text:
package scheduler

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
	"sync"
	"time"

	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api"
	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/client/cache"
	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/labels"
	algorithm "github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/scheduler"

	"github.com/golang/glog"
)

var (
	_ = SystemModeler(&FakeModeler{})
	_ = SystemModeler(&SimpleModeler{})
)

// ExtendedPodLister: SimpleModeler needs to be able to check for a pod's
// existance in addition to listing the pods.
type ExtendedPodLister interface {
	algorithm.PodLister
	Exists(pod *api.Pod) (bool, error)
}

// actionLocker implements lockedAction (so the fake and SimpleModeler can both
// use it)
type actionLocker struct {
	sync.Mutex
}

// LockedAction serializes calls of whatever is passed as 'do'.
func (a *actionLocker) LockedAction(do func()) {
	a.Lock()
	defer a.Unlock()
	do()
}

// FakeModeler implements the SystemModeler interface.
type FakeModeler struct {
	AssumePodFunc      func(pod *api.Pod)
	ForgetPodFunc      func(pod *api.Pod)
	ForgetPodByKeyFunc func(key string)
	actionLocker
}

// AssumePod calls the function variable if it is not nil.
func (f *FakeModeler) AssumePod(pod *api.Pod) {
	if f.AssumePodFunc != nil {
		f.AssumePodFunc(pod)
	}
}

// ForgetPod calls the function variable if it is not nil.
func (f *FakeModeler) ForgetPod(pod *api.Pod) {
	if f.ForgetPodFunc != nil {
		f.ForgetPodFunc(pod)
	}
}

// ForgetPodByKey calls the function variable if it is not nil.
func (f *FakeModeler) ForgetPodByKey(key string) {
	if f.ForgetPodFunc != nil {
		f.ForgetPodByKeyFunc(key)
	}
}

// SimpleModeler implements the SystemModeler interface with a timed pod cache.
type SimpleModeler struct {
	queuedPods    ExtendedPodLister
	scheduledPods ExtendedPodLister

	// assumedPods holds the pods that we think we've scheduled, but that
	// haven't yet shown up in the scheduledPods variable.
	// TODO: periodically clear this.
	assumedPods *cache.StoreToPodLister

	actionLocker
}

// NewSimpleModeler returns a new SimpleModeler.
//   queuedPods: a PodLister that will return pods that have not been scheduled yet.
//   scheduledPods: a PodLister that will return pods that we know for sure have been scheduled.
func NewSimpleModeler(queuedPods, scheduledPods ExtendedPodLister) *SimpleModeler {
	return &SimpleModeler{
		queuedPods:    queuedPods,
		scheduledPods: scheduledPods,
		assumedPods: &cache.StoreToPodLister{
			cache.NewTTLStore(cache.MetaNamespaceKeyFunc, 30*time.Second),
		},
	}
}

func (s *SimpleModeler) AssumePod(pod *api.Pod) {
	s.assumedPods.Add(pod)
}

func (s *SimpleModeler) ForgetPod(pod *api.Pod) {
	s.assumedPods.Delete(pod)
}

func (s *SimpleModeler) ForgetPodByKey(key string) {
	s.assumedPods.Delete(cache.ExplicitKey(key))
}

// Extract names for readable logging.
func podNames(pods []*api.Pod) []string {
	out := make([]string, len(pods))
	for i := range pods {
		out[i] = fmt.Sprintf("'%v/%v (%v)'", pods[i].Namespace, pods[i].Name, pods[i].UID)
	}
	return out
}

func (s *SimpleModeler) listPods(selector labels.Selector) (pods []*api.Pod, err error) {
	assumed, err := s.assumedPods.List(selector)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	// Since the assumed list will be short, just check every one.
	// Goal here is to stop making assumptions about a pod once it shows
	// up in one of these other lists.
	for _, pod := range assumed {
		qExist, err := s.queuedPods.Exists(pod)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		if qExist {
			s.assumedPods.Store.Delete(pod)
			continue
		}
		sExist, err := s.scheduledPods.Exists(pod)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		if sExist {
			s.assumedPods.Store.Delete(pod)
			continue
		}
	}

	scheduled, err := s.scheduledPods.List(selector)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	// Listing purges the ttl cache and re-gets, in case we deleted any entries.
	assumed, err = s.assumedPods.List(selector)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if len(assumed) == 0 {
		return scheduled, nil
	}
	glog.V(2).Infof(
		"listing pods: [%v] assumed to exist in addition to %v known pods.",
		strings.Join(podNames(assumed), ","),
		len(scheduled),
	)
	return append(scheduled, assumed...), nil
}

