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Friends surprise colleague with drive-by retirement, birthday party WSAV-TV
People wait in line outside Trader Joe's in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn, March 16.
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With their Hawaiian shirts, free samples, and friendly vibes, Trader Joe’s stores can seem more laid-back than other supermarkets.
But employees working during the coronavirus pandemic fear for their health and the safety of customers.
“People are generally scared. There’s a lot of people feeling that the company is not responding in a responsible fashion,” said one employee of the Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood, who like several people in this article asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job.
More than half a dozen employees told BuzzFeed News that employees of at least four store locations in New York and Washington, DC, have tested positive for the coronavirus — but the locations have remained open with workers expected to come in as normal.
Like other supermarkets across the country, Trader Joe’s stores are staying open as essential businesses to ensure people can still get food and supplies during the pandemic. But employees say guidelines around store safety have varied; some stores have brought in professionals for a deep clean after COVID-19 cases were discovered, but other stores have not done so because of the amount of time that had passed since the sick staffer had worked.
Workers also fear that even if the store itself is not contaminated, they may have been infected by a sick colleague and might be unwittingly passing it on to each other and customers. All this is worsened by communication from their managers and corporate that the workers say has been poor and haphazard, leaving them feeling unsafe and undervalued.
Shoppers wait in line outside a Trader Joe's in Washington, DC, March 21.
Two employees of the Cobble Hill store said one of their coworkers tested positive for COVID-19, and two more have been diagnosed as suspected cases by a doctor. The store remains open and has not closed for professional cleaning, they said.
For over a week, store managers did not inform staff of the case at any of their morning “huddles,” the employees said. Staffers only found out their coworker had tested positive “through the grapevine.”
On Monday night, the manager told staff in an email, seen by BuzzFeed News, about the two colleagues who had been diagnosed by doctors. The email does not mention the third aforementioned case, which was an employee who said in a Facebook post she had tested positive.
“Because the crew member [diagnosed by a doctor] was in the store 9 days ago, the CDC does not recommend cleaning beyond what we have already been doing,” the email states.
The email does not advise staff members to quarantine themselves due to possible exposure. The staffers work in close quarters and are unable to follow CDC guidelines that recommend workers stay 6 feet away from each other. The incubation period for COVID-19 can last up to 14 days, meaning store employees are still at risk for developing symptoms they could pass on to each other and customers.
Employees have been permitted to take unpaid time off if they are concerned about contracting the virus — but doing so isn't feasible for most of them, with bills to pay and no end in sight for the pandemic.
Company spokesperson Kenya Friend-Daniel told BuzzFeed News all Trader Joe’s staffers have been granted seven extra days of paid sick leave and that the company is “providing up to two weeks of paid sick leave to all Crew Members quarantined for or diagnosed with the coronavirus.”
Additionally, corporate policy now allows for workers to wear gloves and masks — something many store managers were previously prohibiting. Friend-Daniel said plexiglass is being installed at store registers as well.
Sammy Almlah at work at Trader Joe's.
Sammy Almlah, 26, who works at a Trader Joe’s in Westbury, New York, told BuzzFeed News two of his coworkers have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least two more people have been experiencing symptoms.
On Monday night, the Westbury store manager sent out a nearly identical email to the one sent to Cobble Hill staffers, which stated that the employee had last worked seven days ago, so they would not need to take additional cleaning measures.
“I feel nervous going in because of my asthma and the fact that my girlfriend is immunocompromised,” Almlah said. “I can’t afford to not work unless I’d be getting paid time off, but that only will happen if I get COVID-19.”
Almlah said he was confused why his store didn’t close for cleaning, while a nearby store in Plainview closed for cleaning two days after a worker tested positive.
Customers stand in line in front of a Trader Joe's in Manhattan while observing social distancing, standing 6 feet apart, March 29.
Friend-Daniel, the company spokesperson, said Trader Joe’s works “closely with local, state and federal health officials and base all of our decisions on their guidance.”
“The health and safety of our Crew and customers remains our top priority through this crisis,” Friend-Daniel said.
As the pandemic has grown, Trader Joe’s has implemented “enhanced safety and sanitation measures,” Friend-Daniel said.
In some cases, stores have temporarily closed in order to undergo a deep clean after employees have tested positive for the coronavirus. “We take a hyper careful approach by closing stores in these instances, and we do not reopen a store until we are satisfied that further intense cleaning and sanitation has been completed,” Friend-Daniel said.
The Trader Joe’s in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood briefly closed over the weekend after four workers tested positive over the course of two weeks, one worker there told BuzzFeed News.
