Truckers Offer Help as Official Response to I-95 Traffic Chaos Falters | Rolling Stone

January 5, 2022January 4, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As truckers, it’s second nature for Emily Slaughter and Michele Rusher to keep tabs on bad weather and road closures. But as the drivers, who work for the shipping company New Prime, Inc., headed southbound on Interstate 95 early Tuesday morning, Jan. 4, no radio updates or electronic road signs suggested they were about to hit the worst traffic jam imaginable.

At around one or two in the morning, Rusher and Slaughter joined a mass of cars stuck on the snow-covered, ice-slicked roads of Northern Virginia. A sudden winter storm the day before had blanketed this stretch of highway outside of Washington D.C., and many drivers (including U.S. Senator Tim Kaine) were stranded overnight in their cars with no food or water in freezing temperatures, trying to stay warm while conserving gas.

This new solar shingle from GAF Energy gets nailed right onto a roof | Fast Company

January 4, 2022January 3, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The concept seems obvious: Why put solar panels on a roof when you could just make the roof out of solar panels? But Tesla’s attempt to design a solar roof didn’t go well: The solar tiles turned out to be challenging to install, and the final price for customers has sometimes become tens of thousands of dollars higher than they were quoted. But GAF Energy, a spinoff of the world’s largest roofing company, launched a new solar roof today that it believes can succeed—and that could help radically speed up the adoption of home solar.

“The potential for solar is enormous, but we haven’t come close to meeting it,” says Martin DeBono, president of GAF Energy, which is part of parent company Standard Industries, which also owns GAF. “When you have a heritage in roofing, and you see solar panels going up the same way in 2020 as they were put up in 1990, yeah, you realize there’s an opportunity for innovation.”

Does fully vaccinated mean boosted? Yes, say these companies | Fast Company

January 4, 2022January 3, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests eligible people should consider getting a booster shot starting at about six months after the date of their original COVID-19 vaccine regimen. For many Americans, that date has passed. Factor in more heavily mutated variants like omicron, and you can see why proof of vaccination is hurtling toward showing you’ve also received a booster shot. Around the country, a number of private businesses have already started rolling one out, and some local governments are beginning to do the same.

The federal government hasn’t signed off yet on booster shot mandates. Ground zero for them, then, might seem like it would be progressive states. But so far, it’s a mixed bag pulling the trigger:

How to Engage Remote Employees in 5 Simple Steps | AllBusiness.com

January 3, 2022January 2, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Employee engagement isn’t easy. However, it becomes even more elusive when you experience the same challenges in a completely remote environment. As a co-founder of an employee engagement platform, I had a front seat to the moment when the whole world collectively went into a sudden lockdown, engagement levels plummeted, and companies scrambled to come up with a solution to engage their newly remote workforce.

Many believe that these days of remote working are limited, but I strongly disagree. While it’s tempting to think that these recent trends will only last as long as the world is still recovering from Covid-19, a McKinsey study says more than half of workers would like to work from home at least three days a week after the pandemic, and nearly a third say they would like to work remotely full time. Meanwhile, with the outpouring of support for the Great Resignation from employers, it is clear that some form of remote work or teleworking will be a permanent part of our future.

How to Accept Crypto Payments as a Small Business | Small Business Trends

January 3, 2022January 2, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It took only four months within the first half of 2021 for the global cryptocurrency usage to double to over 200 million. In this article, we’ll show you how to accept crypto payments as a small business.

As more people continue to warm up to crypto, a good number of small businesses are way ahead of the news, positioning themselves to serve the increasing number of crypto-paying customers.

Accepting Cryptocurrency Payments

According to a January 2020 HSB nationwide survey, 36% of small businesses accept cryptocurrency payments. If you’re among the enterprises left out of the crypto payments bracket, it’s probably time to start figuring out how to accept crypto payments to keep pace with the competition.

Apple puts Indian iPhone factory ‘on probation’ | BBC News

December 30, 2021December 29, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Apple has placed an iPhone factory in southern India “on probation” following protests over food poisoning and living conditions.

An audit by Apple found that remote dining rooms and dormitories used by workers did not meet requirements.

Around 250 women who worked at the Foxconn plant were affected by food poisoning, with more than 150 ending up in the hospital, local media reported.

Foxconn apologized and said it was investigating the situation.

In 2022, Get Ready for the Great Onboarding | Inc.com

December 29, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s now been more than six months since the term “Great Resignation” started hitting headlines, as employees facing rising costs ventured out on a mass scale to look for better wages and better experiences. The term has taken on a life of its own, with countless articles, a Wikipedia page and even as the title of a book.

But so far, coverage of the “Great Resignation” has focused on the negative: the workers that businesses are losing. More than half a year after the start of this great exodus, it’s time for leaders to look at where employees are headed next and to get ready for the next phase of the ever-changing employment situation: “The Great Onboarding.”