January 23, 2021
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the news has been filled with stories of US companies that have failed to keep employees safe, whether by not providing PPE or by making it impossible for workers to spread out and maintain a safe distance.
For many delivery workers, restaurant servers, caregivers, and food processing workers, quitting out of safety concerns has been out of the question because whether they would be eligible for unemployment benefits is unclear under current laws. At the very least, proving that fears of catching the virus at work are justified would fall on the claimant.
Now, US president Joe Biden wants to do away with the confusion.
January 20, 2021
The roughly six minutes that belonged to Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old Black poet from Los Angeles, may become what many Americans remember most vividly about Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president on Jan. 20.
Gorman’s recitation of her work “The Hill We Climb” was a showstopper, her performance as powerful and transformative as her verses.
Gorman has explained that she finished the work late at night on Jan. 6, the day of the violent insurrection at the US Capitol. She references the darkness and trials the country has recently endured, writing of “a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy” and “nearly succeeded.” But she also delivers an ode to America’s resilience and a call to summon it. In the final line, she writes that “the light that is always there, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
January 20, 2021
After nearly a year-long experiment in telecommuting, 95% of remote workers say they’d rather be back in the office in some capacity. Only 19% say they’re completely satisfied with their current work from home arrangements. More than half want to cap their remote work time to one or two days a week.
These are some of the key takeaways from a global survey of 32,000 workers polled by Steelcase, which bills its new Reinvented Workplace report as the “largest body of research conducted on the state of work” during the pandemic. Conducted by the office furniture giant over the course of five months, the report summarizes findings from eight qualitative and quantitative studies conducted in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, and Spain. They represent the opinions of employees, managers, and executives who work in offices with 100 employees or more.