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJSf2Clx6qY), BUT it rarely is. My only concern is that this platform could come across as “Big Brother”-ish, so employers would need to assure employees that it is purely being used for their mental health benefit,.. feeling like your productivity and web activity are constantly being monitored could lead to more stress/burnout.
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Also! An added benefit/selling point is that this program would help employers manage hourly employees in states such as California that have strict labor laws and provide documentation. Hourly employees at my former PR agency were legally required to take at least two 15-minute breaks each day, but it was hard to keep track of that even when we sat across from one another in the office.
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Yes! Totally agree – I definitely see it being a hybrid platform that would have different features depending on what the company wants it for, including time tracking. I used something like that when I worked for an agency so we could keep track of client hours and not go over what they paid for.
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Julia – you make a great point and it’s something I thought about too! I thought to myself, “Would I use something like this?!” The answer is yes but there definitely needs be a balance between “watching” and more reports of what type of work takes too much time and what work is requiring you to login past work hours. I would love my manager to see the tasks that take up WAY too much of my day – I think he would be seriously surprised. During the development process I imagine surveying employees from various companies to make sure the product would be something they would appreciate and would benefit them rather than feeling like it’s adding to their burnout, and making changes according to their input.
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Great article Lesley. I can totally relate to this as I am working 100% from home which creates an environment where there is little separation between work time and home life. I am always thinking about work now that my team of 9 has dropped to a team of 3 and we are picking up the slack (nearly impossible to do). And when my laptop is only a few steps away, it’s too easy to just log back in and check a few more emails at 9 pm at night. I have thought of things like locking the door to my office, but the challenge with that is my husband is self-employed and his work hours are all over the place, and we share the office.
The software recommendation is an interesting thought. And the corporation I work for would totally be a customer. We have various programs offered to us through our benefits that include Meditation class everyday M, W, F at noon and group exercise class every T, Th, of course, these are on zoom but still a nice offering to have at our fingertips. More companies should be contributing to their employees in this manner.-
I completely feel your pain about working from home full-time. It’s really hard to separate the two and makes burnout a real issue. I love that your company already puts wellness first with the meditation and exercise classes! Because of that, I think your company would be the type to invest in this type of software to help promote mental health and avoid burnout.
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I can add this feature to my MBT Band! Working from home is great for flexibility, but for me, I like routine, I like going to the gym then going to work so on and so forth. With COVID forcing all of us inside, I have really sttuggled, and def have felt the burnout. I recently got a kindle and am trying to break up laptop time wiht some reading, but as Joel pointed out my laptop is always within reach so it can be a challenge. Thanks for sharing the articles, I found them useful resources.
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Dan – after reading your post I definitely think our issues and possible solutions are really aligned. I try to workout during the day, but my equipment is in my home office and I can’t get away from the Outlook notifications, and I just feel like I am ALWAYS at work (which we kind of are!). It’s good you are trying to break up your time away from the laptop but it can definitely be a new struggle. I’d love to see some sort of solution – that companies could enable for their employees’ mental health.
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Wow this hit home. I work for a health system and my team just found out that we’ll be working remotely full-time post-COVID. I’ve always been an advocate for working from home, but lately the burn out has been real. I’m lucky that my team and organization are very conscious of our mental health and lately have been working to rearrange our schedules to incorporate better breaks throughout the day. If it’s starting your work day earlier, taking a long 1-2 hour break in your day to get outside, and work a later day. However… it’s been a struggle to totally unplug from work at the end of the day. Answering one email turns into answering 10 emails and you eventually get sucked right back into the wormhole of work and end up working a 12 hour day.
I’d love to see this tool implemented in a way that helps with completely unplugging when you’re clocked out. Don’t let me answer an email that isn’t high priority! Don’t notify me when a coworker shares something in Microsoft Teams that doesn’t need my immediate attention. Burn out is real and not having the ability to physically leave the office and leave work behind, is making burn out worse by the day.
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Kelly – I am in the exact same boat as you! I work for a health system as well and they decided post-COVID we will move to a mostly remote work model. It’s so nice to hear your work and team are already focused on mental health, so implementing a tool like this one would probably be an easy move.
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This is great thinking, Lesley, and you’ve clearly laid out the need and pain points! Fatigue and burnout – as you’ve said – are definitely “too common” right now… I’m even feeling fatigue about the overuse of the word fatigue. And mental health, while becoming less and less stigmatized, still exists in a world of overwork and high consumption.
There have been times in my career where I have been so wired, so determined to push harder and do more, where even the slightest detraction – especially in the form of a company-wide mandated activity – was a HUGE burden and annoyance.
So, I wonder, who’s the ideal audience? Is it those who may actually need it the most? Or, actually, those who would be most likely to implement this into their routines/schedule? Or somewhere in the middle? Would the innovation look different for these different audiences?
I love the idea of marrying both project management and a mindfulness program; I also wonder, what about new functionalities that would exist natively in the tools that keep us “overworked” and “overconnected”?
For instance, if the company promoted “mailbox freezes” or “shutdowns” for 10-15 minutes a few times a day? And the user/employee had the ability to set the times of day their inbox would crap out, and the accountability was both to him/her/themselves AND they had to submit those times to the company.Thoughts? And, ugh. Burnout. Fatigue.
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Jen – yes the word “fatigued” is definitely overused and exhausting right now! I think the audience could differ depending on the variation of the product. I imagine this tool or platform could have different widgets that could be used depending on the type of company and what they wanted for their employees. Like I mentioned to Julia above, some companies may be interested in tracking time as well but others may not be. I’m not quite sure who the target market would be, initially I was thinking agencies but now I am thinking healthcare. It’s an industry that already experiences serious burnout and even more so in our current environment.
I love the idea of a mailbox freeze, and I was thinking the same thing but I know leadership at my organization wouldn’t be interested unless the feature offered different filters (certain contacts or subject lines) that would be able to still get through. I really like the idea of the employee/user submitting the cap times to their employer. I look at this tool as a way to provide feedback to employers to better understand the pains of their teams to avoid burnout, and work more efficiently.
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I could really use something like this. When I am at work I have a tendency to just lower my head and blow through the day. Before I know it the day is done, sometimes without even getting lunch. Having something to remind me to take a break, even if it is just 10 minutes of playing a phone game, would be very helpful.
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Definitely agree Sean! And a big part of the tool I think would be beneficial is for employers to truly understand where their employees are spending their time and what type of projects are contributing to their burnout so it can be avoided.
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 3 months ago
I do feel that in the business world, this is the common practice. They look at you as a customer, and how they can make money off of you vs. caring for you as an individual. As someone who has set up ads and used cookies to target a very specific audience, it can make marketing so much easier and the data you collect is pretty clear (or at least…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 3 months ago
Insightful post Janice! I miss those days too but since I am a social media marketer I also appreciate the business side of the industry and the level of targeting. I definitely think many of us need to find balance between what we do online, and what we share. After watching “The Social Dilemma” it definitely made me feel less secure about the…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 3 months ago
I still have a 7 – and honestly I desperately need an upgrade but every time I go to to do it I am told to just wait a little for the latest release! But you’re right – every one I know who has a newer one than me has a bigger screen and better camera, and that’s about it. It’s really surprising that they haven’t stepped up their game in the area…[Read more]
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Lesley Westerfer posted a new activity comment 3 months, 1 week ago
Sean – I definitely agree! The method of the echo chambers with our subconscious is crazy. Although I work in social media marketing, the ideas of the algorithms morphing my political beliefs without me even realizing is scary.
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