The Chelsea staffers were not told who exactly had tested positive, due to privacy regulations, but were told what shifts those people had worked.
“I was afraid because I work these shifts, these morning shifts, with some of the crew that tested positive,” the Chelsea worker said. “The store is only so big, so I was like, was I in close contact with this person? Should I take a leave and quarantine myself to see what happens?”
The worker at the Chelsea location said she lives with her grandmother and is afraid of getting her sick. “It’s anxiety-inducing,” she said. “I try to be as careful as I can be, but honestly it’s so hard.”
One employee who works at the Trader Joe’s in the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, DC, told BuzzFeed News that staffers are “not encouraged to tell the customers” about positive or suspected cases in the store.
“They said to keep an awareness of what we say in front of the customers ... and if a customer asks, to tell a manager to talk to them,” she said.
But Friend-Daniel said news about store closures and positive or suspected COVID-19 cases is being shared on the Trader Joe’s website. No locations are currently closed, she said, and no mentions of any previous closures can be found on the company website. There are also no announcements listed for positive or suspected COVID-19 cases in stores.
In Hartsdale, New York, one Trader Joe’s employee has tested positive for the coronavirus, and another has been diagnosed as a suspected case by their doctor, according to one current and former employee.
Erica Mildner worked at the Hartsdale store until she quit March 20 after being sent home for asking to wear gloves, which previously were not explicitly permitted by the corporate office. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is now investigating her case.
Mildner said she does not trust Trader Joe’s guidelines regarding whether a store is closed for a deep cleaning.
“We all know it takes a few days to feel symptoms, get access to a test, and then get the results of that test,” Mildner said. “The CDC regulations that [managers] list [in their emails] basically say [they] understand the virus lasts on surfaces for two to three days at most. So based on the last date that the [sick] employee worked, that’s how we’ll decide whether or not to close the store.”
Essentially, by the time a sick employee can get a positive test back or a diagnosis from a doctor, that period of time in which the disease can be passed from touching surfaces has already ended.
But this does not take into account the coworkers who may have already touched those surfaces and contracted the virus and who may get sick and pass the virus along even further.
“It’s an impossible formula,” Mildner said.
A Trader Joe's in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia, Mach 31.
Earlier in March, Trader Joe’s announced all its workers would be granted a bonus due to sales skyrocketing amid the pandemic, which comes out to about an additional $2 per hour before taxes.
The bonus was announced after workers started a petition — which to date has been signed by over 20,000 people — calling for Trader Joe’s to pay its employees hazard pay at the rate of time and a half.
“The bonus, I think, was a way of attempting to shut us up about hazard pay,” said Almlah, the Westbury staffer. “I don’t think the check was worth the risk of being there. If anything it makes me more upset that they believe this is sufficient.”
The DC employee said her bonus for a month’s work came out to about $160, which she said feels inadequate considering the risk she’s putting herself and her partner in.
“A lot of us don’t feel safe,” the DC employee said. “Everyone’s really anxious.”
On Sunday, her store manager said in an email that one employee had tested positive for the coronavirus — and that because the employee had last worked 11 days ago, business would continue as usual.
Despite her fears, the DC employee said she has no choice but to keep working until she gets sick so she can take paid sick leave.
“I need to eat and I have rent,” she said. “I’m terrified of not working. I wake up anxious because I know it’s something that I have to do.”
A construction worker purposefully coughed on a colleague who had been bullying him for a week about continuing to show up to work while sick, according to a report from the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.
The man who was coughed on then shoved the sick man to the ground and kicked him, leading the sick man to report to the Sheriff’s Office that he had been assaulted.
According to Sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Wright, the Summit County Attorney’s Office is screening assault charges against both the alleged cougher, a 56-year-old Taylorsville man and the alleged kicker, a 50-year-old Kearns man. Purposefully discharging bodily fluids onto another person can constitute assault. The report did not specify whether the sick man had symptoms consistent with the coronavirus or whether he had been tested.
“Sounds like the cougher has been sick with a head cold the week prior,” Wright said. “… Basically, the coworker was asking him why he was coming to work while he was sick and he was just obviously irritated why he was showing up to work ill.”
Both men were dismissed from the Promontory construction site, Wright said.
It was a light week for law enforcement personnel overall, Wright said, though there was an uptick in mental health crises around the county.
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ITV News Meridian would like to pay tribute to a much-loved colleague, Chris Barrett.
Chris, 75, started at Meridian in the 1990s and was an extremely popular programme producer.
He lived in Dibden Purlieu in Hampshire with his wife, Gwen.
