On April 24 (above) I predicted these apps would be useless, and it looks like I was right. I was also right that the app would be well-done on a technical level but fail on the reporting side. But I was wrong that people would spam the system with false reports; instead of too many, the problem is that there were too few.
It was good to be reminded of my earlier observation that the frozen part can be the active agent, not just the passive recipient of light from above. When I not only centered my attention on the knot in my spine (for example) but also let it direct the show, shining its light outward, actively pushing its energy out in all directions—when I did that, I noticed something new: my whole system became calmer. I think this is because I don’t always need a new infusion of energy from above; the constant influx can overwhelm my system. Instead, the energy that’s already there just needs to organize itself, release itself, be liberated by the force of its own power and by the integration of the surrounding parts.
More water and sunlight are not always needed; the plant may just need to break through the surface of the soil.
HR and tech – a tumultuous wave?
Scarcely has a work domain been bereft of the impact of technology, and HR is no exception. Technology has made inroads into HR as much as anywhere else, and as expected, led to a number of changes. https://usamediahouse.com/hr-and-tech-a-tumultuous-wave/
Another list of related work:
https://github.com/tarpas/pytest-testmon/issues/42#issuecomment-310487641
Kinsey Millhone, from Sue Grafton's Alphabet books, is an obvious candidate.
How about Dorothy Sayers' Harriet Vane? She's listed as a protagonist in the wikipedia pages for the later Wimsey books...
A couple more series from Seanan McGuire:
- While I bounced off the October Daye books the first time I tried them, I took another run at them in 2018 based on a Twitter thread comparing them to the Kate Daniels books, and while the first half of the first book still struggled to hold my attention, this time I pushed through it, thoroughly enjoyed the second half, and then promptly devoured all of the other currently published books in the series.
- I'm currently reading and enjoying the Rose Marshall books (set in the Incryptid universe, but focusing on ghosts rather than cryptids and the Price family)
Another possible example of this that I thought of yesterday: church worship teams, which frequently lead songs whose theme or refrain is “Here I am singing this song and worshiping”.
Vorobiev keeps on cranking them out. Not only is this another frame-story clip, but Chekhov's rifle is lampshaded.
Something I miss from some mid-90's HTTP servers is autolink functionality: when selecting text as an anchor for a hyperlink, a query would be run on what would now be called a CMS, suggesting possible targets. Not only was this convenient for the author, but also for the reader, as it encouraged more informative anchor text than the frequent-at-the-time "this" or "here".
(yes, link rel= navigation was also automatically supported, as were Imagemaps.)
In short, the entire published content of the CMS is contained in or derived from a single file.
Linguistics
by Dave
Lambek's "From word to sentence" notes (pp.79-80) the difficulty of shoehorning languages which use parallel constructions (resp. the mathematician's respectively) to place objects and modifiers, not in a nested order, but in parallel sequence (resp. not order-inverting). Maybe linguists need an equivalent of the zip function?
Correction: Darius Bacon points out that Boole was before Peano in pointing out the connection to Taylor:
("An Investigation of the Laws of Thought", Ch.5 p.52 ... and I failed to find any mention of Taylor's 1715 result in De Morgan)
The 80's cartoon "Mother for a little mammoth" (~8 min) is deeper than it first appears: not only were the ancestors of Mammuthus primigenius to be found in eastern Africa (Mammuthus subplanifrons), but there's a very similar relation (both geographic and familial) between Australopithecus afarensis and Homo sapiens.
... also, despite being equally unsure of what Cheburashka may be, I'd still offer a paw were we to cross in the street!
Engaged employees are considered to be great assets for a magnetic culture in the workplace. Although nowadays, the term “Employee Engagement” has become common, and having an awesome employee engagement is what the business leaders, top CHRO & the other HR leaders wish for! So why not start this New Year with great employee engagement with these awesome tips & tricks.
http://www.thegoogleblog.com/education/jobs-career/hr-leaders/
Most of the HR professionals are uninitiated to the deep psychological understanding of the consequences of diversity principals and social responsibility. The significance of diversity and inclusion (D&I) appears hollow. It is never a part of their education and even while growing-up professionally. It leaves a lacuna which they find it hard to jump when suddenly one fine day they are in the top C-suite seat of chief of human resources.
http://articlesforwebsite.com/effective-leadership-management-better-workplace-diversity/
The most difficult task for any human resource leader is to plan the future of the workforce which requires strategic workforce planning and systematic human resource management. Well, there is no denying that human resource management is a necessity for the better future of any company. As an exemplary business leader and the one taking care of human resource management, it is of utmost importance to be ready with your planning before any crisis hits the workplace.
http://www.wholepost.com/good-human-resource-management-requires-strategic-workforce-planning/
The human resource automation has made easy managing human resources and no longer it is very expensive or complicated for even smaller companies to buy it. There are companies fighting against each other for the best HR practices in place because it is very critical to attract the top talent to the company for great returns on investment and business profits. The HR must always try to add value to itself as the essential foundation of the company strategy.
https://www.dizimug.in/2018/02/09/continuous-value-addition-for-effective-human-resource-management/
The HR leaders nowadays want to employ from a talent pool that is not restricted to the confines of the office building. The HR workforce aspires for an HR industry which consists of a talent pool from international boundaries and is ready to share their talent with the external organizations. This gives employees a better exposure and the HR workforce access to a whole new and fresh source of skill sets and talent.
