#pictures of your finished ballot is illegal i believe

[sqished]

Get out and VOTE! No excuses! No pussyfooting! No "They're both equally bad!" No "She's pro-Israel!" This administration has undoubtedly failed Palestine. He is Worse. Suck it up and secure the freedoms of those around you. Voting for Trump is stupid because he constantly brags that he's more pro- Isn't Real than Harris. Voting for a third party is equivalent to not voting. Actually not voting is selfish because every atrocity is marked by inaction. Don't put your white-knighting over the safety of everyone around you! She will face incredible pressure from the left to help Palestine. He will not face any pressure from the right. In the end, vote as far as you can.

Listen to Bernie Sanders speak on this.

Listen to Last Week Tonight speak.

Down-Ballot. President. Vote.

[ericvick]

Commentary: It truly is a race to the finish line--will not enable Covid catch you

“Just when I assume I’m out, they pull me back in.”  – Michael Corleone, “The Godfather, Part 3”

It would seem like every single time we get started to get forward of Covid, Americans as a group decide to pull us back again into the virus. Gov. Baker’s Nov. 6 buy, requiring “all folks in Massachusetts above 5 yrs of age to use confront masks or cloth face coverings in all community places, no matter whether indoors or outdoors, even wherever they are equipped to manage 6 ft of distance from others” is nonetheless in impact, but it appears to be slipping away as a critical avoidance evaluate.  

A good friend on Beacon Hill informed me that a few months in the past there was nearly 100 percent compliance with the mask get, but now he sees older guys walking the streets flaunting their masklessness.

You also see the slippage in mask-sporting in our neighborhoods.  I’ve recognized people in some stores not carrying masks.  From time to time you’re explained to that the person is vaccinated, but how are we to know?  A third of Massachusetts voters checked the ballot for Trump. Are Trumpers determining that they never treatment about no matter if they are infected?

The slippage in taking safety measures towards the virus tracks completely with the knowledge: We are trending toward a new surge in Covid conditions across the country and in our Commonwealth. It’s a pattern that is specially affecting those beneath 30 a long time of age.  We could reduce the war to the Covid variants.

But who would not be confused by the mixed messages that we are having from our authorities officials?  The governor has opened indoor dining places, even sports venues, so why would not people think it is okay to fall the precautions?

But it’s not all right there are nevertheless tens of millions of Massachusetts people who are unvaccinated, and there are numerous unanswered concerns about what it signifies to be vaccinated.  You can still get the virus if you are vaccinated, but it is possible you’ll be asymptomatic, and it’s exceptionally not likely that you will wind up in the healthcare facility as a result.

And we even now really do not know no matter whether vaccinated individuals can move the virus to a further person.  This contains children, who, some experiments exhibit, are probably acquiring the virus at the similar charge as grownups, even though generally without the need of serious signs and symptoms.

Until these thoughts are answered, we require to go on to just take the safeguards we all know function nicely to stem Covid’s unfold.  Despite the fact that I’m vaccinated, I will carry on to put on a mask in public for the foreseeable future, partly to not be a jerk by generating other people fearful, and partly for the reason that I do not want to get an asymptomatic circumstance that can be handed together to small children, which include the grandchildren with whom I stay.

Until eventually it is determined that vaccinations will preserve the unvaccinated and children secure, individuals will will need to continue on to put on masks and observe social distancing when in public, or we’ll keep on to have surges that will hold off obtaining herd immunity.  And our financial system will not thoroughly recuperate.   I believe that we’ll finally get to that immunity phase, at least inside of the area, but it will not be until the little ones are vaccinated, which will be at the conclusion of 2021 at the earliest.  In the meantime, coaxing people today to participate in the economic system all over again will need some assurance that we’re risk-free. 

Since the travel sector has been was devastated by Covid, some governments and travel marketplace leaders are speaking about necessitating a “digital passport” that will enable vacationers to present they have been vaccinated.    

Employers and authorities simply cannot at the moment mandate vaccinations mainly because the vaccines are not Federal Drug Administration (Fda) authorised, other than for unexpected emergency use, even though several universities and other personal companies are relocating towards necessitating a vaccination.  

We never want the legislation, having said that, to get shut to a universal use of masks and other protection actions.  This would be done by the power of the purse.  The previous detail firms want is for their shoppers to experience unsafe, or to get Covid as a final result of an conversation with their businesses. 

Due to the fact it is not illegal for corporations to request their staff members users if they are vaccinated, the businesses can identify that non-vaccinated personnel don masks as part of ta gown code.  This has been used to induce employees users to get their pictures at health facilities, as putting on a mask all working day at work can be an annoyance.