He leaves two daughters, Emma and Linda, and five grandchildren, Amy, Charlotte, Jack, Caitlin and Ella.
Dad was a very modest and hard-working man. He was completely selfless and always put others first. He was dedicated to his family who are incredibly proud of him. We have been overwhelmed by the comments and good wishes since he died. We probably weren't aware of how much he was loved and respected outside of our family, which sums up the kind of modest man he was. He wasn't one to blow his own trumpet, he just did his best at everything."
– Linda Morris, Chris' daughter
Chris joined his local paper, the Alton Herald, straight from school. He grew up in nearby Four Marks.
He spent a short time working freelance before moving to Devon in 1967 to take up a job on the South Devon Journal. He was based in Torquay, predominantly covering the Newton Abbot area which is where he met his future wife, Gwen.
They married in June 1969. Emma was born in 1970 and Linda in 1971.
The family moved to Dibden Purlieu in 1971 when Chris joined the Southern Daily Echo as a Chief Sub, later becoming Deputy Editor. He left in 1990, working freelance for BBC South and writing columns including "Did You See" and "A Day in the Life" for Hampshire Life magazine.
It was around this time that he became part of the Meridian family.
Chris Barrett was a very talented producer, but more important than that, he was a dear friend. We worked alongside each other for many years when he moved into television after a distinguished career in journalism. He prided himself on being a year younger than me - and always winning our football bets!
"He was also one of the fittest men I ever knew with his epic walks around the West Country. Which is why his untimely death was such a shock. I confess I shed a tear when I heard the news. Friends like Chris are hard to find. I will miss him."
– Fred Dinenage, Presenter, ITV News Meridian
Chris always loved a story that brought a bit of humour or good cheer to people's lives, whether in print or on the screen.
He used to pride himself on trying to finish his bulletins with a happy story to leave viewers in good spirits. He enjoyed a joke, and loved to sing (loudly).
Although he later retired, Chris never actually seemed to stop working.
I started my career at ITV Meridian's Newbury studios in August 2000 and remember very clearly meeting Chris for the first time. He’d been sent from the mothership, Meridian HQ in Northam near Southampton, to train this young Production Journalist on how to produce the late news. First things first, we got the teas in and then he proceeded to say: 'This job is 10% journalism and 90% plagiarism!'
"In the years that followed he became a really good friend who really supported me as a Reporter and Presenter. If my volume ever dropped in the newsroom he’d always check on me with 'You ok Sangers?!' And he’d always make sure Fred and I always had time to inject our own personalities into the show. He was a gentle giant, who loved his family, his epic walks and his dog. I can’t believe I won’t see that beaming cheeky smile again. Sending so much love to Chris’s family. Miss you Mr B x"
– Sangeeta Bhabra, Presenter, ITV News Meridian
So many messages have come into us from people who used to work with Chris and they can't speak highly enough of him. He was a fantastic producer and where possible would always ensure that the programmes he produced had uplifting stories in them, giving our viewers something to smile about. He was a real character, a true gentleman and a dear friend and colleague. We will all miss him very very much."
– Alison Nice, Head of News, ITV News Meridian
Chris was a kind and thoughtful man who despite the pressures of producing programmes and bulletins always found time to make you smile. He’ll be greatly missed."
– Guy Phillips, Editor, ITV Regional News
Chris became a volunteer at the New Forest Reptile Centre for a couple of years as he loved nature and wildlife.
He was also an avid walker, he knew the New Forest very well and walked there most days, on his own and also regularly with his daughters and his grandchildren.
He took about two years to walk the South West Coast Path, completing it in stages ranging from one to seven days. He walked the majority of it alone, but was joined at various times by close friends, his daughters, and one of his granddaughters. He completed the route on October 19th 2019, which was one of his proudest achievements.
Chris taught many of us so much, always with patience and encouragement.
He loved a cheery programme, a crossword and a builder’s tea.
Chris, you will be greatly missed.
LVHN's behavioral health department is working very hard together as a team to provide care that is needed for their patients during this critical time. Patti Moore is a nurse on the behavioral health unit, and she doesn't stop working, even on her days off, to serve her team and her paients. For four days that she was off, Patti took the time to make special masks for all her colleagues (pictured above). Patti's colleagues want her to know how much they appreciate this wonderful act of kindness.
If there's a health care provider in your life who you'd like to thank for going above and beyond, you can submit your stories at LVHN.org/stories.
