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North Korea nuclear fuel plant still operational despite US pressure to end program, report says
TOGETHER WITHGood morning. If you’re new to the Brew, on Saturdays we’ve been hitting pause on the news cycle to tackle really big-picture topics, from the future of cities to virtual economies.Today’s theme was chosen mainly because it’s been the first thing brought up in every conversation over the past three months: Is remote work our destiny?Before we dive in, we’ll get you caught up on yesterday’s headlines.MARKETS
NASDAQ9,489.87+ 1.29%S&P3,044.31+ 0.48%DJIA25,383.11- 0.07%GOLD1,744.40+ 0.93%10-YR0.657%- 3.80 bpsOIL35.44+ 5.13%*As of market close- Minneapolis update: A former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee on the neck of George Floyd, a black man who later died in police custody, was arrested and charged with murder yesterday. Protests over Floyd’s death have engulfed Minneapolis and spread across the nation this week.
- Geopolitics: President Trump made a flurry of big announcements regarding China yesterday, including revoking Hong Kong's preferential trade status and ending the U.S.' support for the World Health Organization.
- This is one confusing economy: Consumer spending dropped 13.6% in April—the most on record. At the same time, household incomes and personal savings posted record increases. That’s the government stimulus payments kicking in.
REMOTE WORK
Can We Work From Home...Forever?
Francis ScialabbaRemote work has grown on corporate executives like a hot bowl of cauliflower gnocchi. They held off on principle for years, but one bite suddenly turned into 20, and many are now considering making the switch permanent.What have we learned a few months into the Great WFH Experiment? It's been a pleasant surprise.According to an Upwork survey...- 56% of hiring managers think it’s gone better than expected, and one-third said productivity has increased (less than a third said it decreased).
- 62% plan to offer more remote work going forward.
It’s not just management that's pleased. Three-fifths of U.S. workers who are working from home because of the pandemic want to stay remote, according to Gallup.- Pros: No commute, fewer meetings, no more listening to your deskmate talk about their weekend. Mid-day Peloton rides.
- Cons: Tech issues, home distractions (kids), communication barriers, less inter-team contact. Plus, many workers are putting in three extra hours a day and having trouble separating work from their personal lives.
Those were a lot of drawbacks...but some experts think they can be mitigated. “What we’re experiencing now isn’t truly intentional remote work, it’s crisis-induced work from home,” Darren Murph, head of remote at GitLab, told the WSJ. Companies who move forward with remote work can spend more time putting infrastructure in place to support their employees.The hard truths
The traditional office wasn’t exactly perfect before this. And remote work has its own pain points.Access: Working from home is far easier for knowledge workers and higher earners. Black and Hispanic/Latino workers are disproportionately left out of remote opportunities.Equity: The gender pay gap among full-time remote workers has widened over the last six years, according to Owl Labs. And during the pandemic, women have continued to shoulder a greater portion of “invisible labor” like childcare, housekeeping, and shopping.Trust: If employers don’t trust workers to work when they're remote, it can increase burnout and hurt morale. A boom in employee surveillance, from screen capturing tech to logs of keyboard strokes, has accompanied the recent WFH experiment. Privacy advocates fear this could normalize surveillance.COST SAVINGS
One Benefit of Remote Work: Follow the Money
Francis ScialabbaPivoting to remote can be like having a small wedding. You tell people it was for high-minded reasons, but…you probably also saved some $$$.We’re not saying your boss doesn’t care about your work-life balance, just that she also cares about not covering your three kombucha/day habit. According to a Global Workplace Analytics report, the typical firm can save an average of $11,000 per half-time telecommuter per year.Where do those savings come from?
- Real estate and related costs. Rafat Ali, CEO of travel publisher Skift, told Folio the firm will save $600,000/year by not renewing the lease on its Manhattan office (it made over $10 million in rev. in 2018).
- Reduced payroll. When Mark Zuckerberg rolled out Facebook’s new long-term remote policy this month, he indicated that employees who leave Silicon Valley will also bid farewell to their Silicon Valley salaries.
Then again, Zuckerberg said Facebook wouldn’t necessarily save money from going more remote because it'll incur other expenses, such as occasionally bringing employees back to HQ for "onsites."Then again again, he probably knew not to say, “We’re doing this because money.”Zoom out: The research still isn’t 100% conclusive, but there’s some evidence remote work boosts productivity, engagement, and retention, which can indirectly pad companies' bottom lines.SECONDARY EFFECTS
Long Sweatpants, Short the Big Apple
There are the obvious consequences of a larger portion of the workforce working from home. Some are less obvious. We compiled a few under-the-radar effects that might not immediately come to mind.Shared workspaces will gain: During non-pandemic times, don’t expect “remote work” to necessarily mean “work from home.” People will flock to shared workspaces like coffee shops in order to be near other people while they work—something that hasn’t been a possibility given closures of nonessential businesses.Athleisure boom: The apparel category was growing before the pandemic, but without meetings, offices, or networking events to attend, growth has been supercharged. Shares of athleisure poster child Lululemon soared to all-time highs this week.Geographic dispersal: Office is gone from midtown NYC? So am I. Expect workers to settle in warmer-weather cities with a lower cost of living. On the employer side, not requiring that workers relocate to a physical office may open up new opportunities to find top talent on the cheap.Shake-up in podcasting: When Spotify scooped up Joe Rogan for $100 million, it knew it was gaining more than an audio product—Rogan’s also a video superstar. With fewer commuters listening to podcasts in cars and trains, we’ll likely see more activity in the audio/video hybrid space Spotify and others are now investing in.SPONSORED BY WEWORK
Offices Are Changing, But How?