These of us who do not want to sense at chance can also permit companies know that we will not interact with all those that that really don’t have a mask necessity for equally workers and consumers.  If plenty of individuals stroll out of firms wherever maskless employees and/or shoppers are authorized, and let the supervisors know why, it will be a effective incentive to enforce the governor’s mandate.

Based mostly on recent traits, it is likely that we will have 80 percent of grownups vaccinated in Massachusetts by the Fourth of July, which ought to drastically cut down on transmission of the virus.  And we could shortly discover out if it can be transmitted by the vaccinated.  But to defend young children, it is incredibly vital that we go on what we all both of those know and can do to guard other people: don a mask, maintain socially distant from other individuals not in your bubble, wash your arms, and hold out until eventually we hear a resounding “all clear.”

Bill Walczak is a Dorchester resident and co-founder and previous CEO of the Codman Sq. Wellbeing Center. His column seems weekly in the Reporter.

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[dorothydelgadillo]

How We Build Company Culture as a Remote Team

Skillcrush is a completely distributed company, meaning that we have no central office and are located all over the world, spanning languages, continents, and timezones. With the exception of a few clusters (several of us live in New York City and we have a bustling Florida contingent), most of rarely see each other IRL—if ever. The entirety of the Skillcrush team has never physically been in one place together, leaving us to guess at each other’s heights. Instead, we do everything digitally, from meetings over Google Hangouts to daily chatter on Hipchat.

You might think that working in your house or coworking space—far away from your coworkers—is lonely. In fact, we recently talked about fighting isolation as a remote team on the first episode of our podcast, Hit Refresh. In the episode, our producer Haele commented that most of our institutional solutions for building culture on the team fall to me, our Director of Operations.

I’m embarrassed to admit that the thought had never really occurred to me. At least. . . not really. There are times where I feel like the team mom—the one who makes sure everyone gets a gif party on their birthday—but, honestly, I think that has less to do with my job and more to do with my personality. So the episode got me thinking about culture-building and how it really has to be a team effort instead of a top-down initiative instituted by managers or executives.

I often encounter skepticism from people who assume we couldn’t possibly know each other the way co-located teams do, and that a bland company culture must be the price we pay for flexibility. But we are anything but boring! In fact, in a recent anonymous survey, the five words most used by our team to describe our culture were fun, friendly, empowering, supportive, and welcoming.

On a day-to-day basis, we make a point to talk about (and celebrate!) things other than work, and to let team members take the lead on team-building activities. We chat about our weekends, our kids, and our lives just like any other coworkers. We have real friendships over our computer screens—both in one-on-one chats and in group settings.

Just as critical to our daily interactions are the special events and clubs we make happen to foster our company culture and relationships. Here’s a look at some of the things you might recognize from your own office, just moved online.

Baby Showers

Ain’t no Skillcrush baby shower complete without swag for the little ones! We use iron-ons to make onesies for the newborn and t-shirts for any older siblings.

We’re experiencing a bit of a baby boom here at Skillcrush and could not be more excited about it. A sampling of responses to a recent baby announcement in our team chat include: “OMG WE HAZ BABY!!!,” “he’s so cute i’m DYING,” “STAP IT RIGHT NOW HE IS PERFECT,” and “omg get that baby in a skillcrush onesie omg omg.”

To give us an outlet for our excitement and, you know, support the new parents and all that, we started hosting baby showers to send folks off on parental leave with lots of fanfare.

Here’s how it works: We schedule a video call that works for as many team members as possible, and one team member is designated as the host. The host finds a local bakery to deliver treats to the parent-to-be the day of the shower, sends a few gifts, and plans a simple game for the guests to play. Valerie, our Customer Support Specialist, was a recent host and she had us submit baby pictures that she turned into a funny guessing game.

We watch the parent open their goodies, we chat about the baby, and those of us who are parents share encouraging words. It’s a casual, easy way to support new parents and celebrate as a team, and it’s one of my favorite Skillcrush traditions.

Happy Hours

We can’t take departing team members out for a drink on their last day of work, but we can throw them a remote “happy hour” to wish them well before they go.

These thirty-minute Google Hangouts turn a sad thing—saying goodbye to a teammate—into a celebration, so we throw them for departing team members whenever possible. The whole team is invited and everyone is encouraged to bring “whatever drink or snack makes you happy, given your personal preferences and/or time zone.” There’s no agenda, just casual chit chat about the team member’s next adventure.