A workforce is the backbone of any organization. It takes a lot of money and effort for organizations to hire a decent workforce which makes the employees liable to them in various aspects. However, if we see it from another angle, it is possible to consider employees as assets that can be invested in and governed to increase a company’s business value.
So at the end of April 1995, I joined other early contributors to the Web in Australia in Ballina.
According to Helen Ashman and Adrian Vanzyl's report on the conference in the ACM SIGLINK Newsletter (Vol. IV No.3) there were 140 participants and the conference and at least that many more on the waiting list!
A few weeks ago, I had a great example of an interest that consumed my attention for a day but didn't last beyond that.
My wife and I went to the ballet.
I've always had this happen with ballet: I get obsessed with it briefly and then my interest fades. Back when I was 8 or 9 I attended my younger sister's ballet performance and wanted to become a dancer. It never went anywhere. A couple of times as an undergraduate, I went to the ballet. Always loved it at the time but nothing ever came of it.
So anyway, we went the ballet a few weeks ago. When I came home I spent hours reading up on terminology, watching videos of great dancers doing particular moves. I was obsessed. For just that day.
I woke up the next day and went back to Greek and linguistics. Maybe Carl Djerassi would call that the equivalent of meeting up with the same person every few years for just one night.
zsh scripting is mostly compatible with bash scripting. http://slopjong.de/2012/07/02/compatibility-between-zsh-and-bash/
So I would do well to still focus on learning bash scripting, even if I start using zsh for interactive use.
Not one to let Shnur have all the disaster fun, Vorobiev's "I love You" manages to close off the "Crazy" troika with a bang.
For memory, the excellent start:
and somewhat weaker bridge:
- Landscape In Sunlight and Seaview House, both by Elizabeth Fair. As previously reported, I found the first of her novels to be “Decent enough light reading”, and felt the same about Landscape In Sunlight. On the other hand, Seaview House was heavily concerned with “will X marry Y or Z”, which I found tedious.
- The Best Of All Possible Worlds and The Galaxy Game, both by Karen Lord; the former a re-read in preparation for reading the latter, which is its sequel. I find the first of these is a much smoother read than the second, which is clogged up with lots of infodumping and not-clearly-separated points of view.
- Half A King by Joe Abercrombie, which I downloaded a sample of after recommendation from fred_mouse. Couldn't get into it, though, so decided against buying the full book.
- Letters To A Young Muslim by Omar Saif Ghobash. A bit repetitive, and some of it felt very naive to me, but overall an interesting read.
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. A re-read, and along with it I read the tor.com re-read posts. I’ve read this several times before, but this was my first time reading it after having watched the recent TV adaptation, and it reinforced my opinion that the adaptation was a really good one.
What a long strange trip it's been...
A 1980's Latvian song contest finalist:
had its tune taken, with the lyrics changed out for a different story, becoming not only a soviet hit when sung by Пугачева, but an evergreeen, even in translation*...
...among which, a persian translation performed (indoors, judging by the liberal amounts of greenscreen) by the Iranian singer Farzaneh ...
... then recently reprised in Tadjikistan by Фарангис: (NSFW if you're in a country where you shouldn't be watching grown women without hats in the office...)
- yes, it even appears to have made it to Japan
“Free” as in “mattress”.
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The Moskva may not have a delta at the Oka, but the russian alphabet does have a «дэ» ... I wonder what was the inspiration for this rather slidey, bluesy tune?
Sartoria Veneta è la risposta a tutte le esigenze del piano. Questa società produttiva comprende ciò che i clienti richiedono e, inoltre, progetta capi che utilizzano superficie fantastico. Esso offre ai clienti un efficace modi di trasporto i costi di vantaggio
LaTeX. That's a thing I should probably be more familiar with...
Programming
by rrees
Convert an SVG to a PNG easily:
convert -resize <x>x<y> input.svg output.png
In which Nazis (whose black & white world was a tragedy) find themselves inexplicably vividly colorized (this time in a rainbow palette, as farce).
Cf the "All You Need is Love" scene from "Yellow Submarine" (which was available on YT a decade ago, but I guess the blue meanies have bubbled it in the interim)
Yes, let us mix, Max. I've never admitted it before, but my cousin is the blue bird of happiness!
Filters can be used through an annotation or they can be declared directly in the application config section for Jinja2.
I'm also experimenting with other Markdown editors. It's a little disappointing that the pickings for Windows are pretty slim.
I'm officially a google scholar. Finally I have a seat at the table. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-uBH7jgAAAAJ
Surfing the Digitalization Wave: What Your Talent Needs for Digital Future Fast-advancing digitalization has meant that development and learning programs must augment workforce skills so they can fulfil their job roles suitably. https://www.topchro.com/article/surfing-the-digitalization-wave-what-your-talent-needs-for-digital-future
Tags: workforce, Digital Future, Digitalization, workplace, digital technology, digital economy, workforce skills, digital initiatives, development and learning, job roles
Technology in HR: Are you asking the right questions?