I work in a care home and my co-workers and I often share cars to pick each other up but we don't know is that is still advisable or safe to do. We all work together but are scared we will get in trouble if we do car share. Kathy Mcphee, Caithness
I work for the NHS but have been on annual leave. I used to give a colleague a lift. When I return to work, should I be giving this friend a lift or drive my car by my self? John Brogden, 40, North Wales
I work for a medical device manufacturing company and have been giving a co-worker a lift to work because he is unable to drive. Is this now prohibited during the lockdown period? G.G, 49, Cardiff
Can I give a lift in my van to a work colleague? I am self employed and he works for me. We are working on a dangerous building repair. D.M
Can you still car share travelling to and from your place of work during this lockdown? Thomas Ferrier, 54, Clydebank
Can critical workers care share if colleagues can't drive? This is one of the most common motoring Covid-19-related queries we've received in the last week
Rob Hull, This is Money Deputy Motoring Editor, responds: This is a handful of the questions readers have asked about car sharing during the Covid-19 pandemic in the last week.
When I first started writing our comprehensive guide for motoring advice during the coronavirus lockdown, I included my email address for people to get in touch with any driving-related queries,
This has ranged from questions regarding the recent MOT testing exemption for cars, vans and motorcycles to more niche queries about leniency for car cleaning.
The most prominent enquiry received so far is from critical workers who usually car share.
Many of these are cases of NHS or care home workers who help colleagues who don't have driving licences and live in areas where public transport isn't always available at the best of times - let alone when there are significant travel restrictions in place due to the outbreak of a killer virus.
The Government has outlined strict rules regarding vehicle use at the moment, including car sharing.
It states that you should only travel in a vehicle when absolutely necessary (such as attending a medical appointment or assisting an elderly or vulnerable person) and only travel with those living in the same household.
However, there is no additional information available online to critical workers about their situation.
We've received emails from construction workers on the frontline repairing dangerous buildings who have asked if they can take their apprentices to sites
We originally asked the Department for Transport for confirmation of rules regarding critical workers and car sharing, though were redirected to Public Heath England.
It said members of the public should refer to the 'Going to Work' section of government guidelines.
Here it states:
'Employers who have people in their offices or onsite should ensure that employees are able to follow PHE guidelines including, where possible, maintaining a two metre distance from others, and washing their hands with soap and water often for at least 20 seconds (or using hand sanitiser gel if soap and water is not available).'
We asked PHE for clarification regarding car sharing.
A spokesman told us: 'This advice would extend to travelling to work and therefore unless it is possible for people to be at least two metres apart in a vehicle they would not comply with government guidance on social distancing.'
Under the measures given by PHE, it makes it extremely difficult for co-workers to car share.
This is because five-seat passenger vehicles are unlikely to provide this much gap between occupants.
We've used the example of the Volkswagen Tigun SUV below - which has around the same interior dimension as the Golf hatchback.
As you can see from the sketch below, it is not two metres wide and the distance from the front and rear seats is also less than the advised distance.
Even with a passenger sitting diagonally from the driver in the rear seats, a two metre gap would be difficult.
And this is certainly the case for vans, where the driver and passenger are sat almost side by side in a vehicle that isn't two metres wide.
The only instance where retaining a gap that adheres to social distancing measures would be if the vehicle used in a seven-seat MPV, SUV or a minibus, when a passenger and driver can be separated by a row of seats.
However, with this only making up a small proportion of vehicles on the road, some critical workers might be forced to make alternative arrangements, else risk - with the driver - being apprehended by police at road checkpoints.
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CBS News mourns loss of colleague Maria Mercader Yahoo News
Sen. Rob Portman said he is donating his May salary to charities in Ohio after a Republican colleague proposed freezing senators' pay, a move that would violate the Constitution's 27th Amendment.
"I’ll be donating my salary thru May to 5 charitable organizations across the state of #Ohio," Portman, an Ohio senator since 2011, tweeted Monday. "These exceptional organizations are working tirelessly to provide help & relief to folks impacted by the #coronavirus pandemic."
Members of Congress make $174,000 annually — $14,500 a month — and the money stipulated through May will be divided among charities Portman cited, the Cleveland Foundation COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, the Columbus Foundation Emergency Response Fund, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati Foundation local nonprofit fund, the Southeast Ohio Food Bank, and the Greater Toledo Community Foundation Covid-19 Response.
In 2019, Portman had an estimated net worth of $8.6 million, USA Today reported in October.
The move by Portman stands in contrast to a proposal dealing with lawmaker pay being prepared by Sen. Martha McSalley, an Arizona Republican who is in one of the nation's most competitive Senate races.