// PodLister returns a PodLister that will list pods that we think we have scheduled in
// addition to pods that we know have been scheduled.
func (s *SimpleModeler) PodLister() algorithm.PodLister {
	return simpleModelerPods{s}
}

// simpleModelerPods is an adaptor so that SimpleModeler can be a PodLister.
type simpleModelerPods struct {
	simpleModeler *SimpleModeler
}

// List returns pods known and assumed to exist.
func (s simpleModelerPods) List(selector labels.Selector) (pods []*api.Pod, err error) {
	return s.simpleModeler.listPods(selector)
}


Mark Briggs Phoenix Attorney has been practicing law in the valley for nearly 20 years. He has built a strong reputation for strategic business consultation as well as his knowledge of regulatory and campaign finance laws. Formerly an Associate and Partner at Quarles & Brady LLP, and now as head of his own firm of Briggs Law Group PLLC, Mark Briggs has won acclaim for his legal and private sector acumen.
Mark Briggs graduated with the highest distinction from the University of Kansas, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English. He earned his J.D. with high distinction honors from the University of Iowa College of Law, where he served on the Iowa Law Review and the Client Counseling Program board. Concurrently, he obtained a Master of Business Administration from the Henry B. Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. Following graduation, he immediately accepted a position as an attorney with Quarles & Brady LLP in Phoenix.
Over the next 14 years, Mark Briggs developed his skills in securities and corporate governance, entity structuring, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures. An animal lover, he has also performed substantial pro bono work on behalf of the Arizona Humane Society. Mark Briggs served on the Arizona Humane Society's board, provided legal guidance for pet adoption deals with Petco and PetSmart, and made significant donations to the nonprofit organization.
Admitted to the Arizona State Bar in 1994, Mark Briggs served on the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments for four years. In 2008, the Phoenix Business Journal named him one of its "Forty Under 40" for promising professionals in the community, and Southwest SuperLawyers cited him in 2007 as one of the top attorneys in Arizona for mergers and acquisitions. For the past 6 consecutive years, Mark Briggs has recieved Martindale-Hubbell's highest rating, AV Preeminent, an honor resulting from votes by his peers. Currently, he serves on the Phoenix Historic Preservation Commission and the K2 Adventures Foundation Board of Directors.


$ cp ../bjob ../myjob.tgz .
library dependencies: qt3 and its supporting libraries (libX11 etc).
staging needs a better method than "scp"
need middleware or directly in GFAC?
that way we can update things like "scheduled maintenance"
is there some xcede url where this can be directly read?
do this within gfac and include or add a resource status url to the fields sent via "GET resources"
will occasionally poll on submission requests for "publication info"
status merged in "GET" status or via a separate request?
rocco1-nmae08-43_all_h05.tar (on ranger) shows ACTIVE but there is nothing in the queue and the results are there, can you change it to COMPLETED?
Similar situation with rocco1-nmae27-43_all.h05.tar (on lonestar), shows PENDING, but nothing in queue and results are there.
ussomojobs.png (66.4 KB) - added by emre 7 years ago.
ussomojobs.odg (10.0 KB) - added by emre 7 years ago.


text:
Peter Milne – designer of the International Fireball dinghy
10.08.16 – By: Graham Loveland – In: People
Peter Milne, who died in 2008 aged 73, was one of Britain's most versatile designers of small boats. Milne was born in Stockport, Cheshire, on September 20 1934, the son of an engineer. It was near Chichester that he learned to sail and was influenced his father Cecil's interest in making things. His first boat, bought for him by his father, was a Snipe dinghy.
Milne spent his national service time in the Royal Navy, serving in submarines. He recalled stories of water-skiing in the Mediterranean behind a motor torpedo boat: perhaps his first involvement with high speed craft.
He started his development of the Fireball, one of his most successful designs, when working for Norris Brothers, a family run engineering company based in Haywards Heath, Sussex, and built the first boat in 1962. The boat was marketed through Norris Brothers and became very successful.
Norris Brothers had a contract with Donald Campbell and his cutting edge Bluebird K7 project, which also involved development of Bluebird Jetstar, a waterjet driven speedboat conceived by Campbell. Milne worked on the development of this boat, and was involved in its early trials. Jetstar was never built in large numbers, partly because its launch coincided with Campbell's death when Bluebird crashed.
To publicise the Fireball, Milne took his prototype to the Southend-on-Sea offices of Yachts & Yachting magazine. The Editor asked him to write an article about it, leading to Milne's joining the magazine full time. He stayed for seven years, becoming editor himself from 1965. His design career continued in tandem with his journalism.
Peter Milne designed more than 40 sailing boats and powered craft. More than 15,000 Fireballs have been built worldwide. His GRP Skipper 12, 14 and 17 dinghies, produced during the 1970s, were cheap to buy and easy for the beginner to sail. He also designed the Salty Pup and Salty Dog small cruising yacht. After designing the Bullet, a junior version of the Fireball, Milne won the 1975 Duke of Edinburgh Design Prize.
In the early 1980s Milne returned to writing about boats, editing Classic Boat. He also spent several years as technical editor of Yachting World.
Wayfarer "Wanderer" – BAE0026
Jack Holt 1912 – 1995 – A boat designer for the people