Adoption of new-age HR tech – AI, ML & Blockchain – is ballooning. Collecting the right data is cumbersome for human resources. Know the data points to collect and how-to bring HR transformation.
https://www.itproportal.com/features/technology-in-hr-are-you-asking-the-right-questions/
Tags: tech in HR, HR tech, HR technology, HR tech trends
Chartered Private Equity Professional | KKR Partners | USPEC
The firm is an American multinational private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts. Headquartered in New York City, it sponsors and manages private equity investment funds.
PE professional, private equity professional, uspec partners, capital management firms, private equity investment firms in US, US private equity firms, private equity firms in austin tx, private equity industry
https://www.uspec.org/private-equity-firms/kohlberg-kravis-roberts
COVID-19 Crisis: Top Priorities for CHROs in the Times of Uncertainty
The COVID-19 crisis implies a very different workplace when the worst of the pandemic is past. Senior HR leaders must step up to maintain company performance.
https://www.topchro.com/article/covid-19-crisis-top-priorities-for-chros-in-the-times-of-uncertainty
Tags: COVID-19 Crisis, CHROs Priorities, coronavirus, coronavirus crisis, senior HR leaders, workplace, Educating employees, pandemic, Maintain company performance, C suite, economic recovery, COVID-19 impact,
Chartered Private Equity Professional | Bain Capital Partners | USPEC Bain Capital is a global alternative investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. It specializes in private equity, venture capital and credit products. Tags: PE professional, private equity professional, uspec partners, capital management firms, private equity investment firms in US, US private equity firms, private equity firms in austin tx, private equity industry https://www.uspec.org/private-equity-firms/bain-capital
Value Creation: The Next-Level Competitive Advantage For Ambitious PE Firm
Sprawling acquisition prices & shrinking return margins are giving PE firms hard time extracting paybacks from deals. Value creation in PE can help investors.
Tags: PE Firms, PE Professionals, COVID-19, PwC Survey, Portfolio Companies, Investors, Depth Market Analysis, Financing, Structuring, Value Creation in PE, Financial Crisis, Market Structure, Business Model, Pricing Transformations, Enterprise Certification, Learning and Skills
Why breaks from work are great for work
Lower burnout, improved productivity and higher energy are among the benefits of making paid time off an integral part of your organizational culture.
https://www.topchro.com/article/why-breaks-from-work-are-great-for-work
Tags: paid time off, work-life balance, flexible work, organizational culture, workplace culture, vacation pay, pto policy
Why become a certified HR professional?
HR Certification can augment salaries and put certified HR professionals in direct line of promotion. Certification for HR professional opens new opportunities
https://www.topchro.com/article/why-become-a-certified-hr-professional
Tags: HR professional, HR certification, certification for HR professionals, certified HR professionals, human resource professionals
Chartered Private Equity Professional | Oaktree Capital Partners | USPEC
Oaktree Capital Management is a leading global alternative investment management firm with expertise in credit strategies. The firm was formed in 1995 by a group of individuals who had been investing together since the mid-1980s in high yield bonds, convertible securities, distressed debt, real estate, control investments and listed equities.
Tags: PE professional, private equity professional, uspec partners, capital management firms, private equity investment firms in US, US private equity firms, private equity firms in austin tx, private equity industry
https://www.uspec.org/private-equity-firms/oaktree-capital-management
Getting Into Canadian Private Equity Firms: An Overview
Canadian Private Equity Firms – Canada is a mid-market country with mid-market companies. There exists a lot of competition in the private equity marketplace. Pension funds or private equity funds have more capital now than they had ever. There are new entrants with pension funds and a lot of dry powder.
Tags: Canadian Private Equity Firm, private equity firms, private equity professionals, top PE firms, PE professionals, private equity jobs, private equity careers, Working in a private equity firm
Private Equity Buyouts Will Surge This Recession
Private equity firms are likely to step in to save the businesses facing the brunt of coronavirus outbreak. Experts believe PE firms buyout will increase if a recession follows. Here’s why.
Tags: private equity firms, PE investment firms, private equity professionals, private equity markets, private equity industry, Private Equity associations, Professionals at private equity
https://medium.com/@chris.gilbertt111/private-equity-buyouts-will-surge-this-recession-a2a1e6fcfb7
What COVID-19 means for Private Equity firms
Economists and policy-makers may be at loggerheads — not just within but between themselves too — on whether or not the US and some European markets have entered a recession, but there is no denying the volatility of these markets in the present scenario.
https://medium.com/@chris.gilbertt111/what-covid-19-means-for-private-equity-firms-adaee396eb9e
Tags: cpep certification, private equity certification, PE firms, top private eqtuiy firms, prvate equity professionals, private equity, US private equity firms, PE professionals, private equity investment professionals
Centerbridge Partners - USPEC
Centerbridge is a multi-strategy private investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts and distressed securities. The firm manages over $25 billion of assets and is based in New York City, with an additional office in London.