[Click here for complete coronavirus coverage]
McSally said March 24 that she would introduce legislation aimed at withholding pay from senators until a coronavirus stimulus package becomes law, amid last-minute wrangling between House Democrats and the Trump White House. President Trump signed the measure into law on Friday.
McSally's efforts mirrored a populist tactic often used during Capitol Hill budget stalemates. But it's one that's been deemed unconstitutional.
The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, prohibits members of Congress from changing their own pay during a current session of Congress. The amendment is aimed at preventing lawmakers from giving themselves pay raises in the middle of the night or retroactively at the end of congressional sessions. But it also means they can't cut their own pay either, not until after the next general election is held in November.
While the issue has never been tested in court, such proposals quickly fall away after constitutional questions are raised.
"Withholding pay, even temporarily, would 'vary' the compensation for members of Congress, and in their opinion," according to the National Constitution Center, in Philadelphia. Doing so "would present a direct violation of the 27th Amendment."
Individual lawmakers, however, are free to donate their salary to charity if earned during a virus pandemic, budget standoff, or any other situation. Portman, a former House member and trade and budget official in President George W. Bush's administration, is the first lawmaker to give away their salary during the coronavirus crisis.
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Las Palmas doctors concerned after colleague tests positive for COVID-19 KFOX El Paso
Use the form below to send us your comments. If you are experiencing problems, please describe them.
Player Help | All Access HelpCBS News has been overwhelmed with grief at the loss of a beloved friend and colleague, Maria Mercader. She is among the victims of COVID-19's deadly reach. Air Date: Mar 30, 2020
IHG has today announced the launch of the IHG Hotel Colleague Job Center to support US-based hotel colleagues impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The global Covid-19 outbreak has created unprecedented circumstances for the hospitality industry. Travel around the world has paused for most people, which has led to a number of IHG’s hotels closing temporarily or significantly reducing operations, impacting the employment of hotel colleagues.
To support them, the IHG® Hotel Colleague Job Center website – available at IHG.com/WeSupportYou – will provide resources, advice and guidance during this difficult time. It includes job opportunities with leading companies across the US that are looking to hire highly-skilled hospitality professionals who have worked in IHG branded hotels. Companies include Amazon, Walmart, CVS, Albertsons, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Lowe’s and The Home Depot. CVS, Albertsons and The Home Depot may also offer expedited applications for IHG hotel colleagues.
Hotel colleagues are encouraged to visit IHG.com/WeSupportYou, as well as to check IHG’s career page regularly at careers.ihg.com/.
Logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
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5 D.C. mayor staffers quarantine after contact with colleague who died due to COVID-19 WJLA[unable to retrieve full-text content]
German finance minister 'kills himself' as colleague blames 'coronavirus worries' Mirror Online
ZOOM / Kieran Walsh
Loved ones press their faces against care home windows, or wave from a doorstep two metres away. Neighbours shout concerns across cul-de-sac driveways. Welcome to communication in the age of coronavirus.
Social distancing and isolation to slow the spread of the virus has also spawned the world’s largest work-from-home experiment, and with it questions on how to share messages with staff scattered to the four winds.
The corporate reaction to coronavirus-related office closures has been to prioritise human connection over pure relay of information. Global stock markets plummeted almost relentlessly, but shares in Zoom, the online video and remote conferencing service, have risen 91pc this year as corporate demand for its product spikes.
According to analysts Bernstein Research, by the end of February Zoom had added 2.22 million monthly active users, beating the 1.99 million a month it averaged in the whole of 2019. Zoom doesn’t share usage or download data and wouldn’t comment on the figures.
Demand for spoken work interaction is a sharp reversal of pre-coronavirus trends, where staff had widely relegated picking up the phone to least favoured option. A 2019 Microsoft and YouGov survey asked employees how they communicated day-to-day; face-to-face (74 per cent) was followed by email (69 per cent). Only half (55 per cent) made daily calls.
Email wasn’t really a thing until the 1990s, yet it has usurped the 144 year old telephone despite everyone carrying one in their pocket. Mayur Pitamber, marketing manager at 8x8, a voice over internet protocol service provider, says the decline reflects firms adapting to behavioural change from both customers and employees.
What people have wanted for the last 13 years is not to speak on the phone. US research firm Nielsen pinpointed the switch to silent communication in autumn 2007, when for the first time the average number of per person monthly texts (218) superseded average phone calls (213). It never switched back.
Teenagers led the revolution; 13 to 17 year olds topped texting levels in spring 2008, sending and receiving 1,742 on average per month. At the same time, they spoke on the phone just 231 times a month. Ten years on, those teenagers are in the workplace, and they still don’t want to talk.
