Page 79 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

58 � mAnAgIng the moBIle workForCe

e-presence and the mobile workforce
The ability of technology to close the distance between manager and
workers gets continuously better. We have moved from the telegraph
to the telephone to telepresence. When Bill Avey started working at
HP, it was hard to have a phone conference but was easy to send voice
mail. There was a time he would check his voice mail in the morning
and have 19 messages. Today it’s moved to e-mail. E-mail is being
displaced by instant messaging. Video conferencing can cost nothing.
Holograms you can touch and feel are already in the making. This is
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the e-present, and keeping up with it is an ever-moving target.