https://www.uspec.org/private-equity-firms/Centerbridge-Capital-Partners
Tags: uspec exam, uspec certifications, uspec exam policies, private equity, top private equity firms, private equity certificate, private equity training, equity research training, certificate in finance, equity research certification, private equity qualifications, private equity roles, what is private equity, private equity certification program, private equity firms, private equity firms in india, top 10 private equity firms, best private equity firms private equity industry, private equity professional, private equity practice, private equity learning, private equity training programs, private equity partners, private equity university, private equity education, private equity in education, equity in education, Private equity university partnership, private equity conference
Hellman Fried man Management | Certified Private Equity Professional | USPEC
H&F, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, is an American private equity firm, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts and minority growth capital investments.
https://www.uspec.org/PrivateEquityFirms/hellman-friedman-management
Tags: Man Management, Private Equity, American Private Equity,Investment
Examinations Policies | USPEC Certification Examinations | USPEC
In the event that you fail your first (1st) attempt to pass USPEC certification examination, before you can take second (2nd) or any subsequent attempts to pass the examination, you shall be required to wait for a period of at least fourteen (14) calendar days from the date of your last attempt to pass such examination.
https://www.uspec.org/uspec-certification-examinations/examinations-policies
Tags: USPEC Examinations Policies, exam policies, private equity certification, private equity examination, uspec exam,
Making & Growing PE Careers - Career in Private Equity | Private Equity Jobs | USPEC
USPEC Certification gives the right boost for jobs and careers in private equity with the best and biggest private equity and investment banking companies worldwide.
https://www.uspec.org/career-in-private-equity TAGS:
"jobs in private equity, career in private equity, private equity jobs, private equity career
Candidate Id Policy | USPEC Certification Examinations | USPEC
USPEC regularly monitors the performance of all exams to ensure the validity of exam results and use advanced statistical analytical algorithms to calculate the candidate’s test score. The candidate must score 65% or higher in order to pass the exam. The result can be viewed on the candidate’s myUSPEC account on the official USPEC website after 5 working days, starting from the day of the exam.
https://www.uspec.org/uspec-certification-examinations/candidate-id-policy
Tags: USPEC examinee policies, careers in private equity, private equity career, private equity professional
USPEC Certification Examinations | USPEC
USPEC exams are built by the industry, for the industry. We draw the content for the exams from a combination of industry-wide survey feedback and contributions from our team of volunteer subject matter experts. The result is a rigorous exam development process representing thousands of hours spent exceeding the knowledge standards the industry expects.
Tags: USPEC Examinations, private equity certification, private equity examination, uspec exam, uspec certification, certified private equity professional, certifications in private equity
https://www.uspec.org/uspec-certification-examinations/uspec-certification-examinations
Candidate Testing Policies | USPEC Certification Examinations | USPEC
USPEC regularly monitors the performance of all exams to ensure the validity of exam results and use advanced statistical analytical algorithms to calculate the candidate’s test score. The candidate must score 65% or higher in order to pass the exam. The result can be viewed on the candidate’s myUSPEC account on the official USPEC website after 5 working days, starting from the day of the exam.
https://www.uspec.org/uspec-certification-examinations/candidate-testing-policies
Tags: candidate testing policies, uspec policies
Private Equity Industry | Private Equity Professional | USPEC USPEC’s knowledge frameworks and globally respected private equity practice expertise combine industry leading, definitive guidelines for Private Equity professionals.
https://www.uspec.org/united-states-private-equity-council-framework
Tags: private equity industry, private equity professional, private equity practice, private equity learning, private equity training programs
United States Private Equity Council | Private Equity Professional | USPEC
USPEC is a CredForce Consortium member–credentialing body. Activities related to management of customer relationships, customer–support, credentialing logistics, partner–network, and invoicing for USPEC and all CredForce Consortium members are exclusively handled by the CredForce worldwide network. All queries may be safely directed to info.uspec@credforce.com. USPEC is the worldwide leader in private equity certification & certificate in finance leading to global private equity jobs. Learn private equity research & training.
Tags: uspec exam, uspec certifications, uspec exam policies, private equity, top private equity firms, private equity certificate, private equity training, equity research training, certificate in finance, equity research certification, private equity qualifications, private equity roles, what is private equity, private equity certification program, private equity firms, private equity firms in india, top 10 private equity firms, best private equity firms
Private Equity Insights | Private Equity Trends | Private Equity Blog | USPEC Stay updated on the latest global private equity trends. Read more about the private equity insights through our especially created blogs on private equity.
https://www.uspec.org/insights
Tags: private equity news, private equity trends, private equity insights, private equity blog, private equity publications, private equity trends 2016, private equity industry trends
Private Equity University | Private Equity Partners | Equity in Education
USPEC Partnership Opportunities provide immense growth for universities and educational institutions offering private equity courses.
https://www.uspec.org/united-states-private-equity-council-partnership
Tags: private equity partners, private equity university, private equity education, private equity in education, equity in education, Private equity university partnership, private equity conference
Top Business & Finance schools | Top Universities in the World | USPEC
Get your professionals/students credentialed at business and finance schools. Become academic partners by applying for business schools and university partnerships.