“A reluctance to use voice communications in a professional capacity is definitely a key characteristic of digital natives like millennials and Gen Zs,” says Janine Woodcock, a management consultant at Zingg.
“They have a different experience and relationship to voice communications. Even their preference for video tends to be one way, rather than two way communication.”
Older people still prefer calling, according to a 2019 study by Ofcom, the UK communications regulator – which included a 68 year old from Belfast saying, “I prefer to speak to a person. You can get a better understanding” – but a bigger trend towards typed electronic communication exists overall.
“Messages in the form of emails, WhatsApp and Slack seem to be the norm now,” says Raj Goodman Anand of Goodman Lantern, a marketing-tech firm. “The majority of our customers message us before calling, which seems to be an unwritten rule, the new business etiquette.”
Mobile communication makes employees constantly ‘on’ and available to bosses, a newly hyper-busy environment where the immediacy demanded by phone calls can grate. “People understand the value of one another’s time and are more considerate about it, so send a message rather than interrupting with a call that has to be answered in that moment,” says Chris Marron, director of competitive and market intelligence at 8x8.
To combat the scourge of unwanted or unnecessary phone calls, mobile operators have developed a variety of ‘do not disturb’ functions to balance the need for people to have a phone in their pocket with their desire to not take calls.
To control and limit the flow of work calls he receives personally, Goodman Anand heavily restricts them by scheduling most using his online diary, and sending any unrecognised numbers straight to voicemail. He has applied a similar process in his company. “Overall, we make sure our teams are super-efficient and don't spend valuable office hours fielding unsolicited phone calls,” he says.
Nuisance calls are an aggravating factor in the deterioration of our relationship with the phone. Consumers were hit with 2.2 billion nuisance calls and texts from companies selling finance-related services alone in 2017, according to Ofcom data, six million pointless interruptions a day, 4,200 every minute.
Cold callers are on the decline – the proportion of adults with a landline and/or mobile who received a nuisance call fell to fewer than half (49 per cent) in January 2019, for the first time in two years — but the damage is done. Nuisance calls have made people feel anxious about answering the phone, so many now ignore all calls from unknown or withheld numbers.
Businesses also suffer, transferring phone anxiety to the workplace and employees. “We receive between ten to 25 nuisance calls a week on our British and US phone lines,” says Goodman Anand. “They are annoying, especially because most callers haven't done their research on target customers”.
To mitigate this, Goodman Lantern filters all calls to an outsourced answering service, so employees are only interrupted when there are genuine callers on the line. Text services are also deployed in the fight against the hard sell ‘follow up’ call.
“Many customers know our phone numbers and typically WhatsApp us, which is a fantastic filter for us as 95 per cent of messages I receive are from people I know,” Goodman Anand says.
Messaging and emailing may shut out the literal noise of phone calls, but at the price of employee efficiency and business productivity. An average employee spent more than three hours a day dealing with emails in 2018, research by Adobe found. Last year 48 per cent of respondents told Slick Text, a text marketing service, fewer work emails would increase their job satisfaction.
Disengaged employees cost the US as much as $605 billion a year in lost productivity, according to Gallup. Unhappy employees also tend to leave. Almost all (95 per cent) human resources leaders said employee burnout is “sabotaging workforce retention”, in a survey by Kronos Incorporated and Future Workplace in 2017. Hiring and training staff is expensive.
“Successful leaders have long known the future of work is about shifting our focus from ‘time spent’ to ‘output achieved’,” says Woodcock. “There is no better way to make fast gains than by reducing the staggering amount of time spent managing email.”
The solution is to replace email and text with one-to-one or communal voice and video comms, she says. This can really aid efficiency in remote working, she continues, because they are more likely to engender confidence that everyone understand and agrees when decisions are made.
According to research firm Gigaom, 87 per cent of remote users report feeling more connected to their teams when using video conferencing. As use of Zoom soars to alleviate the challenges of enforced separation from colleagues, the coronavirus shutdown could end the era of silent email workplace communication, and give employees their voices back.
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The British epidemiologist whose predictions about how coronavirus might impact the U.K. is pushing back against the notion he radically changed his figures, a public relations fight in which he has enlisted allies in the scientific community.
Dr. Neil Ferguson of the Imperial College London reiterated Friday that his figure for potentially more than 500,000 deaths from the virus in the U.K. is unchanged, although that figure is tied to a nightmare scenario in which no mitigation steps are taken against the virus’ spread.
