Space poverty. The issue is coming to the B2B space as part of the workplace disruption everyone is ignoring. Tiny homes and full-time RV life are really not glamourous. Both just mean kids have a place to sleep, but no place to store skates or a toboggan for winter or buckets and spades for summer sand castles. Working from a cell phone hot spot out of you van as you travel? It looks great in a 60-second TikTok, but what about the other 479 minutes in the typical work day?
And yet, a tiny home and van life are better than a 2-hour commute and the confines of a corporate office. Return to work orders? Employees are fighting them to get a walk in at lunch time and the chance to be nearby for family emergencies.
How much longer until the press releases start coming in about office towers being converted to condos?
Maybe longer than we think. One sign that business is fighting the office space disruption is consolidation of the storage industry.
The Utah-based Extra Space Storage Inc and its subsidiaries have acquired multiple entities.
First, Extra Space bought all entities doing business as Storage Express. Storage Express own 107 remote storage properties across Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky.
The acquisition includes all of Storage Express’ assets including trademarks, contracts, licenses, intellectual property and 14 future development sites. The value of the acquisition was said to be $590.0 million.
Extra Space also purchased E-Tracker, a storage software operating platform. The platform currently support all Storage Express locations, as well as Bargold Storage Systems, LLC, which was acquired by Extra Space in June.
“We are excited about the merger of these two great companies and the expansion of our national portfolio and operating platform,” said Joe Margolis, Chief Executive Officer of Extra Space Storage. “In addition to increased scale, this acquisition provides a new growth channel for Extra Space Storage to add smaller, remote-managed stores in both new and existing markets through acquisition and third-party management. I want to thank the employees of both companies for their hard work and strong execution on this transaction.”
Press release: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/extra-space-storage-inc-acquires-storage-express-and-appoints-jefferson-shreve-to-its-board-of-directors-301625892.html
For those of us who aren’t happy living in tiny spaces, there is less reason to fake it.
Smiles are not free. If you’re encouraging your customer service team to be happy all the time, it’s costing you more than you might think.
According to new research from the Terry College of Business in Athens, Georgia, becoming a happy, helpful employee takes so much effort that, eventually, that effort erodes the energy needed to do the actual job.
The more people are expected to change their moods to happy at work, the fewer emotional resources they have at the end of the day. It makes people less able to cope with challenging tasks, interactions and they even have a harder time just staying on task.
“At work, that means you’re more likely to be short with co-workers or peruse the internet rather than do your work,” said Emma Frank, an assistant professor of management at the University of New Hampshire and one of the study’s authors. “Even if you’re feeling good and ending your day on a high note, you’re not going to be ready to perform your best.”
Press release: https://www.newswise.com/articles/service-with-a-smile-costs-more-than-you-think
Commvault has appointed Alan Atkinson as Chief Partner Officer. Atkinson will report to Riccardo Di Blasio, Commvault’s Chief Revenue Officer. Atkinson is a data security veteran in the industry.
“Our continuous innovation has earned us our rightful place as the leader in our industry with the trust of thousands of customers globally,” said Di Blasio. “And that enables us to continually attract the best and brightest leaders to join Commvault. With Alan’s leadership, we will increase the velocity, scale, and growth of our robust and enviable partner ecosystem.”
Press release: https://www.commvault.com/news/commvault-appoints-veteran-alan-atkinson
Headed downtown for meetings? Leaving your car in a commuter lot is probably the better idea, but for those who chance the traffic, you should know your parking app might have changed its name. 1% of Canadians have downloaded the Indigo Canada parking app and it is changing its name to become Indigo Neo.
“Delivering enhanced mobile capability to our customers is central to our value proposition and a key driver of our growth,” said John Laires, CEO at Indigo Park Canada. “Through Indigo Neo, we will continue to strengthen our position in the Canadian market and move towards the future as the most seamless platform to find, reserve and pay for parking.”
More information: https://indigoneo.ca/