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Chahardangeh Rural District () was in the former Hurand District of Ahar County, East Azerbaijan province, Iran. At the National Census of 2006, its population was 8,241 in 1,602 households. There were 7,612 inhabitants in 1,951 households at the following census of 2011. At the most recent census of 2016, the population of the rural district was 7,693 in 2,254 households. The largest of its 42 villages was Arnan, with 687 people. Hurand District was elevated to the status of a county after the census. Chahardangeh became a district and was divided into two rural districts and no cities.

References

Ahar County

Rural Districts of East Azerbaijan Province

Populated places in East Azerbaijan Province

Populated places in Ahar County

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Is there an elegant built-in way to work with aliases? The only ways I know so far are
(path to documents folder as string) & "foo.txt" as alias

which feels more like a work around (by consecutively changing types), and
choose file of (path to documents folder)

which is far more elegant, but it demands manual choosing.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
19 Feb 2007 : Column 111W—continued
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 5 February 2007]: Data from the court proceedings database held by the Office
19 Feb 2007 : Column 112W
for Criminal Justice Reform for the number of defendants proceeded against for various offences relating to trafficking of people in England and Wales, 2000 to 2005 can be found in the following table.
The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for various offences relating to trafficking of people in England and Wales, 2000 to 2005( 1,2,3,4)
Statute Offence description 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Immigration Act 1971 Sec 25(1)(a).
Knowingly concerned in making or carrying out arrangements for securing or facilitating the entry into the UK of anyone whom he knows or has reasonable cause for believing to be an illegal entrant.
Immigration Act 1971 Sec 25(1 )(b) as added by Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 S.5.
Knowingly concerned in making or carrying out arrangements for securing or facilitating the entry into the UK of anyone whom he knows or has reasonable cause for believing to be an asylum claimant.
Immigration Act 1971 Sec 25(1 )(c) as added by Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 S.5.
Knowingly concerned in making or carrying out arrangements for securing or facilitating the obtaining of leave to remain in the UK by means which he knows or has reasonable cause for believing to include deception.
Immigration Act 1971 S25 as added by Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 S143
Assisting unlawful immigration to member state (was 194/11 and 12)
Immigration Act 1971 S25A as added by Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 S143
Helping asylum-seeker to enter the UK.
Immigration Act 1971 S25B as added by Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 S143
Assisting entry to UK in breach of deportation order or exclusion order.
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004 S.4(2)(5)
Trafficking people within the UK for the purpose of exploitation.
Immigration Act, 1971 Sec 25(2).
Knowingly harbouring an illegal entrant (or person believed to be an illegal entrant).
Immigration Act 1971 Sec 25(2).
Knowingly harbouring a non citizen who has remained in UK beyond the time allowed or has failed to observe a condition of the leave.
(1) These data are on the principal offence basis.
(2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete.
However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces.
As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
(3 )The Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004 Section 4 came into force in 2004.
(4) Staffordshire police force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates courts for the year 2000.
Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table.
RDS Office for Criminal Justice Reform
Identity Cards: Planning Applications
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many planning applications have been made by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies for identity interview centres; and in which such local authorities applications have been made. [120784]
Joan Ryan: There are 69 proposed locations for IPS interview offices and planning applications for change of use have been made (by Mapeley Abl) for 31 of the offices as shown below:
Interview office Local authority
Newcastle upon Tyne city council
Belfast city council
Manchester city council
Newport city council
Peterborough city council
Plymouth city council
Derby city council
Luton borough council
Blackburn and Darwen borough council
Chelmsford borough council
Bristol city council
Swansea city and borough council
Middlesbrough council
Leicester city council
Wrexham county borough council
Stoke on Trent city council
Crawley borough council
Norwich city council
Dover district council
Ipswich borough council
South Lakeland district council
Lincoln city council
Northampton borough council
Carlisle city council
A number of local planning authorities have told IPS that using offices for interviews does not constitute a change of use and does not require a planning application to be submitted.
No further planning applications will be made.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in (a) Chorley constituency and (b) England and Wales reported being victims of identity fraud in each of the last five years. [117216]
Joan Ryan: This information is not available centrally because there is no single offence of identity fraud.
However, the 250 members of CIFAS, the UK's Fraud Prevention Service for the private sector (mainly financial services companies), recorded 32,737 victims of identity fraud in 2002, 43,094 in 2003, 50,455 in 2004, 56,200 in 2005 and 67,406 in 2006.
In addition, identity theft and identity fraud questions were incorporated into the British Crime Survey in 2005 and the results should give us more information on the number of victims.
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what estimate he has made of the number of foreign nationals legally resident in the UK, broken down by category of leave to live in the UK; [117847]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of foreign nationals legally resident in the UK who (a) have stayed and (b) intend to stay for more than six months. [117848]
John Reid: It is not possible to say with accuracy how many legal immigrants are present in the country, because there is currently no means of counting those who leave the country of their own accord without informing the immigration authorities.
Mr. Meale: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of people legally entering the UK for (a) employment and (b) residential purposes in each of the last three years. [119068]
Mr. Byrne: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produce estimates of long-term international migration of all nationalities, including British citizens and other EEA nationals. The requested information, relating to inward migration, has been extracted from this and is shown in the attached table.
The latest available Home Office data relate to persons who are subject to immigration control and is published in table 2.2 of the Command Paper "Control of Immigration: Statistics, United Kingdom 2005" which may be obtained from the Library of the House and from the Home Office website:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1 .html.
The Home Office also publishes information on those accession state nationals who register with the Workers Registration Scheme. These data are available from the Home Office website:
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/reports/accession_monitoring_report.
Long-term International Migration( 1) — Inflow to UK
Number (Thousand)
Total international migration( 2) International passenger survey
All migrants( 3) All migrants( 3) Of which: Work reasons( 4)
(1) A long-term international migrant is defined as someone who changes his or her country of usual residence for a period of at least a year, so that the country of destination becomes the country of usual residence. (2) Based mainly on data from the International Passenger Survey with adjustments for (1) those whose intended length of stay changes so that their migrant status changes; (2) asylum seekers and their dependants not identified by the IPS; and (3) flows between the UK and the Republic of Ireland. (3) All long-term international migrants will become residents of the UK as they intend to stay here longer than one year. (4) Work reasons covers those with a definite job to go to, looking for work, on 'business' (excludes diplomats, military personnel, merchant seamen and flight crews) and au pairs.