https://www.uspec.org/top-business-finance-schools-and-universities
Tags: Recognized B-Schools, top Universities and business schools, best business schools,identified business schools,leaders and professionals, specialist finance schools,top business schools,top finance schools, top universities,universities and specialist finance schools,best universities in the world, top universities in the world,world university rankings,world university rankings 2019, best business schools in the world,top business schools in the world,top Universities & B Schools
Exam Security | USPEC Certification Examinations | USPEC
USPEC takes the security of our certification exams seriously. One of our primary goals is to ensure the highest integrity of exam content and fairness for all candidates during the delivery of USPEC’s certification exams. Cheating and/or suspicious behavior observed during the exam is not tolerable.
Tags: USPEC Exam Security
Read More - https://www.uspec.org/uspec-certification-examinations/exam-security
Exam Development | USPEC Certification Examinations | USPEC USPEC exams are built by the industry, for the industry. We draw the content for the exams from a combination of industry-wide survey feedback and contributions from our team of volunteer subject matter experts. The result is a rigorous exam development process representing thousands of hours spent exceeding the knowledge standards the industry expects. https://www.uspec.org/uspec-certification-examinations/exam-development Tags: USPEC Exam Development
A Solemn Vow – Inside Debt Covenants
The private equity industry opts for covenant-lite structures, i.e., lending without covenants as the pandemic COVID-19 weakens the covenant protection for lenders.
https://www.uspec.org/blog/a-solemn-vow-inside-debt-covenants
Tags: COVID-19, Coronavirus, Stakeholders, Private Equity Industry, Private Equity Firms, Private Equity Acquisitions, Debt Instruments, Debt Investments, Debt Financing, Debt and Covenants, Lenders in Private Equity Industry
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN AI INCLUSION – LESSONS FROM UNILEVER
The Unilever case study may inspire HR leaders to contemplate on AI adoption in HR functions. Among the various HR tech trends, AI in recruitment is promising.
https://www.topchro.com/article/opportunities-and-challenges-in-ai-inclusion-lessons-from-unilever
Tags: AI in HR, AI adoption in HR, HR technology, HR tech, HR tech trends, AI INCLUSION in HR, AI technologies in HR, AI in recruitment
How to crack the holiday hiring code
When hiring managers tweak recruitment strategy during holiday hiring for permanent workers and holiday enthusiasts, then it leads to the best people on board.
https://www.topchro.com/article/how-to-crack-the-holiday-hiring-code
Tags: hiring strategy, holiday hiring, hiring managers, hire strategy, recruitment strategy, strategic hiring, hiring strategy plan, holiday hiring strategy, holiday hire, candidate hiring process
Creating business value through HR transformation
Human Resources transformation drives business transformation. Know how to create a business environment to drive human resources transformation.
Read More: https://www.topchro.com/article/creating-business-value-through-hr-transformation
Tags: hr leaders, best hr leaders, hr transformation, hr technology/hr tech
Women in Leadership
Gender diversity and inclusion in the workforce is shrinking the global gender gap. It brings a balanced growth as we see women in senior leadership roles
Tags: Women in Leadership, Gender Equality in Workplace, global gender gap, gender diversity, diversity and inclusion global gender gap index, women leadership roles, role of women in leadership, women senior leadership roles, senior leadership
Why talent mobility is a must-do strategy for HR
Talent mobility makes the right skillsets available to the relevant roles within an organization, making it a strategy that HR can scarcely afford to not emphasize in its operations.
https://www.topchro.com/article/why-talent-mobility-is-a-must-do-strategy-for-hr
Tags: employee retention, talent retention, talent acquisition, engaging experience, HR leader, employee productivity, employee engagement
Ways to improve employee engagement and retention strategies.
Disengagement in the workplace prompts higher absenteeism, lower quality, and reduced productivity. People decide to leave their current organization and start seeking new job avenues. Low employee engagement leads to a higher turnover rate, increases hiring and on boarding costs.
https://www.topchro.com/article/ways-to-improve-employee-engagement-and-retention-strategies
Tags: employee engagement, retention strategies, engage to retain, hiring costs, onboardings costs, workplace productivity, employee retention, disengagement at work, employee attrition, employee motivation, engaged employees, employee productivity,
Counting the quiet ones: Why you must care for introverts
They may be quietly hammering away, but introverts bring a uniquely valuable set of skills and strengths to the workplace, which senior management would do well to play up.
https://www.topchro.com/article/counting-the-quiet-ones-why-you-must-care-for-introverts
Tags: employee motivation, workplace culture/culture at work, engaged employees, employee happiness, employee engagement, workplace discrimination
Flexible work arrangement: pros and cons for employers and employees
Foster an organization of healthy and happy employees with flexitime concept in place!
https://www.topchro.com/article/Flexible-work-arrangement-pros-and-cons-for-employers-and-employees
Tags: workplace flexibility, employee happiness, culture at work/workplace culture, flexible time work, workforce management, remote work/work from home, employee wellness, happiness at workplace, employee motivation
Coronavirus Immune: 4 HR Priorities to Protect Workplace
Coronavirus is halting businesses and scaring people. HR leaders have a big role to play in maintaining business stability amid this din. Here’s what HR leaders can do to protect their workplace.
