Remote Working

A recent study by software company BambooHR has shed light on the harsh realities of return to office (RTO) mandates, suggesting that at some companies they are merely a back-channel approach to layoffs.

The Australian government has passed new legislation granting workers the “right to disconnect” from work communications during non-work hours, aimed at helping employees maintain a healthier work-life balance.

A significant majority of business leaders are reevaluating their return to office plans, with 80 percent expressing regret over their initial mandates, according to a recent survey.

In a significant shift from its operations and its products, video conferencing giant Zoom is requiring employees who live near a company office to be on-site two days a week, embracing a “hybrid approach” to work. Zoom fueled the remote work craze embraced by many office workers over the last few years.

Remote work options are reportedly diminishing as companies shift power back to managers who are demanding employees work in-person.

In the aftermath of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 16th biggest bank in the country, many are left wondering what went wrong. Both current and former employees have stated that the bank’s support of remote work is a contributing factor.

Remote work may boost marriage rates and encourage women who are already parents to have more children, a new paper found.

A Canadian accountant has been ordered by a court to repay her employer after time-tracking software found that she was misrepresenting the hours she worked.

Joe Lombardo for Governor released an advertisement on Thursday entitled “Steve Sisolak Won’t Answer the Phone.”

More than 70 cities and towns across America have implemented incentive programs aimed at drawing businesses and remote workers away from Silicon Valley and other coastal hubs, and are enjoying increased success since the pandemic, reports the Wall Street Journal. 

Indonesia’s government recently announced plans to develop a new “digital nomad” visa program that would allow remote workers to live and work in Indonesia tax-free for up to five years, Fortune reported on Tuesday.

Tech workers are not interested in the idea of going into an office all day after experiencing remote work in the wake of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic solidified the idea people don’t have to show up at an office to get work done. That fresh reality has led to a growing number of people relocating to more affordable cities across the country.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that when using “many popular apps” for video teleconferencing, audio data is being sent to the companies hosting the services — even when you think you are on mute. Researched created a Big Tech-style algorithm that allowed them determine what else people were doing while on mute, developing an AI that could accurately predict if users were cooking, cleaning, or typing.

The popular workplace communication platform Slack is reportedly experiencing issues and is down for many users globally. Companies that rely on Slack to manage their remote workforce have been left scrambling on Tuesday morning as the outage hit right as America’s workday kicked into gear.

Tokyo’s population decreased in 2021 for the first time in 26 years due, in part, to increased remote work availability during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic that encouraged people to leave the crowded metropolis, Bloomberg reported Monday.

Universities and workplaces across the country are once again going remote as the coronavirus omicron variant spreads across the country.

A man who slipped and broke his back while working from home was “commuting” to work during his walk from his bed to his desk, a German court has ruled. According to the court, “the first morning journey from bed to the home office [was] an insured work route.”

A new Zoom feature will allow meeting hosts and co-hosts to use calendar integrations from Google and Microsoft to see if attendees joined their meeting on time. 

According to a recent survey, almost one in four executives has fired employees over their behavior during Zoom meetings. Ranging from chronic lateness and embarrassing gaffes with the mute button all the way to inappropriate lewd activity such as the infamous case of CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, the majority of managers survey reported levied some form of disciplinary action due to employee Zoom behavior.

The video conferencing company Zoom, which enjoyed massive growth during the coronavirus pandemic, has suffered a 16 percent slide in share price today after the company reported second-quarter earnings that beat expectations but showed slow growth.

According to recent reports, Google has published a calculator for employees that shows the internet giant will be lowering the pay of workers in the U.S. who choose to work remotely on a permanent basis.

Teleconferencing giant Zoom has reportedly agreed to pay $85 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of violating user privacy and enabling “zoom bombing,” in which trolls would join users’ chats without an invitation.

According to a recent study by the home improvement marketing firm CraftJack, 38 percent of American teleworkers regularly work from bed. 45 percent of respondents also said they regularly work from the couch.

Google employees are reportedly upset over the company’s policies related to remote working and what they deem to be special treatment for some workers. One worker claims: “Google doesn’t prioritize the needs of human beings.”

A recent report from Bloomberg claims that tech workers at payment processor Stripe are opting to take a ten percent cut to their salary in order to work remotely full time. The goal for most of these workers is to move out of Democrat strongholds like New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area to live and work in more affordable and safer areas.

Social media giant Facebook recently stated that it will let all employees work remotely even after the pandemic if their job can be performed out of the office. The company will consider reducing pay for employees that move to areas with lower cost of living than Silicon Valley.

Apple employees are pushing back against the company’s CEO, Tim Cook, who told them that they need to return to their offices for at least three days a week starting in early September.

Apple says it wants its employees to return back to its offices by early September, according to a company-wide memo sent out this week.

A study projects employees will remain working remotely 20 percent of workdays, up 15 percent pre-pandemic, impacting Democrat-controlled cities.

The coronavirus created remote workers, and now small American towns are offering cash and other incentives to selected new residents.

A Swedish politician, allegedly a member of the ruling Social Democrats, was caught accidentally showing pornography to colleagues during a remote meeting in the city of Uppsala. The incident occurred during a remote board meeting of the local city government

Only 11 percent of companies expect all of their employees to return to the office as they once did before the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics.

The popular digital workplace service Slack recently suffered an outage on the first full workday of 2021. Companies that rely on the platform to manage their remote work activities were left unable to connect to the service for most of the day on Monday.

German banking giant Deutsche Bank is calling for a “privilege tax” to be imposed on people who work from home, to erase their savings from not having to commute or pay for food on their lunch breaks. 

A recent issue with Microsoft’s Office 365 platform left many users completely locked out of Microsoft Office, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams which many have used as their primary means of work communication during the coronavirus pandemic.