Do I need a travel adapter for a trip to Fiji?
Yes, you need a travel adapter (plug adapter) for a trip from the United Kingdom to Fiji. In Fiji, people are using different plugs and plug sockets that are not compatible with plugs from the United Kingdom!
Fiji is a country in Oceania (Melanesia) with about 909 000 inhabitants on an area of almost 18 000 km². The capital of Fiji is Suva (77 000 inhabitants).
People in the country are mainly speaking English and Fijian.
Fiji does not have a neighbor country.
Which types of plugs are used in Fiji?
Fiji uses plugs of type I. Plug sockets of type G, which are common in the United Kingdom, are not in use in Fiji.
What is the Electricity Voltage in Fiji?
The voltage in Fiji is 240 volts.
If the voltage stated in the user's manual or on the device's power supply differs from the mains voltage in Fiji, you should either not use your device there, or buy a voltage converter before departing.
What is the utility frequency in Fiji?
The utility frequency in Fiji is 50 Hertz.
The frequency, therefore, is the same as in the United Kingdom. That's why it is safe to use all your electric appliances in Fiji.


text:
Home Books Simon's Emergency Orthopedics, 8e
Chapter 1: General Principles
R. Darrell Nelson; Jonah C. Gunalda
Nelson R, Gunalda JC. Nelson R, & Gunalda J.C. Nelson, R. Darrell, and Jonah C. Gunalda.General Principles. In: Sherman SC. Sherman S.C.(Ed.),Ed. Scott C. Sherman.eds. Simon's Emergency Orthopedics, 8e. McGraw Hill; 2019. Accessed January 27, 2023. https://accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2455&sectionid=193450085
Nelson R, Gunalda JC. Nelson R, & Gunalda J.C. Nelson, R. Darrell, and Jonah C. Gunalda. (2019). General principles. Sherman SC. Sherman S.C.(Ed.),Ed. Scott C. Sherman. Simon's Emergency Orthopedics, 8e. McGraw Hill. https://accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2455&sectionid=193450085
Nelson R, Gunalda JC. Nelson R, & Gunalda J.C. Nelson, R. Darrell, and Jonah C. Gunalda. "General Principles." Simon's Emergency Orthopedics, 8e Sherman SC. Sherman S.C.(Ed.),Ed. Scott C. Sherman. McGraw Hill, 2019, https://accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2455&sectionid=193450085.
FRACTURE PRINCIPLES
SOFT-TISSUE PRINCIPLES
An orthopedic fracture occurs when the stress applied to a bone exceeds the plastic strain beyond its yield point. A number of factors influence fracture patterns. These include the magnitude of force, its duration and direction, and the rate at which it acts. When a bone is subjected to repeated stresses, the bone may ultimately fracture even though the magnitude of any one individual stress is much lower than the ultimate tensile strength of the bone. The strength of a bone is related directly to its density, which is reduced by any condition, such as osteoporosis, where the osseous structure is changed, thus lowering its resistance to the stress.
Fractures can be described in a number of ways. No one system of classification is all-encompassing, so physicians dealing with fractures on a day-to-day basis must be aware of the terminology to better understand and convey information to their colleagues. It should be noted that to adequately describe a fracture, at least two perpendicular radiographic views should be obtained.
Direction of Fracture Lines
Transverse: A transverse fracture runs perpendicular to the bone (Fig. 1–1A).
Oblique: An oblique fracture runs across the bone at an angle of 45 to 60 degrees (Fig. 1–1B). These fractures are due to compression and flexure at the fracture site.
Spiral: A spiral fracture may be misdiagnosed as an oblique fracture; however, on closer study, a "corkscrew" appearance of the fracture is noted (Fig. 1–1C). It is a highly unstable fracture that is prone to poor healing. Spiral fractures are due to a torsional force. In pediatrics, a spiral fracture of the femur in a nonambulatory child is suspicious for nonaccidental trauma. However, a spiral fracture of the distal tibia in an ambulatory child is common and referred to as a "toddler's fracture".1
Comminuted: A comminuted fracture is any fracture where there are more than two fragments (Fig. 1–1D). Other examples of comminuted fractures are the segmental and butterfly fractures (Fig. 1–1E and 1–1F).
Compression: A compression fracture is one where the fractured ends are compressed together. These fractures are usually very stable (Fig. 1–1G). Compression fractures, also referred to as impacted fractures, are common in the vertebral bodies and lower extremities (e.g., calcaneus, femoral neck, and tibial plateau). When compression is significant, the fracture may become "depressed," or pushed in, and is referred to as a depression fracture (e.g., depressed calcaneus fracture).
Figure 1-1.
A–G. The classification of fractures. Segmental and butterfly fractures are specific types of comminuted fractures.
Anatomic Location
In a long bone, fractures are categorized as being in the proximal, middle, or distal portions of the ...


Midland, Texas, is located in the Permian Basin that is known as the petroplex. This area is economically devastated because of the slow down in oil sales. Thus, a proposed site for a foreign trade center will boost Midland's economy and introduce the people of the world to this central area in West Texas. Most national and international businesses will be exposed to worldwide buyers and visitors through this facility. This will facilitate the introduction of goods and services of each and every country of the world's communities.