Tags: hr leaders, hr leader roles, chro roles, employee wellness, paid leaves, covid 19, coronavirus hr roles, covid hr leader roles
Top 8 Initiatives by CHROs this year
From boosting innovation and inclusion to offering better benefits such as flexible work, CHROs took a number of initiatives to boost their HR strategy in 2019.
https://www.topchro.com/article/top-8-initiatives-by-chros-this-year
Tags: chros, chief HR officer, chief human resource officer, hr leaders, chro roles, hr strategy, human resource leaders
Happy holidays – why a break need not be stressful
Not just a break from everything, holidays also bring immense stress! Flexible work culture can boost workplace productivity and bring happiness at work.
https://www.topchro.com/article/happy-holidays-why-a-break-need-not-be-stressful
Tags:flexible work culture, workplace flexibility, work culture, workplace productivity, work from home/remote work culture, happiness at work, work-life balance
Latest on Private Equity Industry
Stay updated on the latest global private equity trends. Read more about the private equity insights through our specially created blogs on private equity.
Check Here - https://www.pinterest.com/uspecinsights/latest-on-private-equity-industry/
Tags: private equity, latest on private equity, pe firms, private equity industry, private equity trends
On April 24 (above) I predicted these apps would be useless, and it looks like I was right. I was also right that the app would be well-done on a technical level but fail on the reporting side. But I was wrong that people would spam the system with false reports; instead of too many, the problem is that there were too few.
Debate/argument fires among family members blazing back over the past week, prompted by my brother and SIL saying they want people to get vaccinated before visiting their baby, due in April.
The discussion is in a weird place of being both necessary and pointless. Maybe in part because we’re debating two things at the same time without distinction: the safety of the vaccine and the reasonableness of requiring it for baby visits. But also because this is, in my view, actually a religious difference between us. It goes to the heart of how we understand the world and how it works, and the way we gather information about it. There’s a fundamental rift there that is not bridgeable by debate.
By 2019 estimates, Minnesota has roughly 4,337,000 people age 18 and up. 75% of that is 3,252,750.
As of today, 599,218 people in the state have been given at least one vaccine dose. So Minnesota is 18% of the way towards getting 75% of its adult populated started on the vaccine.
Using last week’s rate of 200,000 doses administered means it would take 13–14 weeks to get 75% of adult Minnesotans started on the vaccine.
This week my aunt, who was in the middle of a cancer battle, died of COVID complications.
Two weeks ago three co-workers tested positive and the office was shut down. Some people still are still working remotely. Jess and I both took tests after the five-day mark and results came back negative.
New Zealand, meanwhile, has been back to normal for several months now: restaurants, sporting events, no masking, everything that defined pre-COVID life except for unrestricted incoming travel from other countries.
From an article published last December:
In New Zealand, people are going to malls without masks and sharing popcorn with friends in movie theaters. In Australia, they are watching live theater and sports and seeing bands perform at packed concerts. Thai people in Bangkok are drinking inside busy bars and dancing, while in Taipei, the Taiwanese capital, more than 130,000 gathered for one of the only Pride parades to take place in person this year.
“Pride was huge. There was a ton of people out,” said Perry Truong, a 25-year-old English tutor who moved last year from the US, where there are currently almost 200,000 new COVID-19 cases each day, to Taiwan, where there hasn’t been a new locally transmitted case of the coronavirus in more than 200 days. “It’s really not in my mind at all,” Truong said. “I don’t feel anxious about catching the virus. I don’t feel scared about not wearing a mask to public places. For lack of a better word, it’s really normal.”
“It feels weird,” he added, “because I feel like when people talk about this in 10 years, they’ll be like, ‘Remember the pandemic?’ and I’ll be like, ‘There was a pandemic?’”
Other COVID-related developments on all fronts:
- So far 415,000 Americans have died of COVID-19.
- As of today it looks like we might be just over the hump of the most recent surge in cases/deaths. Locally, hospitalizations have come down.
- Jess and I haven’t had a date night since November.
- People at my workplace have continued to get better about wearing masks.
- I notice there has been hardly any news about treatments and therapeutics for the virus (as opposed to vaccines). Oklahoma is trying to return a $2m stockpile of hydroxychloroquine that turned out to be worthless for COVID treatment.
- I’m still taking a voluntary saliva test every 1–2 weeks.
- In MN schools are back open for the youngest students. My daughter is now back in first grade, and it’s been a rough adjustment, like a typical first week of school.
Another relief/stimulus bill was finally signed at the end of 2020. The first week of January I received a direct deposit from the IRS $600 for each person in our house, $2,400 total. There may be a third such bill coming some time in the next couple of months.
UChicago/Notre Dame economists found that the US’s weird experiment with a massive relief bill that was then allowed to expire during the pandemic had some interesting effects. Poverty decreased by 1.5% in the first phase of the pandemic, then increased by 2.4% from June to December 2020.