Given the virus-aversion policies that have been adopted, Mr. Ferguson told Parliament the actual death figures for the U.K. would most likely be less than 20,000, and said that is consistent with previous studies.
All of the figures are derived from computer models in which Mr. Ferguson and his colleagues control the inputs, but the 500,000 figure - along with another prediction that a partial implementation of proper mitigation policies could still leave some 250,000 dead - alarmed the world when they were widely publicized.
Mr. Ferguson and his colleague say the media conflated various models, or confused speculation with conclusions, in their reporting on his work and a study at Oxford University that looked at various infection rates.
“The study did emphatically not conclude (even tentatively) that half of the UK population already had coronavirus,” wrote Kris De Meyer, who described himself as a “neuroscientist and researcher in good practices in Science Communication” in an email to The Washington Times. “All it did was explore 4 different theoretical model scenarios, and show that all of them could be matched to real-life data in the UK and Italy.”
In another model scenario, Oxford put the infected percentage of the population at 5%,
The 500,000+ figure was widely reported and used to justify stringent virus-avoidance measures that some criticized as too severe or economically unsustainable but that many consider sensible.
While the implausible and alarming number was always the high end of a model, there was little pushback against them until this week when Mr. Ferguson again spoke to Parliament and highlighted the “under 20,000” figure in light of steps like social distancing the government has stressed.
He and his colleagues dispute the notion Mr. Ferguson offered any new hypothesis or in any way discredited his original ones.
“His position since then has been that, if we do nothing 500,000 will die, if we pursue mitigation, 260,000 will die, but that suppression could limit it to 20,000,” freelance science writer S.J. Makin wrote in an email. “All he is saying now is that now that we have intensive social distancing measures in place, he believes we will keep the death toll within that much lower figure.”
Mr. Ferguson’s original testimony also included dire warnings that the National Health Service’s intensive care units would be overwhelmed by coronavirus patients and unable to cope with the surge.
Now that European data and others shows that infection is likely much more widespread, meaning the percentages of those who may need hospitalization and ventilation are much lower, Mr. Ferguson has said the ICU situation should become full in spots but that it can withstand the situation.
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Blame Boris Johnson for giving my colleague the coronavirus South China Morning Post
Shaw's says it has informed employees of six locations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont that an associate has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The supermarket chain said Friday night in a statement that it is "taking every step possible to contain the spread of coronavirus."
The Massachusetts stores where workers received the notice are in Easton and Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood, the company said. In New Hampshire, the locations in Dover, Littleton and Woodsville were named. The store in Middlebury, Vermont, was also notified.
Shaw's did not say whether a worker had tested positive and visited all six stores or if different people had tested positive.
Grocery stores have staffed up during the coronavirus outbreak, but employees are at risk of getting infected. We looked at what stores are doing to keep them safe.
The company said all stores go through multiple cycles of enhanced sanitation and disinfecting every day, but that additional thorough cleaning is conducted when it learns that an employee has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
"We affirm daily with all of our associates that they must follow the CDC's guidance for frequent hand washing, and if they aren't feeling well — for any reason — to stay home," Shaw's said in the statement.
Also on Friday, Whole Foods announced that a worker in Hingham has a presumptive case of coronavirus.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi uses a white disinfectant cloth to wipe down the microphone on the Democratic side of the House chamber, March 27, 2020. (Screen Capture)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) used a white disinfectant cloth to wipe down the microphone and podium at the front of the Democratic side of the chamber in the U.S. House of Representatives after they had been used by her Democratic colleague, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, to deliver a 30-second speech.
Cohen delivered his address—supporting passage of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid bill—wearing a purple surgical glove on his right hand but with no glove on his left. He read this speech from a cellphone he held in his gloved hand.
When Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland recognized Pelosi to come up and speak at the same podium after Cohen had finished, Pelosi approached the podium and used her left hand to pull a disinfectant cloth out of a dispenser that had been attached to the chair behind the podium.
She transferred the disinfectant cloth to her right hand and rubbed down the microphone and then the podium beneath it.
She then threw the used disinfectant cloth down on the table in front of the podium.
Rep. Steve Cohen speaking at the podium just before Speaker Pelosi, March 27, 2020. (Screen Capture)
At the end of her speech, CSPAN cut to a distant shot from high above in the chamber--that appeared to show a white object (perhaps, but not certainly, the disinfectant cloth that Pelosi had thrown there at the beginning of her speech) still sitting on the table below the podium where she had spoken.
Screen shot of CSPAN video showing Speaker Nancy Pelosi at podium at the end of her speech, March 27, 2020.