Some technology titans are bucking trends by reigning in remote workers despite the fact that telecommuting has reached record highs nationally.
On Labor Day 2017, trends at some companies such as IBM, Xerox and ADP suggest strong concerns over skills gaps, burnout in the age of smartphones and globalization. The following report delves into those issues.
Some technology titans are bucking trends by reining in remote workers despite the fact that telecommuting has reached record highs nationally.
From IBM's Hudson Valley headquarters to Silicon Valley's darlings like Apple and Google, companies are investing billions in their offices to maximize what they say is the most productive work structure to keep pace with the rapidly changing technology landscape.
"The other part is having the ping-pong tables and free food, and telling people what is the excuse to go home," said Ravi Gajendran, a prominent telecommuting expert. "It's another way of capturing employee time and making sure that they're at the office."
Look no further for evidence than in the sleepy but affluent New York City suburbs, where two images of IBM Corp.'s headquarters offer strikingly different accounts in the saga of American work.
Separated by giant leaps in technology and half a century, one image is a black-and-white photo from 1964 of men and women in trench coats, suits and dresses at the austere concrete offices.Their typical day's work then was spent on secretive computing behind closed doors and cubicle isolation.
The other came recently in the first public glimpse inside the same newly renovated IBM office, revealing a mix of trendy coffee shop, dorm room and futuristic idea factory abuzz with women and men in casual summer clothes. The offices are seemingly designed to shed the antiquated IBM culture of bleak cubicles, black ties and stiff shirts captured in the 1964 photo.
In many ways, this generational contrast at the Westchester home of IBM, the iconic 106-year-old technology company, is emblematic of its high-stakes bet on the future of work across the United States and beyond.
A pioneer of telecommuting not long ago, IBM has called thousands of remote workers back into select offices, despite growing numbers of Americans working from home elsewhere.
Criticism of IBM's strategy, the key to its $750 million overhaul of 100 offices worldwide, has been viral and scathing.
Telecommuting advocates cited work-from-home benefits for families and the environment. Employee watchdogs asserted IBM ignored the unstoppable tide of telecommuting, also known as telework.
"How can IBM survive when they are losing all their talent?" reads one Facebook post.
The USA Today Network interviewed telework experts, remote workers and executives at three large companies – IBM, Xerox and ADP, with nearly 500,000 employees combined – to find out how businesses and workers are adapting to the jobs of tomorrow.
Companies are being crushed by the increasingly rapid pace of work as technology, globalization and telework push the limits of job demands.
Layers of management are being trimmed at some of the largest employers to streamline workflow and empower more workers to deliver results faster.
Generational power struggles have led to age discrimination lawsuits and increasingly flexible HR policies to accommodate diverse definitions of work.
Companies upset with the skills gap are offering unique perks to lure top talent, while urging government to create more vocational programs to better fit the technology-driven economy.
Ed Lovely, vice president of IBM transformation and operations, found himself shaping this controversial tech-office reboot that took on the seemingly sacred cow of telework.
"It's something that I would say just about every large enterprise … is trying to do, but they're struggling most with culture," he said.
Lovely and others at IBM decided it was better to reinvest in offices than to wait and get left behind by the quickening speed of innovation, a common driver of dynamic job demands.
"We found that the most productive time was when people sit together," Lovely said.
"It's a very simple concept of just human interaction, and you get more productivity, more clarity and more trust when you sit together," Lovely said.
IBM is not alone, however, in its gamble on bringing more workers into offices to spur innovation. Other high-tech giants like Apple, Google and Amazon have spent billions of dollars on shimmering new offices in Silicon Valley and Seattle.
Ironically, these same tech companies in many ways ignited telework's growth over the last decade, alongside sales of smartphones, laptops and high-speed internet access.
A record-high of nearly 4 million Americans worked from home at least half the time in 2015, for instance, or 3 percent of the U.S. workforce, according to the latest analysis by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics, leading telework research groups.