I often tell our students, “once a Skillcrusher, always a Skillcrusher,” because we don’t disappear when they’re done with their coursework. Once they’re in our community, they’re in it, and I truly believe this extends to our team, too. Happy Hours are our way of reminding them that leaving doesn’t actually mean saying goodbye and that they’re stuck with us forever.

Book Clubs

We started the first Skillcrush Book Club almost three years ago and, while that one never made it beyond book one, at least three others are alive and well.

Our oldest club is no ordinary book club—it’s “Superhero Instructor Training” for the folks on our Class Management and Curriculum teams, and it started as a way to discuss books we felt would help us better support students. Topics have since ranged from mentorship and online learning to feminist fight clubs.

The Marketing team, on the other hand, uses their book club to read everything from work-related books to young adult romance novels. (I’m told the latter was an accident but who knows with that group.)

And then there’s Reading Death Match, a book club only in the loosest sense of the term. This cross-team group of hellions start new books at random intervals and compete in a “winner take all” challenge to see who can finish first. There is no discussion of the actual book, just a chat room where participants regularly update each other on their progress, taunt, tease, and liberally use exclamation points. 

Despite the chat room topic (which simply reads, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”), we keep it pretty civil . . . most of the time.

Movie Nights

A Skillcrush movie night in which we broke with tradition and watched Spy instead of a musical.

Since movie nights are a larger time commitment, and one of the few events hosted outside of “working hours,” we do them more sparingly—but that makes them all the more special!

If you’re wondering exactly how we manage to watch movies together from thousands of miles away, let me introduce you to a tool called Rabbit. It’s similar to a Google Hangouts, except you can login into a number of streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc.) and stream a movie in the main window. This allows a group to watch the same movie simultaneously, while still being able to see a film strip of everyone below, and chat with everyone in the call.

We watched Pitch Perfect for our first movie night, after our “ballot box” was illegally stuffed. (Ahem, you know who you are.) It turns out that remote movie nights are extra fun when you can see your coworkers singing and dancing along to the movie. Thankfully, everyone comes with their very own mute button! #sorrynotsorry

Holiday Gifts

One of our company values is lifelong learning and we’re always looking for ways to support team members in this. (We even have an Educational Stipend that allows us to get financial support for learning anything we want!) But before we had that, we had an Instructor who suggested we let team members pick their choice of book as a holiday gift.

Three years later, the Instructor has since moved on to a super awesome job, but the tradition she started lives on. Every December, I make a short Google Form and team members submit a book, mailing address, and their preference for an ebook or physical copy. Then we use Amazon Prime to play Santa!

It usually ends up being an equal split of work-related and totally unrelated books. This year, our Director of Curriculum Chelsea submitted a link to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, along with the comment, “YEAH, YOU READ THAT RIGHT.” (You do you, Chelsea.)

Pick-Me-Ups

Ann: Lead Dev Instructor, long-distance pancake sender, and part-time Lambchop.

As remote workers, we can’t swing by a coworker’s desk with an extra cup of coffee when we see them having a rough day, but we can find other ways to be there for them in good times and in bad.

Recently, a pregnant team member had a rough couple of weeks. The hits just kept on coming and she made a joke in HipChat that she could really use a drink. An amateur mixologist on the team volunteered to surprise her with a homemade mocktail kit! And when I broke my foot and ran out of caffeine, Ann, our Lead Web Development Instructor pulled up GrubHub from her home outside of Montreal and had a local restaurant deliver pancakes and coffee to my Chicago apartment. To this day, it’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.

And while those are more elaborate examples, we’ve found small gestures go a long way too—things like giving another coworker a well-deserved shout out during an all-team meeting, or using your kid’s puppet to brighten a coworker’s day.

The Class Management team celebrating Halloween during their daily check-in.

Of course, remote work isn’t all friendship bracelets and Amazon Prime packages. As our CEO, Adda Birnir, put it on our podcast, “We didn’t find utopia. We found a really good thing, but it’s imperfect.”

There aren’t a lot of established best practices for remote teams, and we can’t always find people with experience solving the problems we’re trying to solve. That means lots of trial and error, and sometimes those errors are rough.

But good company culture isn’t just about giving gifts and throwing parties. It’s about actually being “fun, empowering, friendly, supportive, and welcoming” (all day, every day), and course-correcting when someone points out an action or behavior that isn’t inline with those values.

And those are things we can all do—no matter how much distance there is between me and me coworker’s desk. So when folks express doubt that we can really match an in-person culture, I say: Anything you can do, we can do remotely.

from Web Developers World https://skillcrush.com/2018/03/01/build-work-culture-remote-team/