How’s working from home going for those of you who are fortunate enough to remain employed during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you settling into a routine, or still trying to figure out a structure that works for you, your loved ones and your employer?
Today in The Conversation Canada, Jean-Nicolas Reyt of McGill University outlines three challenges and solutions regarding remote work. One that may resonate for all of us right now is his recommendation that supervisors and managers not monitor employees’ working hours. They may be struggling to juggle work and unique family obligations during the pandemic, and are having to put in hours on the weekends or nights to get their work done. Now’s the time for understanding, he writes.
One of my favourite stories today is from Paul Yachnin, also of McGill, who has a hopeful piece on William Shakespeare. He notes that the iconic playwright lived in the era of the Black Death, and created plays that often grew from an awareness about how precarious, and precious, life can be in the face of contagion – and imagined a better world.
Also today:
As always, stay safe this week and practise social distancing whenever you have to venture into public!
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Remote work can be a difficult adjustment for teams accustomed to working in an office setting. Here are some tips.
(Charles Deluvio/Unsplash)
Jean-Nicolas Reyt, McGill University
Working from home presents challenges that will take time to resolve, and misunderstandings are to be expected. So let's be forgiving of one another and focus on establishing effective new work norms.
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Engraving from ‘The Fearefull Summer,’ a treatise published after the plague of 1625 and reprinted again in 1636, by John Taylor.
(McGill Library/Paul Yachnin)
Paul Yachnin, McGill University
Plague ravished England repeatedly during Shakespeare's lifetime. The playwright translated the experience of sickness and restoration in many ways on the stage.
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Social distancing required to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has led to a sharp increase in the use of telemedicine.
(Pixabay Unsplash)
Inderveer Mahal, University of Toronto
Telemedicine has grown sluggishly in Canada, but COVID-19 has sped up the pace of adoption of online technology to deliver health care.
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A sign in Texas in 1939, at the end of the Great Depression.
(The New York Public Library/Unsplash)
Andrew Bauer, University of Waterloo
The Canadian federal government’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan includes tax-related measures. It's helpful to examine tax supports for individuals by considering the past, present and future.
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Two health-care workers arrive at a walk-in COVID-19 test clinic in Montréal on March 23, 2020. Unionized nurses are among those on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Larry Savage, Brock University; Simon Black, Brock University
Nurses, cleaners, grocery store clerks and other unionized workers have been on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. They should emerge from it with a greater level of respect.
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La Conversation Canada
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Nicolas Fernandez, Université de Montréal
Les résidences pour personnes âgées sont dans une position de fragilité devant la pandémie de le Covid-19, ne serait-ce que par la rareté d’équipements disponibles et la pénurie de préposées.
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COVID-19
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Hector Chapa, Texas A&M University
U.S. health officials flipped their advice and now recommend everyone wear cloth masks in public to reduce the spread of coronavirus to others. Some cities have fines for going without masks.
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Politics
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Rusli Abdulah, Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) ; Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII)
To recover its economy, China must also see the economy of its export destination countries improve
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Arts
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Allison Skidmore, University of California, Santa Cruz
There are more captive tigers in the U.S. than there are in the wild around the world – and they can be bought for less than some breeds of dog puppies.
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