Millions more Americans occasionally telework, such as one day a week, but data is unavailable for this population that has steadily grown over the past decade, the analysis found.
Yet telecommuting's rise has unintended consequences like expanded work hours and burnout from workers always being on-call, according to U.S. Labor Department studies and telework experts.
About one-third of employed Americans spent some time on the weekend doing work in 2016, federal data show.
Further, pressure to attract and retain talent has mounted as the post-recession economy stabilized in recent years, prompting historic levels of job switching. Then came politically charged debate over the U.S. skills gap that leaves many technology jobs unfilled, USA Today reported.
"The supply imbalance of open jobs and the lack of skills is pretty staggering," said Jim Deters, co-founder of Galvanize, a high-tech training business and part of national efforts to meet demand for top jobs.
Last December, Ginni Rometty, chairman, president and chief executive officer of IBM, unveiled a $1 billion training effort connected to the company's "new collar jobs" initiative. It included IBM's pledge to hire 25,000 workers in the U.S. over the next four years, including 6,000 in 2017.
"We are hiring because the nature of work is evolving – and that is also why so many of these jobs remain hard to fill," Rometty wrote to USA TODAY.
Her comments underscored IBM's closely watched play to expand its cloud computing, artificial intelligence and cyber security business. The related office overhauls began in 2013 and should be finished later this year.
For examples of IBM upheaval, look to the sale of its East Fishkill microelectronics plant in 2015, or the closing of its Westchester office in Somers last year. Those moves affected nearly 5,000 workers, some of whom relocated to the IBM headquarters' campus in the picturesque rolling hills of North Castle.
At its peak, IBM had some 230,000 workers nationwide, but fell to 70,000 after years of cuts, USA Today Network reported in 2016, citing prominent IBM employee watchdog groups.
IBM would not discuss the size of its U.S. operation, citing competitive reasons.
In contrast, IBM's recent annual reports show its global workforce is about 380,000, suggesting some U.S. jobs moved overseas where far fewer IBM employees work at home and business costs are lower.
Redefining work is engrained in ADP's culture.
Founded in 1949, the New Jersey-based company has been a business outsourcing pioneer. From its humble beginnings handling payroll for local businesses, ADP has grown to 620,000 customers in 125 countries. It had $11.7 billion in revenue last year.
Instead of defined telework policy, ADP executives spoke about work in the more broad terms of flexibility. It's their catch-all for everything from working at home and tweaking office schedules to career training and community events.
In recent years, these employee-friendly perks have expanded at many companies as the labor market tightened.
In other words, about 63 percent of the U.S. workforce was interested in looking for a new job as the economy boomed this year, ADP researchers found. Job switching reached an all-time high at 27 percent of employees making a move over the past year.
"We already know today in society there are more jobs than we have talent to fill around the world, so talent is a huge player at the table," said Tara Wolckenhauer, vice president of HR strategy and planning at ADP.
Some less traditional perks, like unlimited time-off plans that allow salaried workers to take as much vacation time as they want (within reason), have caught on at other companies across the U.S. – from Silicon Valley tech start-ups to more conservative Midwest insurance companies and corporate stalwarts like General Electric.
The race to snag top workers stretched ADP's flexibility plan around ever-evolving family responsibilities facing many gen-Xers and baby boomers, as well as the diverse definitions of work among millennials.
At IBM, executives are quick to point out that telework is still an option for its workers, despite the recent push to boost their time in the office.
Shortly after Rometty's hiring pledge, IBM called some remote workers back into U.S. offices, prompting some media to incorrectly report the end of its work-at-home policies.
Addressing the issue, IBM officials recently said about 5,000 remote workers, or less than 2 percent of its 380,000 employees, were asked to return to select offices. A vast majority of them agreed to return, rather than leave the company.
One in five IBM employees in the U.S. and Canada still works from home all the time, company officials noted, but declined to say how many overall because of competitive reasons.
Back at IBM's newly renovated North Castle offices, workers can enjoy bean-bag games, plush lounges and brainstorming rooms named after inventors like Benjamin Franklin.
