On the Job, Everywhere

One challenge of the work-anywhere lifestyle is that not everywhere is designed for people who need to do work.Travelers use their laptops at a power station in the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. That is why you see women in skirts sitting awkwardly on the carpet at an airport gate, balancing laptops plugged in to precious few outlets. Or hear about grown men building the adult equivalent of a pillow fort to fashion a makeshift desk on a hotel bed.But hotels and airports are gradually catching on to the fact that mobile workers need more help getting their jobs done on the road. Hotels that cater to laptop-toting travelers are scrambling to add electrical outlets in easy-to-reach places, install better task lighting and design chairs with flat armrests that can double as desks.They are putting desks on casters so the desks can be wheeled in view of the television or even extend over the bed. And perhaps most important to business travelers, some hotel chains are installing technology to make their Internet service more reliable or adding employees to offer better support when guests call for help.Airports have not made as many changes, though some are adding kiosks where passengers can charge gadgets, check e-mail messages or buy a flash drive to replace one they forgot... NYT