WALTER REED DISGRACE SHOWS OUTSOURCING'S DARK SIDE
Since January of last year, contractor IAP Worldwide has been providing basic support services for this Army health care facility. The abysmal conditions there reflect one of outsourcing's most dangerous pitfalls: Ineffective management of an outsourcer can have devastating consequences. --Paul McDougall
informationweek.com/1129/blog_reed.htm

The whole point of outsourcing is to have an outside company manage the work. These facilities have been under IAP control for over a year. While the Army should have monitored the situation closely, it is the outsourcing company, IAP, that's responsible for the poor conditions of the facilities under its management.

So, yes, the problem is outsourcing facilities management to a for-profit company that ultimately cares about its own bottom line over the facilities it manages. IAP obviously cut corners to keep more of the contract money it was given. Given the enormous amount of money IAP received for its services, someone needs to look into getting that $120 million back for breach of contract. --Chris V

The Walter Reed fiasco demonstrates very effectively what happens when you take a public organization originally run by trustworthy, dedicated staff and hand it over to a greedy, profit-mad corporation. Naturally, things fall apart. Corporations, by their very nature, exist for one and only one purpose: to maximize profit. The best way to do that is to be extremely cheap with your services, especially when (thanks to a pork-barrel government project) you've got a captive audience: the poor slobs wounded in service and cast into the hell that is Walter Reed.

What Paul should have said was that it's practically criminal to outsource important government services, and that critical government functions should be maintained by civil servants, who have no conflict of interest and will provide the appropriate level of service. --Phil

What was really lacking in the Walter Reed fiasco was effective management of outsourcing. Key performance benchmarks should have been established early on and regularly monitored for compliance. Outsourcing can be a big solution to those who know how to apply it, but it can be a horrible problem to those who don't. --Val

The problem at Walter Reed is not the outsourcing. You say it's been just over a year since the outsourcing took place. The reports say that there have been problems at this place for years, and things are even worse in many of the smaller VA hospitals. It's clearly a lack of leadership in the government, Army, etc. --Ed

BLACKBERRY ADDICTION: HOW FAR DOES IT GO?
Recent articles have said the BlackBerry can be as addictive as hard drugs. Some governments have actually considered taking employers to task for fostering the addiction. Employees have gone as far as to sue their employers.

E-mail is a vital business tool, but finding a balance between healthy, productive use and addictive, destructive behavior can be tricky. --Eric Zeman
informationweek.com/1129/blog_bbaddict.htm

I like to think of it as more of the patch for e-mail addiction. I was addicted to e-mail long before I got it on my phone. I used to stress every time I was away from my desk and would sit at the computer before bed, to the annoyance of my wife. Now I get a decreased, but more constant, dose that allows me to continue to function. If I get a message, my phone tells me; if I don't hear it ring, I don't worry about it. Very liberating. I must admit that as far as addiction to the actual device goes, that's another story. I couldn't go an afternoon without it by my side. --G

I fly all the time for business. After reading your post, I realized that my scrambling for my BlackBerry upon landing is not unlike smokers who rush for their smokes after a long break. My addiction has gone beyond e-mail, however. I now read headlines, browse some of my favorite sites, and access my team's dashboard via my "crackberry." --Robert

I have a BlackBerry and use it often. It doesn't rule my life, though. I have no problem tossing it on the dresser before going to the lake or the mall or wherever. It's just another tool. It doesn't define me. --Dave

I work for a top-two wireless carrier and am concerned about the impact that 24/7 e-mail and phone access is having on the quality of life--and work. BlackBerry is just one example of this trend. Work/life balance is key to physical and mental health and, to provide a good old business justification, to the quality of work. Unless we can detach, our brains do not get the break they need to be sharp and creative. So, in the long term, our work suffers as well. --Concerned

The most amazing thing is that some people abuse mobile e-mail at work. I'm in meetings all the time where several people are heads-down staring at their laps, fidgeting with their BlackBerrys. Why even go to the meeting at all? How do you explain to your boss that you just missed the last five minutes of discussion because you were catching up on e-mail? Why don't employers lay some ground rules for this sort of thing? --Duane