Such comfortable workspaces, in many ways, mirror the unique incentives of gyms, laundrymats and nap pods at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Gajendran, the telework expert and Florida International University professor, described the high-tech office wars, in general, as corporate nesting that encourages extra work.
"What you're really trying to do is to make home a relatively unattractive option relative to the office, where everything is taken care of," he said, "Spend all your time here in the campus life. Just stay here and contribute to making Google even bigger."
Reacting to such theories, Lovely, the IBM office-plan guru, asserted that the tech industry's team-based agile office uses in-person collaboration to boost efficiency, and curb the work-hour expansion linked to telework.
Jennifer Bissell, a former work-at-home IBMer, said her return to the office reduced the time she spent on work.
"I think the communication is much more effective and collaboration has grown and we're quicker problem solvers," she said.
Bissell then described forging new partnerships with co-workers recently, in contrast to the work-at-home island.
"If we were at home you're siloed, and you kind of just know the people you work with on your computer and telephone," she said, "in the office, I can walk right over there and say, 'Oh, I know you showcased something and I'd like to learn a little bit more.'"
Telework advocates, however, have been skeptical of IBM and other companies that curb remote work. Many recounted how former internet giant Yahoo ended its work-at-home policy in 2013, a move that some blamed for the company's decline.
"When they scale back remote work, it's often an indicator of a larger problem like market performance and lower revenue, and they're already starting to lay people off and this might be a way to encourage people to find new jobs," said Brie Reynolds, a senior career specialist for FlexJobs.
In July, IBM Corp. extended its streak of declining revenue into its sixth year, at 21 consecutive quarters. It reported total revenues from continuing operations of $19.3 billion, down 4.7 percent from the same three-month period in 2016.
A typical discussion at ADP between boss and employee is full of questions that shape how, when and where work happens, said Amy Freshman, senior director of global workforce engagement.
It's not unusual for an ADP salesman, for instance, to start work at home in the wee hours to account for the 12-hour time difference between New Jersey and Hong Kong.
Many ADP workers do all or some of their job at home to balance their personal and family responsibilities. Company officials would not give specifics, citing an inability to quantify its flexible scheduling for 60,000 employees.
One of the remote workers is Freshman, who's been at ADP for the past 22 years, beginning as a sales leader. In a board room at ADP's New Jersey headquarters recently, she answered questions through a teleconference feed streamed from her living room 230 miles away in Natick, a Boston suburb.
Against a backdrop of family photos, she recounted walking the well-tread path from road-weary saleswoman to work-at-home parent.
"I was really never in the office because my work really wasn't sitting behind a desk 24-7, so inherently based on my role I became more of that mobile worker," Freshman said, describing sales as the original remote work.
With the rise of tech-fueled telework, however, fears of worker burnout have grown nationally. Studies expressing concerns about workers being on-call around the clock include a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report in 2012. It also found work-home conflicts persisted despite wide acceptance of telecommuting.
Freshman, who has five years full-time telecommuting experience, described her hectic schedule of juggling work emails, teleconferences and bedtime stories.
"I used to joke I take off my work hat and put my mom hat on, and then I'm a mom for a couple of hours, and then the kids go to bed and then I flip hats one more time," she said.
But labor laws restricting work hours still apply for hourly remote employees, and many companies leave salaried staff to manage their own time without burning out, an obvious hurdle to retaining top talent.
The ADP headquarters in Roseland, N. J. Tuesday, June 20, 2017.
Karen LaGraff oversaw the massive rollout of a virtual office policy for Xerox beginning in 2014, navigating the patchwork regulatory and legal framework that faces the Connecticut-based company operating in 180 countries.
Lessons piled up quickly for LaGraff, a vice president of human resources, and spanned everything from tracking productivity and innovation to attracting and retaining top talent.
"Sometimes it makes sense to keep one policy in Romania and sometimes it makes sense to say, 'You know what? This will benefit the whole company,'" LaGraff said.
Her stories of policy fixes seemed forged in dealing with pajama-clad workers wasting time or sloppily handling confidential information.
