Many people are fortunate enough to have nine to five jobs. They come in to work in the morning, sit at their desks all day, and then get up at 5 p.m. and leave the workday behind them until 9 a.m. the next morning. Other people are not as lucky. Plenty of employees out there cannot simply leave their job-related responsibilities at the office. Some people are forced to take work home with them on a regular basis, while others are required to, at the very least, log into their company email accounts to follow up on matters left over from the workday. No matter how much time a given employee must spend working outside of the office, one thing is certain; he needs a way to access company data, email, and, in certain cases, his entire work-based computer. This concept is known as remote access.
What is remote access?
Remote access is defined as a method of accessing company resources from outside the company premises. David Cochrane is the president of Fluent Business Solutions, Inc, a national information technology management company that offers a wide variety of technical services to small to medium businesses across the country. According to him, remote access is a great way to give employees more flexibility and improve productivity outside of the office. Thanks to remote access, employees are no longer limited as far as their working hours are concerned. And, although this might not always be a good thing from a work-life perspective, it is certainly a great way for companies to maximize their human resources.
How does remote access work?
While varying companies can offer different options for remote access, one popular method is the remote desktop. As the name implies, the term “remote desktop” refers to a software application that enables users to access the contents of one computer from a totally different machine. Remote desktops enable employees to go home and access their work computers simply by launching a program and entering their user ID and password.
Since remote desktop software will typically be installed on company laptops, many business owners might worry about the safety of critical information in the event that a company laptop is lost or stolen. The good thing about remote desktop applications is that once a remote session is closed on a laptop, no company information can be accessed via that laptop because the machine is not actually holding data. Rather, it is simply providing employees with a gateway to company information that is being stored in a completely different location. Therefore, according to Cochrane, “remoting” is one of the safest ways for a person to access company information while not on the premises.
The great thing about remote access is that it essentially allows for a limitless work week. In turn, the bad thing about remote access is that, well, it essentially allows for a limitless work week. To combat this catch-22, employees need to practice the art of the proper work-life balance. On the flip side, employers need to emphasize that just because employees are able to deal with work-related matters at all times, does not mean that they are actually obligated to do so. After all, the words “remote access” and “overworked employees” do not, by any means, have to go hand in hand.