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Port Authority employees hold protest after colleague tests positive for coronavirus WTAE PittsburghTwo conservative lawmakers are coming to the defense of a GOP colleague after President Trump
Donald John TrumpDefense industrial base workers belong at home during this public health crisis Maduro pushes back on DOJ charges, calls Trump 'racist cowboy' House leaders hope to vote Friday on coronavirus stimulus MORE launched into a fiery attack against Rep. Thomas Massie
Thomas Harold MassieHouse leaders hope to vote Friday on coronavirus stimulus The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Airbnb - House to pass relief bill; Trump moves to get US back to work House leadership advises members to return to DC as Massie weighs roll call vote on stimulus package MORE (R-Ky.) for suggesting he might delay passage of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package.
Reps. Chip RoyCharles (Chip) Eugene RoyLawmakers ask Trump administration to help Gulf oil and gas producers House Republicans oppose remote voting during crisis Top GOP post on Oversight draws stiff competition MORE (R-Texas) and Paul Gosar
Paul Anthony GosarNew York AG launches hotline to report coronavirus hate crimes, xenophobia against Asian Americans Website documents anti-Asian discrimination amid coronavirus crisis Trump rips NY Times for altering coronavirus negotiations headline 'to satisfy the radical left' MORE (R-Ariz.), both members of the House Freedom Caucus, pushed back on Trump after he called for Massie to be kicked out of the Republican Party if he objects to the bill. Such an objection would then require House members to travel to D.C. in the midst of the pandemic for a roll call vote.
Roy, who has quickly built a reputation as a firebrand, had a straightforward message for Trump: "Back off."
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"@RepThomasMassie is one of the most principled men in Congress & loves his country. He is defending the Constitution today by requiring a quorum. There’s nothing 3rd rate about that, @realDonaldTrump. I may miss vote if he forces roll call (flights) but it will pass. Back off," Roy tweeted.
The economic relief package, the largest in U.S. history, is expected to pass with broad bipartisan support, like it did in the Senate, but it will be delayed if Massie opposes it during an unanimous consent vote.
Roy and Massie have in the past faced ire from members of their own party. Last year, the two Republicans held up a long-delayed $19.1 billion emergency aid package that aimed to provide relief for communities and others who were recovering from natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires -- drawing condemnation from other GOP lawmakers.
Gosar tweeted shortly after Roy, defending Massie from what he suggested was an unfair attack from the president.
"@realDonaldTrump Mr. President. @RepThomasMassie is a good man and a solid conservative. He believes in the Constitution strongly. We won’t always agree on strategy or policy. But he doesn’t warrant this dressing down. Thomas—Hang tough brother. #CoronavirusOutbreak," Gosar tweeted.
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Their public pushback comes after Trump lambasted Massie on Twitter as a "third rate Grandstander" from Kentucky who is seeking "publicity" if he votes against the bill titled "Save Our Workers Bill."
"WIN BACK HOUSE, but throw Massie out of Republican Party!" the president wrote in a subsequent tweet.
Public sparring between Trump and GOP lawmakers has become increasingly rare as the president seeks to ridicule critics who speak out against him or his policies, often by going on the attack and sometimes even endorsing a primary opponent to hurt their reelection prospects.
Still, Trump was joined by Democrats in blasting Massie.
"Breaking news: Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an asshole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity. He's given new meaning to the term #Masshole. (Finally, something the president and I can agree on!)" tweeted former Secretary of State John Kerry
John Forbes KerryOvernight Defense: Pentagon officials estimate coronavirus crisis could last months | Three sailors aboard carrier test positive | Trump slashes Afghan aid Trump administration slashes Afghan aid after Pompeo visit Pompeo makes unannounced trip to Afghanistan MORE.
The attacks put Massie in a difficult political position. Trump could seek to further punish him if he follows through with his "no" vote, or he could back down after taking such a public stand.
The vote in the House comes after the White House and Senate leadership scrambled to reach a bipartisan agreement that would provide financial relief to individuals, businesses, and major industries impacted by the coronavirus. While neither side is happy with all aspects of the bill, the legislation aims to protect companies and industries like airlines, hotels and restaurants that have seen their business suddenly slow amid guidance from the federal government to self-isolate and social-distance from other people.
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House Members Blame Colleague for Forcing Travel for Virus Vote Bloomberg[unable to retrieve full-text content]
House Members Blame Colleague for Forcing Travel for Virus Vote Bloombergnnnindonesia.blogspot.com First responders in Côte-Saint-Luc are worried and heartbroken after their colleague, volunteer Clifford Jordan, ...