To better monitor hourly staff, for instance, Xerox tracked when some home-based workers logged into computers and fielded customer calls. Evaluating salaried staff working at home typically relied on outcomes, like meeting deadlines and closing deals.
"It really came down to the individual: Are they a good performer who can work in a home environment?" LaGraff said.
While telework monitoring is largely accepted, debate over Big Brother tactics by employers erupted recently when a Wisconsin company embedded microchips in employees between thumbs and forefingers to pay for office food and open doors. Executives asserted the chip didn't use GPS and is far less intrusive than smartphones in terms of tracking workers.
ADP, like many companies, has issued laptops to nearly all its workers to facilitate remote work. Some have top notch in-home teleconferencing setups with a list of live-streaming programs. such as the one linking Freshman's Massachusetts living room to the sleek ADP headquarters in New Jersey.
Some telework technology keeps ADP offices up during emergencies, like blizzards, transit disruptions or terrorist attacks. Occasionally, a block of hotel rooms gets booked for ADP workers to keep things humming during unforeseen circumstances.
"Ultimately, telecommuting is not an entitlement or a right, it is a privilege offered to employees and depends on business needs," said Gajendran, the telework professor.
But the fact top workers are typically allowed to work-at-home makes it tough to find definitive research into telecommuting productivity, he said.
The remote work boom peaked last year for Xerox, a company founded more than 70 years ago in Rochester, New York, that battled for copier dominance.
About 8,000 employees, or 11 percent of Xerox's U.S. workforce, were spending all their work hours outside the office in early 2016. Then a dramatic corporate restructuring split it into two companies with $17 billion in combined revenues.
Addressing the split, LaGraff noted telework technology and policy proved key in closing some offices and reorganizing staff globally, but financial and business realities drove the decisions.
She had a similar take on politically charged debates over Trump administration efforts to curb offshoring.
"Generally, if you're looking to offshore an operation, clearly the tools for remote work will play a role, but usually it's more of a financial decision and whether you have the right skills in that offshore site," LaGraff said.
Policy decisions at large employers like Xerox and IBM, however, tend to have major ripple effects for communities.
For an example, the town of Webster, a working-class Rochester suburb of 43,000 seemed to spend recent months anxiously awaiting news of Xerox pink slips hitting thousands of its employees there.
At IBM, efforts to hire young college graduates have triggered age discrimination lawsuits, an increasingly common fate of companies as the booming tech market expanded 2 percent last year to approximately 7.3 million workers, USA Today Network reported.
The median age of an American worker is 42. Yet at Facebook it's 29, Google 30, Apple 31, Amazon 30 and Microsoft 33, according to self-reported employee data collected by research firm PayScale last year.
IBM's median age, 36, and worker tenure, 7.1 years, each ranked among the highest, meaning it had among the oldest workers who stayed the longest amount of time in the study of technology companies.
"Ageism is very real, especially in start-ups where being older is seen as a liability," said Aileen Gemma Smith, CEO of Vizalytics, a start-up in New York that provides business intelligence.
"It assumes you won't work hard, long hours, and have out-of-date skills," said Smith.
In announcing IBM's new hiring strategy, CEO Rometty touted the company's plan to double down on preparing the next generation of workers.
"As industries from manufacturing to agriculture are reshaped by data science and cloud computing, jobs are being created that demand new skills – which in turn requires new approaches to education, training and recruiting," Rometty wrote.
IBM's $1 billion training plan built on its earlier push to influence U.S. education policy through the creation of six-year vocational public high schools, called Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-TECH.
There are close to 100 P-TECH schools nationally, including many in New York, that partner with companies like IBM on internships and mentoring focused on forging a technology job pipeline.
IBM's dilemma, in many ways, mirrors the unique challenges ahead for technology companies across the U.S., where there will be about 1 million more computing jobs than applicants who can fill them by 2020, USA Today reported.
Lovely, the office-culture expert at IBM, hit on a similar thread in describing the agile teamwork model cutting months of wasted effort out of IBM's operation.