Macro Systems Blog

In recent years, several workplace trends have emerged that many employers find challenging. One such trend is "quiet quitting," where employees do only the bare minimum required to keep their jobs. A more recent trend is to "act your wage."

We have the pleasure of working with many organizations, some of whom take more advantage of our remote services than others. We wanted to take a few moments to discuss one of our more discreet client businesses and a challenge we helped them resolve. Hopefully, sharing this won’t land us on the naughty list.

We tend to focus most of our attention on how to maintain your organization's technology over time. This only makes sense—we are a managed service provider, after all—but that being said, your IT is not the only element that needs to be properly taken care of. It is just as imperative that you and your team members are physically able to focus on work…something a desk job doesn’t always help.

Technology fatigue is the mental grinding that comes with the overwhelming use of technology in our lives. Many people in the workforce haven’t had to utilize technology as much as they do these days and the ever-growing demand for technology in business creates problems for employees (and therefore businesses). Listed below is the truth behind technology fatigue and how individuals can do a better job of not getting burnt out from tech.

Regardless of how miraculous or otherworldly technology may seem upon its introduction, it can quickly become so very familiar to us. Hard as it may seem to believe, someday (maybe even soon), things like ChatGPT and other cutting-edge technologies will seem typical, perhaps even humdrum.

Ever heard of the Uncanny Valley? It’s the theory that explains why the human race tends to prefer humanoid robots, but only up to a point, after which we find them unsettling. It’s one reason why so many people found the 2019 film Cats difficult to watch. The Uncanny Valley has also been present in film in recent years, especially when actors who have passed are recreated digitally to make an appearance, or when talent needs to look older or younger than they are.

Who are you? While it’s a question that has been asked in all contexts with all levels of metaphysicality attached—from asking someone their name to prompting someone to follow a path of spiritual self-discovery—the growth of the metaverse once again urges us to ask it in a more literal way. When accessing a conglomeration of various services and platforms, how many identities will each user need to juggle?

If Edgar Allan Poe worked in an office, here’s what one of his works would sound like:

True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I have been and am, but why will you say that I am mad? The office had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was my sense of hearing. I heard all things in heaven and on earth and many things in…the other place. So, how then am I mad, especially when I can so healthily and calmly tell you this story?

While we typically focus on how numerous technologies can be utilized in business applications as a way to boost a small or medium-sized organization’s capabilities, we occasionally come across a topic that is just undeniably cool. We recently heard about the development of a flexible new wearable that uses AI to monitor the health of the wearer that we wanted to discuss with you.

While remote work has been a relatively new option for many companies currently using it in their operations, it has already shown significant benefits. However, it would be incongruous of us if we didn’t also acknowledge one glaring problem that remote work has helped to foster: a sense of disconnect in many of those making use of it.

When you think about the workweek, there’s a good chance that some iteration of the 40-hour week, broken into 9-to-5 shifts on the weekdays, is what comes to mind. It’s just the way things are done. This may not be a good thing, however. Listed below is a consideration of the origins of our modern work schedule, and how changing it could provide us all with some significant benefits.

If you’re familiar with the combination
Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Select-Start, you probably grew up in the 80s. This is because this combination of buttons is the infamous Konami Code, a cheat code that video games (and others, including some websites and software) have continued to reference since it first appeared in 1986.

Listed below the Konami Code’s origins, as well as the various ways it has been used since.

There are now five bipartisan bills being considered in the United States House of Representatives, strictly intended to help put some checks on the power that modern technology giants have. Below we consider what these bills are, and why the current business environment has inspired them.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, is a serious concern for all healthcare providers that operate within the United States. Since August 1996, HIPAA has mandated that these healthcare providers comply with various best practices. While HIPAA is relatively familiar to many people for assorted reasons, fewer know about HITRUST (the Health Information Trust Alliance) and how these acronyms ultimately cooperate with one another.

Accessibility to the Internet is a hot topic because almost everyone should be afforded Internet access at this point. The fact that some people don’t have access to the Internet places them at an extreme disadvantage. One group that has significant problems with accessibility are disabled people. What can be done about that? 

Remote work is often praised for its various benefits; there are certainly plenty of them to account for. On the other hand, it must also be noted that remote work is not perfect. Take the environmental impacts it can have, for example. Listed below are tips about how working from home can prove better for the environment, while also addressing the serious issues it has contributed to, and how we can help minimize some of them.

The holiday season is commonly known as a time off from work to spend with family, but for some, it’s the busiest time of the year. Let’s get to know one such individual for a moment, and what he’s learning can make his job, and his life, much, much easier.

The United States of America is well into its 2020 election season. Social media platforms and other online services are taking notice. Given the misuse of social media and other platforms in past elections, there is little wonder that there is some very real pressure on these platforms to establish policy and security measures to prevent these behaviors this time around.

Listed below is a neutral look at the situation, as well as an explanation about the initiatives that online platforms are now enacting.

In a rare turn of events, Google and Apple have joined forces with local governments to help slow the ongoing spread of COVID-19. How would you like an app that could notify you if someone you had been in proximity to had tested positive for COVID-19? As helpful as this collaboration could be to mitigate the pandemic, many people are angry about it, and have started spreading misinformation.

With COVID-19 resulting in people staying at home, many telecommunications companies have started to make concessions to make life easier for their customers. Whether it is used for entertainment, work, or communication, Internet access is imperative right now, and so ISPs and cell carriers are taking steps to help facilitate this.