LinkedIn will give its 15,900 full-time employees next week off to avoid WFH burnout and allow the workforce to recharge themselves. The professional networking platform said that the “RestUp!” week, which starts from Monday, will give employees time for their own well-being. “There is something magical about the entire company taking a break at the same time. And the best part? Not coming back to an avalanche of unanswered internal emails ” Linkedin said in a reply to news agency AFP.
Tag: WFH (page 1 of 6)
Cisco Systems has launched a new product to help mobile networks manage rising data traffic generated by home-working because of the COVID-19 and 5G rollout. Networks across the globe have witnessed a 25%-45% rise in internet traffic, since the COVID-19 pandemic. Cisco expects nearly 30 bn connected devices in 2023 led largely by 5G rollout, compared with 18.4 bn in 2018. It has signed Airtel, Google Cloud, Rakuten Mobile, Telenor and Telia Carrier.
Google has registered over 140% in “WFH jobs” searches from India in 2020 over 2019. The country has also adopted new things like “online doctor consultations” searches, which grew 300 % in the period led by Manipur, Bihar and Karnataka. Search in queries for “learn” was up by 30% YoY. Over 90% of YouTube users watched content in Indic languages. The demand for “local news” saw a spike as users wanted updates on the neighbourhood.
Facebook will begin reopening its offices in May, after a year-long COVID-19 shutdown. Free food, workout centres, shuttle buses with Wi-Fi and other public amenities will not be available for the employees, as of now. All offices will start functioning with 10% of the “maximum seated capacity”, which may go up to 50% in the first week of Sept. People do have the option to WFH until early July. Those not designated as full-time remote employees are expected to return to offices later.
Uber is reopening offices in San Francisco with a 20% occupancy on March 29, with the option for its staff to return to work on a “voluntary basis”. The ride-hailing app had previously extended its WFH policy until Sept 13. The employees returning to work are asked to strictly adhere to COVID-19 protocols — wearing a face mask, maintaining social distancing, wiping desks etc. Employees or those with sick family members are required to stay at home, Uber said.
A new Microsoft survey said that 73% of employees want flexible WFH options to continue across the world, as the hybrid work model is set to become the next great disruption. Remote job postings on LinkedIn saw a 5x increase during the pandemic. “Over 40 % of the global workforce is considering leaving their employer this year and 46 % are planning to move now that they can work remotely,” said Microsoft’s ‘2021 Work Trend Index’.
A Citrix study said that 52% of people want a hybrid model — an option to choose to WFH or office. It went on to say that 16% don’t want to return to the office and would prefer a permanently WFH role. 45 % will change jobs to stay in flexible and remote work options. Tim Minahan, Executive VP of Strategy, Citrix said “both companies and employees have seen the benefits more flexible work models can bring in terms of productivity, engagement and well-being”.
A report by Indeed, an employee job portal, said that Indian firms not keen to support remote work post-pandemic, unlike global peers. The report, went on to say that 59% of employers are not in favour of remote working, while 70% said that they will work from the office once a solution to the pandemic is in place, even as 75% accept that there is no decline in employee productivity. Surprisingly, 90 % of startups will also like to work from the office, once a solution for the pandemic was in place.
Enterprises and end-users will spend $2.08 bn in 2021 on information security and risk management. An increase of 9.5% from 2020, said Gartner. “The overnight move to WFH in reaction to the pandemic exposed organisations’ vulnerabilities,” said Prateek Bhajanka, senior principal research analyst at Gartner. “While security leaders had to cut down on their security spending in 2020 because of IT budget-cuts, in 2021, this trend is reversing,” he added.