Odds:1 in 15 million (video)

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Airbnb closes Barcelona call center (audio)

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South Africa's special lockdown (captions)

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Facebook remote work plans

OAKLAND, Calif. — Facebook will allow many employees to work from home permanently. But there’s a catch: they will not keep their big Silicon Valley salaries in more affordable parts of the country.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, told workers during a staff meeting that was livestreamed on his Facebook page that within a decade as many as half of the company’s more than 48,000 employees will work from home.

“It’s clear that Covid has changed a lot about our lives, and that certainly includes the way that most of us work,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

Facebook’s decision, the first among tech’s biggest companies, is a big change for a business culture built around getting workers into giant offices and keeping them there, using free shuttle buses, free cafeterias and personal services like dry cleaning.

If other giant companies follow Facebook, tech employment will probably move away from expensive hubs like Silicon Valley, Seattle and New York, where salaries aren’t enough to buy a home.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s announcement followed similar decisions at Twitter, where employees will be allowed to work from home indefinitely.

Aaron Levie, the chief executive of the business technology company Box, wrote on Twitter that “the push happening around remote work is as game-changing for the future of tech as the launch of the iPhone” more than a decade ago.

In March, the coronavirus lockdown forced companies to send employees home. Many tech companies, including Facebook, emptied their offices before local shelter-in-place orders.

Now, more than two months later, executives are discovering that their remote workers performed better than expected.

Facebook will begin by allowing new hires who are senior engineers to work remotely, and then allow current employees to apply for permission to work from home if they have positive performance reviews.

Starting in January, Facebook’s employee compensation will be adjusted based on the cost of living in the locations where workers choose to live.

Mr. Zuckerberg said the shift will offer more benefits than inconveniences for the company. Allowing remote work will allow Facebook to broaden its recruitment, retain valuable employees, reduce the climate impact caused by commutes and expand the diversity of its work force.

From The New York Times (edited)

An Italian cyclist (video)

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Twitter staff to work from home 'forever'

On Tuesday Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told its staff of more than 4,000 people across its global offices that they can work from home "forever" if they choose, when it reopens after the coronavirus pandemic ends.

He said, "Opening offices will be our decision. Coming back will be your decision."

Twitter said it will not be one of the first to return to offices and when they open, it will be "careful, intentional, office by office and gradual".

Sree Sreenivasan, a Loeb Visiting Professor of Digital Innovation at the Stony Brook University School of Journalism, said it is "an era-defining moment ".

"We can learn a lot from Silicon Valley about workplace flexibility. Some believe that working from home is stealing from the boss and face time in the office is extremely important. But people are proving they can be far more productive and get tasks done working from home. A lot of people tell me they are working harder at home and are exhausted," he added.

Companies around the world are working out how to re-open offices gradually while introducing new social distancing measures.

Earlier this month Google and Facebook said their staff can work from home until the end of the year. 

From BBC (edited)

The first female mechanic in Nigeria (captions)

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https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/03/27/great-big-story-nigeria-female-car-mechanic-gbs.great-big-story/video/playlists/great-big-story-vod/

Italy is ready to reopen

Preparing a barber shop in Rome

ROME - The Italian government will begin lifting coronavirus limits on Monday, but tourists will face stringent rules in hotels, restaurants and on beaches.

Although there are general guidelines for reopening for the entire country, each region can adopt its own changes depending on the particular situation.

The national government may decide to close certain areas again at any time if there is a spike in new coronavirus infections.

Italians can now walk the streets of their cities, wearing protective masks and gloves, and beginning Monday, all shops can reopen to the public, with new rules. Social distancing of at least one meter must continue to be maintained, and only a designated number of people at a time will be able to enter stores.

Italians will be able to return to bars, restaurants and beauty salons. Social distancing rules apply, and waiters and owners will have to wear face masks at all times.

Italians can travel within their regions starting Monday, and from region to region and abroad beginning June 3. Tourists can return starting June 3, as well.

Additionally, church services will resume, though only a certain number will be allowed to attend. Churches will be completely sanitized at the end of every day.

Schools, universities, cinemas and theaters will remain closed for the time being.

Gondoliers in Venice practise and wait for tourists to return to the city.

From VOA News and AP (edited)

A one-of-a-kind CEO (video)

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Corona beer and Coronavirus

Picture this. You are lounging on a faraway beach and have nothing to do but listen to the sound of rolling waves. The routines in your life are distant memories. In their place, palm trees rustle and turquoise water stretches to the horizon. A beautiful somebody relaxes at your side, safe and free.