8 million people pushed into poverty between June and December as federal aid expired -- almost double the largest annual increase in poverty since the 1960s, UChicago/Notre Dame economists sayhttps://t.co/0VEHAZvyQW
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) January 25, 2021
It’s been about six weeks since the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were approved in the US. There was talk in December of the US having 30% of the population vaccinated by the end of March, but here at the end of January about 6% of the population has received at least their first dose.
Co-worker who was in the office tested positive yesterday. One of my employees had extended contact with them and is heading home to quarantine. I didn’t have contact with them this week so I’m still in the office.
A good friend of my Dad’s passed away from COVID complications last week. He was (IIRC) in his fifties.
I heard that my brother in law’s brother’s mother in law also has bad complications. (Don’t know more than that.)
A co-worker’s daughter and son-in-law both tested positive.
My second test results came back yesterday — negative.
I took the test (another free-to-me saliva test received by mail) in my office on Monday and sent it UPS the same day. The results came back Tuesday evening.
My first test results came back today — negative. I had ordered an at-home saliva test simply because I could. I plan to order and take a new one every week as long as I’m required to work in the office (and until a vaccine becomes widely available).
My view “from the ground”:
- Suddenly (within the last week) I am hearing of exposures from multiple people I know. Our neighbors are quarantining after a teacher at their son's daycare was exposed. Someone at work is quarantining after her boyfriend was exposed and he began showing symptoms.
- It is now a lot easier to get tested than it was in the spring. In MN you can order an at-home saliva test that either insurance or the state will pay for.
- Feels like our already-small world got a lot smaller since the weather got colder, the case numbers shot up again, and we increased our isolation from the few people with whom we’d been getting together.
- With the vaccines in sight, we’re hopeful that we can get through this thing but it’s really going to suck for a while longer.
Changes since August on a national scale:
- The latest numbers are way, way up, everywhere in the country.
- President Trump had the virus in early October and was treated with Regeneron (still in experimental stage). He was not treated with hydroxychloroquine.
- Here in MN, hospitals are nearly at capacity.
- Just this week there was an outbreak among GOP state senators and staff, which they kept secret from the other side of the aisle.
- Two new vaccines show early signs of being extremely effective, but it will be a few months before they are widely available.
There have been a lot of changes in the past couple of months, but until recently my personal experience of the pandemic has not changed much: we continue to live the isolated in-limbo life.
My daughter, who is in first grade this year, is still doing distance learning as she was last spring. My son is in a private preschool, however.
Everyone at work has been “wearing masks” since the executive order in July. Not everyone is very good at it though; they're only required to do so when leaving their desks, lots of masks on chins etc.
We did have/attend a few outdoor gatherings over the summer. But now that it’s cold out again that’s not going to really happen much anymore. It’s widely understood that this virus spreads via aerosols and can linger in the air for hours, so unventilated spaces are a no-go for the prudent.
I've been thinking about how narrow and limited my lived-experience view of “local pandemic life” is. I have so far been insulated from financial fallout, in fact we’re doing a bit better than normal thanks to reduced spending and the stimulus check. I rarely go out to buy anything anywhere other than the grocery store or the gas station, but those places appear as busy as they ever did, the main difference being that almost everyone has a mask on. It’s a huge contrast to the desolate abandoned Soviet-esque wasteland of mid-March.
And yet you know the unemployment numbers are still sky high, higher than they were at their worst in the last recession. Most of those people have had their income slashed by more than half with the expiration of the CARES act. Food shelf demand is extremely high. Mortgage delinquency has doubled. Federal eviction protections for many renters expired two days ago.
Worth noting: I know of no one with whom I have a personal connection that has tested positive since April 30.
The unemployment relief in the CARES act has expired. The House passed a second relief bill a month ago. The Senate waited until the beginning of August to start negotiations with the House, and now the Senate has adjourned until Labor Day without any agreement.
Trump has said he will extend an additional $300/week unemployment by executive orders, among other things. But it is widely understood among policymakers that this set of executive orders has many problems and that they will not have any meaningful effect.
Ideological Split: There seems to be a trend in the reporting: there actually isn’t much of a partisan split in attitudes about the virus itself. One recent poll found support for mask mandates was at 72% overall. 86% of Democrats in the poll supported them, 58% of Republicans.
But anecdotally, the actual point of disagreement I see among Trump-aligned ideologues has changed. They no longer deny that the virus exists or that it can cause major health problems or that it has a high fatality rate compared to the flu. Most frequently the claim is that there is a simple cure to the virus but that doctors who know about it are being censored through some kind of conspiracy.
Today Trump is saying that the election should be delayed until after the pandemic, which lines up with my expectations of March 19 above.
Whatever Trump says or whatever some states do, if the Electoral College doesn’t convene for whatever reason, the current House votes for President and the current Senate votes for VP. Added wrinkle: the vote in the House only is one vote per state, not per representative. There is no way that process goes smoothly or decisively.
