An audio conference is a meeting conducted by the means of audio communications with two or more people, who usually are in different locations. Instead of calling each other–like a traditional phone call–it allows different parties to join in by calling a number, either via the telephony network or through an Internet connection. And here comes the best part. In the post-COVID era, the audio conference could very well be our escape from the exhausting video meetings.
Every year, on 8 March, the world marks the International Women’s Day. Some celebrate it with flowers, others with good wishes, and even more with empowering thoughts on gender equality. And IWD 2022 is no exception.
If the stress of these last couple of years has thrown your sleeping habits out of whack, you’re not alone. Research published in The Lancet Neurology Journal found that sleep disturbance and insomnia rates have increased all over the world since the start of this global pandemic.
In 2021, the hype dubbed as The Great Resignation spread across the media and social networks. Everybody had an opinion on the reasons why the mass quitting of employees left their old work environments. Some are still debating and making predictions on how this will continue well into 2022. But what happens after? From my point of view, it’s quite obvious. After The Great Resignation comes The Great Onboarding. Question is—are you ready to embrace it?
The state of work has never looked as different as it does now. COVID-19 has profoundly changed how people look at a job and their careers in general, and will continue do so for the foreseeable future. With continuous ups and downs in sight, it’s highly probable that hybrid work environments based on remote workers and onsite teams will continue to emerge in 2022 and further develop.
You may have heard that classic expression, laughter is the best medicine. As cliché as it might sound, it’s actually the truth. In past iterations of The Productivity Box we’ve talked about how mental health and stress management have an impact on your job performance. In this month’s edition, let’s turn the lens on laughter and examine how this positive emotional release can make you more productive, whether you work from home or in an office.
Since the dawns of humanity, people have used the cyclicity of time—sunrise/sunset, day/night—to make it measurable and easier to predict. Because when you know what follows, things are easier to deal with. Back in the day when people lived in caves, they used this known variation to optimize their hunting process. And then slowly, days turned into weeks, months and years. We invented work days and week-ends and now we know when to work and when to rest. Suddenly, at some point in history—most might not know it, but there is a perfectly logical explanation for this—the beginning of a new year has suffered a dramatic transformation. It swiftly became a threshold, a time when you leave the past behind, gaze into the future full of hope, and even make a resolution of some sort.
Since 2021 is reaching its glorious end in a couple of days, now it’s the perfect time for a wrap-up. Almost two years in, COVID-19 continues to affect how we work, live, and play. Lots of people around the globe are following strict social distancing rules or even are under lockdown, while many are still experiencing pandemic fatigue. As a society, we continue to challenge the modern workplace and come together to create healthier and safer social environments.
Mindfulness has found its way into mainstream culture, but does it have a place in the business world? Research points to a connection between mindfulness and optimal work performance, specifically the practice of meditation.
For some people, working from home during the pandemic has been a dream come true. For others, not so much. According to Cigna, 61 percent of Americans reported feeling lonely in early 2020. Mental health experts believe that the number has increased significantly ever since due to prolonged social distancing and repeated lockdown. In time, people started losing their sense of community and became less engaged to their company’s life.