If this sounds like an upgrade on life in lockdown, you now know why the marketing for Corona beer has been so successful. In the 1980s Grupo Modelo, the Mexican brewer that created it, began exporting Corona to the United States, projecting an image of “fun, sun and beach”. Unlike branding for other beers, which merely invited drinkers to unwind, Corona offered escape.

Save for Huawei, a Chinese telecoms mammoth, Corona is the most valuable global brand not from the rich world, according to Interbrand, a consultant. Or it was: 2020 has been riddled with rotten luck.

Grupo Modelo began producing Corona in Mexico City in the 1920s. The crown that adorns the beer’s label and bottle-cap first appeared in 1963. Soon afterwards, Corona beer began to conquer the world. AB InBev, the giant brewer, bought Grupo Modelo in 2013. By 2018, estimated Forbes, Corona sales reached $6.6bn.

In 2020, thanks to the pandemic, the word “corona” is now a battlefield on which glamour and calamity collide. Whether “corona”, a year or two from now, elicits thoughts of beaches and limes or of hospital beds and quarantines, is potentially a question worth billions.

The first shots fired in this battle were jokes. As the coronavirus spread, amateur comedians flocked to Corona’s Instagram account. Some sardonically urged the brewer to “please stop killing innocent people”. Others suggested that Corona change its name to something with fewer negative connotations, “like Ebola”. Corona’s social-media team stopped posting on March 13th.

A brand’s power lies in its ability to trigger subconscious associations in consumers’ minds. But who can now hear the word “corona” without thinking of plague? Many cite the unfortunate precedent of Ayds, a weight-loss candy whose sales plummeted in the 1980s. Its makers changed its name.

Any evidence of lasting damage to the brand will be slow to emerge, points out Tom Meyvis, a professor of marketing at the Stern School of Business, at New York University.

Those who know Corona note that it has defied the odds to reach the top. Mexico had no beer-making pedigree with which to win foreign drinkers’ trust, but images of Mexican beaches soon became a novel, glamorous and world-beating selling-point. Corona’s transparent glass bottle causes the beer to spoil easily when exposed to sunlight, and a “nothing to hide” marketing slogan was a hit.

Corona took advantage of loosening trade barriers to enter new markets, and became a national ambassador for Mexico in faraway places. By the 1990s the secretary for commerce, Jaime Serra Puche, was boasting that “Mexico exports two fluids: crude oil and Corona”.

In April the Mexican government belatedly ordered the closure of all non-essential activities. Unlike making wine in France or beer in the United States, brewing in Mexico was declared “non-essential”. Within weeks the national supply of Corona dried up.  Local supermarkets in Mexico City have neither Corona nor any other domestic brew left on its shelves; there are only a few imported beers to choose from.

It is a happy story cut short by the unlucky events of 2020.

• But what is Corona to do if damage to the brand is unavoidable?

• Should they change the name? Should they keep it?

From The Economist (edited)

South West Airlines is open for business (audio)

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A gym's equipment

Be Strong Gym owner Drew Whitted (photo) didn't want his clients to give up on their fitness goals while abiding by Illinois' stay-at-home order. So, he told members to come pick up equipment and take it with them, free of charge.

Whitted is among the many across the US who had to close his business' doors amid the coronavirus pandemic. But, he knew many of his members were missing their regular workout routines -- so he told members they could sign up to check out items to use at home while the studio is closed.

About 80 members of Be Strong Gym took Whitted up on his offer. In total, the gym distributed about $40,000 worth of equipment, including barbells, weights, exercise bikes, rowers and mats.

"It was awesome," Whitted said. "We cleared the gym out in less than two hours."

The gym has been holding online training sessions every day, so members can work out together virtually.

Currently eight people work at the gym, and Whitted said he plans to keep paying them for as long as the shutdown lasts.

"My staff will not miss a single dollar for their paycheck for as long as it takes," he said.

Before the pandemic hit Paulette Cocco used to work out at Be Strong three or four times a week. She was able to borrow a barbell, some weights and a heavy wall ball.

She said the online workouts have helped keep the gym's community spirit. "So you see people posting their pictures and their workouts and makes you feel ... pressured, almost like 'I gotta get my workout in '"

Whitted offered members a free month to make up for the time that the gym has been closed. But he got calls from several members insisting the gym still take their dues.

"I personally don't want to take that offer because he's been so generous," Cocco said. Her oldest daughter and her husband have started working out with her, and they might join the gym when it reopens.

Whitted said one pro of people having to stay at home is that many are getting their families involved in their workouts.

"Now I see a whole family getting through this tough time doing these workouts together, bonding together, becoming healthier and happier together as a family unit. I expect the equipment will flow back in once I can reopen because members will be excited to work out together again.”

From CNN (edited)

When Hollywood reopens for business (captions)

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