Are you at home, far away from your coworkers, living half of your life on a video conference call? Us too. And to be honest, we’re ready to be back with the Crew in one place again.So in that spirit, we worked with the office innovators at WeWork to put together a discussion guide that’s all about navigating the future of work. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be covering everything you need to know to get back into the office. Step one, find an actual pair of pants.In the first part of our guide, we’re discussing what distancing means for your company and how your space will need to adapt. Here’s a hint: More distance, more signage, more communication.So take a read of our first piece right here, and be on the lookout for more office-based content in the coming days.SMALL TALK
Miss Talking About the Weather?
GiphyOscar Wilde once dissed conversations about the weather as “the last refuge of the unimaginative.” But considering idle chit chat around the watercooler all but evaporates in remote work arrangements, it's worth asking: Is there any value in discussing last night's Survivor episode with a coworker?Many business leaders hail chance conversations as essential
Silicon Valley can trace its pro-small talk mentality back to Intel, which laid out its workspaces to make sure employees bumped into each other like molecules. According to biographer Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs designed Pixar’s HQ with a central “atrium” for gathering—and even positioned the bathrooms to encourage spontaneous employee interaction.- Jobs later planned Apple’s new headquarters to consist of a ring of open workspaces surrounding a courtyard.
What’s the point? The argument can be summed up in a 2013 memo sent by Yahoo’s former CEO Marissa Mayer: “People are more collaborative and innovative when they’re together.” She was defending her ban on employees working from home.Can Slack and Zoom replace small talk?
Possibly. But creating the kind of cross-team rapport you get from impromptu brainstorms and avoiding eye contact in the bathroom mirror is like using a whisk instead of an electric mixer. WFH experts like Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom say it’s definitely possible, but takes effort.Bloom told Recode that employees should have the following videoconferences every. single. day: 1) A half-hour group chat to talk about anything and everything except work and 2) 10-minute chats between bosses and direct reports.PERSONAL
Reflections on Working From Home
This is Neal Freyman, the managing editor of Morning Brew. With our company completely remote since March 11, I thought you might be interested to hear what the experience has been like for the Brew writers.There’s been no disruption in our day-to-day: All our team really needs to write newsletters is a strong wi-fi connection and the steady drip of coffee. Not only have we managed to publish our existing schedule of newsletters without any problem, we’ve added one publication already during the pandemic (The Essentials) and are planning to launch another newsletter in a few weeks.But I don’t talk to other teams much. I think this is one of the biggest differences between working in an office and WFH—I interact with few others beyond the editorial team and the leadership team. I used to talk to the hilarious folks in our sales department every day when grabbing something from the office refrigerator, but I haven’t spoken to most of them in months.So while things seem to be going smoothly...I don’t know what we’re missing out on. Which face-to-face conversations would’ve led to the next big idea? Would morale be higher if our company formed a kickball team? How much better would the Brew’s newsletters be if we could discuss our issues in-person?I don’t have the answer. But I, for one, am ready to get back to the office ASAP.Disclaimer: The home office in this image looks nothing like mine.WHAT ELSE IS BREWING
- SpaceX will once again try to launch humans into space this afternoon. The first attempt on Wednesday was postponed 15 minutes before liftoff.
- Kylie Jenner is no longer a billionaire, according to Forbes. An investigation revealed she’s been “inflating the size and success of her business.”
- Tencent is in talks to buy a stake in Warner Music Group, the WSJ reports.
- NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York City is on track to begin a phased reopening process on June 8.
- Netflix is buying Hollywood’s historic Egyptian Theatre.
- The NCAA released guidelines to help schools bring back athletes to campus.
BREW'S BETS
Samsung and Gemini take crypto to the next level. Samsung Blockchain Wallet will partner with Gemini, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, to enable users to buy, sell, and trade crypto through their Samsung devices. Learn more here.*As if she couldn’t be any more impressive. On Amanpour and Company, Christiane Amanpour leads in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on issues impacting the world in politics, tech, business, and the arts. Watch here.*Weekend conversation starters...for when it's 9pm and still light out:- Should you ever use the word “very” in your writing? (More style tips here.)
- Lip-syncing is one thing, orchestra miming is another. Would you do it?
- Debate your favorite finance Twitter accounts
*This is sponsored advertising contentSATURDAY HEADLINES
As the pandemic reshapes the way people interact with nature, some odd headlines have crept out of the animal kingdom. We've included three real animal encounters from the past week, and one fake one. Can you spot the imposter?- "Citing Chicago trash invasions, biologists are convinced raccoons hold grudges"
- "Monkeys 'escape with COVID-19 samples' after attacking lab assistant"
- "Meet the otters who raided a spa during a coronavirus shutdown, sparking outrage"
- "Man fined for animal cruelty and not wearing face mask after wrestling with bear at Polish zoo"
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morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=a17a7110 SATURDAY HEADLINES ANSWER
Raccoons aren't actually giving you the stink eye.Breaking News Trump in Trouble Sat, 30 May 2020 11:40:20 +0000 PatriotsNews Read More Trending Now Fresh Wave of Anti-Immigrant Violence: Death To The Invasive Grey Bastards! – Veterans Today Read More Amid New Cold War, Congressmen Bet Big on Beating China at Science Read More Police Officer Charged With Third-degree Murder in Floyd’s Death Read More You Might Like SATURDAY 5.30.2020Biden Makes Waves With Bizarre Refusal To Support Constitution by Western Journal9 RINO Senators Push Trump To Make Strange Anti-American Move by Gateway PunditTrump's Shocking FDA Move Clinches 2020 Victory by Bearded Patriot
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