I'm officially a google scholar. Finally I have a seat at the table. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-uBH7jgAAAAJ
Booked an expensive dinner at a local restaurant rooftop for the first week of August. This will be my first time eating at a restaurant since February (my wife went to a patio with a friend in June). Hopefully the weather cooperates. We’re looking forward to pretending things are sort of normal for a couple of hours.
Yesterday, a statewide mask mandate was announced for Minnesota. Governor Walz ended up doing it as a unilateral executive order.
Last week, something of a minor turnaround on masks at work. Amid a larger morale/retention crisis, my IT co-worker and I began to raise the need for others to at least wear masks if we are in their workspace helping with a computer issue. Especially since there is almost no social distancing in the office. The CEO acquiesced to a review of the current COVID policies with a possibility of adding some (!) guidance on mask use.
This week, my co-worker and at least two others have worn masks in the office. One of those because her daughter was exposed to someone who had tested positive.
We are having a birthday party for my daughter this weekend. Following the “Stay Safe MN” order means no more than 10 people if we have to have it inside, 25 if outdoors.
June Prognostications
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I went back and forth on this, but think Congress will pass some additional relief. GOP senators have already shown they have no real problem with big deficit spending to help out a republican president, and Democrats have shown that spiking the economy to spite Trump is not, thankfully, in their playbook.
-
However, the negotiations around the price tag will be different this time around. The relief will probably not be enough to mitigate most of the economic pain that is coming, and this pain will really be on the rise in the Aug–Sep time frame.
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Since the pandemic is now the setting and not the story, it will not even be close to the largest factor on the public mood between now and November. Right now the BLM protests are big on everyone’s mind, against the backdrop of the pandemic and the economy.
-
I would guess that between now and November, in addition to these things we will see at least one more kind of crisis get added to the mix before the election itself expands into every last corner of our consciousness. If I were writing the show, I would think we were due for something in the nature of foreign policy.
-
I’m no longer predicting who will win the US presidential election. Polls look good for Biden, but he’s a very old idiot who can still land himself in a lot of trouble by saying stupid things. He could perform very poorly in debates. He might also die.
-
I do predict a slow setting-in of big economic pain in the months leading up to the election.
Prognostication Recap
From my March 17 guesses:
- “The crisis will increase in severity through at least July, driven by severe healthcare shortages” — I think I missed this one. I also did not account for the locality of outbreaks; I was at that point still thinking of the US as a whole. So the reality was more mixed. Capacity-driven crises did hit in some places (New York) but were avoided in others. Both here in Minnesota and as a whole, the US has seen its case load level off and decline, but it remains much, much worse than the EU, which peaked at the same time and same level as we did in April.
- “No measure big enough to offset major economic downturn will be able to pass in Congress…lots of unemployment and no relief” — In fact some sizeable relief did pass that may have so far spared us the worst of the pain. But since the unemployment supports are set to expire at the end of next month, (and it seems very doutbful that there will exist the political will to extend them), we might have just pushed the worst pain out to Aug–Sep. Unemployment claims are declining but still extremely hugely high. So I think this may yet prove true.
- “If we get the disease, and the public mood, under control before June, Trump is reelected in November…If we get there between June and September, Trump loses in November” — Obviously the election hasn't happened yet. But I think these predictions were framed around some incorrect assumptions: 1) that public mood would improve in concert with our actual control of the disease spread; 2) a strictly linear picture of improvement, and 3) no other factors (civil rights protests, anyone?). What actually happened was that the atmosphere of fear and dread evaporated, but there was actually no change in our actual control over it. The two are not in any way linked.
Surfing the Digitalization Wave: What Your Talent Needs for Digital Future Fast-advancing digitalization has meant that development and learning programs must augment workforce skills so they can fulfil their job roles suitably. https://www.topchro.com/article/surfing-the-digitalization-wave-what-your-talent-needs-for-digital-future
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https://www.itproportal.com/features/technology-in-hr-are-you-asking-the-right-questions/
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We’re through another month.
Masks: I am again, lately, the only person at work who wears a mask. Mask wearing at stores has become common, even though not everywhere required.
The Mode: In a hundred little ways, our mode or approach to pandemic reality has morphed into: do whatever, maybe wear a mask. People have given up on quarantine and even social distancing except in locations where rules are posted and enforced.
Partisan divide: With the death of George Floyd here in Minneapolis two weeks ago, and the subsequent protests all over the world, the most intense partisan fault lines are totally realigned now now around police brutality and systemic racism issues.
We’ve now seen that no one is procedurally against mass protests in the midst of a pandemic. Language like “sacrificing the elderly” aimed at those who want to reopen the economy ASAP is now conspicuously absent from any discourse about large gatherings.
Chartered Private Equity Professional | KKR Partners | USPEC
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Chartered Private Equity Professional | Bain Capital Partners | USPEC Bain Capital is a global alternative investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. It specializes in private equity, venture capital and credit products. Tags: PE professional, private equity professional, uspec partners, capital management firms, private equity investment firms in US, US private equity firms, private equity firms in austin tx, private equity industry https://www.uspec.org/private-equity-firms/bain-capital
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Lower burnout, improved productivity and higher energy are among the benefits of making paid time off an integral part of your organizational culture.
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