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The Idea in Brief

When you're closing or shrinking an operation, you've got to be a tough guy, right? Making the hard decision and then getting on with it in order to reap the maximum savings is what matters, isn't it?

This conventional approach may please Wall Street, but as Kenneth W. Freeman learned from his experiences at Corning, Quest Diagnostics, Masonite International, and Accellent, it can alienate surviving employees, anger customers and suppliers, and destroy shareholder value.

A better way is to treat these important constituents with consideration and compassion and manage the shutdown like a complex project. When the medical components maker Accellent shut its Memphis plant, in 2008, it gave employees and core customers several months' notice, assisted customers through the transition, and helped most workers find new jobs. The results were stronger customer relationships, a highly appreciative group of ex-employees, and greater loyalty among remaining workers.

As the recession has intensified its grip on the world, and I've watched companies resort to extreme actions to weather the storm, it has struck me that this is a new experience for a whole generation of leaders. Many managers have never had to shrink their operations or workforces drastically, and as a result they are making a common mistake. They assume that they have to be the tough guys who make the decisions and that afterward they can delegate the implementation to others with one marching order: "Go fast!"

This approach makes no sense. It can destroy shareholder value. In my more than 35 years in industry, much of it in turnaround situations, I've come to believe that leaders have to use "soft hands" as well as "hard hands" to be successful. Yes, they must be decisive-they can't shy away from making the call to close or shrink an operation. But they must also be heavily engaged in ensuring that employees, customers, suppliers, and communities are treated with consideration and compassion.

Morality aside, such behavior is good business. All too often the negative impact of a closure on the surviving business is underestimated. If employees who lose their jobs are treated impersonally, unfairly, or without respect, the productivity and loyalty of their remaining colleagues will suffer. Recruiting new talent will be more difficult. And customers and suppliers that feel burned by a shutdown may retaliate against the rest of the company by diverting business to competitors. How leaders can avoid, or at least greatly minimize, these repercussions is the subject of this article.

Unfortunately, I've been involved in many cutbacks and closures-at Corning, where I spent most of my career; at Quest Diagnostics, a medical testing business I headed; and most recently at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the private equity firm where I've been actively involved with Masonite International, a door manufacturer, and Accellent, a supplier of precision components for medical devices. Those experiences taught me the right way to close an operation.

Learning by Doing

Before I tell you the details of my approach, let me give you some background about how I've come to feel the way I do.

In 1972 I joined what was then Corning Glass Works as an internal auditor right after graduating from Bucknell. In August 1975 I was on leave, earning an MBA at Harvard Business School and working in the summer at a Corning operation in Medfield, Massachusetts, when the company announced the largest layoff in its nearly 125-year history. Almost 25% of Corning's managers were victims of the "Guns of August," as it was dubbed. My wife and I had friends of all ages who were affected.

Corning had been a paternalistic company, and the cuts marked a radical departure. Their very magnitude was shocking; making matters worse, the company provided only a limited explanation and offered affected employees virtually no help in coping with the shock. Because the layoff was so sudden and quickly carried out, it severely damaged the morale of the survivors for quite some time.

After business school I worked as a financial controller for various parts of Corning and had an insider's view throughout the 1980s of other decisions to close or shrink operations and lay off employees. Each time, friends and neighbors of mine were let go. Again and again, it appeared that for all the agonizing that might have gone into the decision to reduce staff, the decision often ended up being the "easy" part. Usually I felt that insufficient attention had been paid to how it was implemented. After getting to a decision, leaders felt relieved but didn't seem to be significantly involved in carrying it out.

A major exception was the 1983 shutdown of a unionized Corning plant that made glass for color televisions in Bluffton, Indiana, a small town near Fort Wayne. I was the division controller at the time. We had two U.S. plants that made the product, but because of a drop in demand we needed only one.

The head of the business was a man named Forrest Behm. He had been at Corning forever. As a kid he'd been badly burned in a fire and had lost the use of his legs for a while, but he'd gone on to become an all-American tackle at the University of Nebraska. Forry was a class act. He really set the tone for the Bluffton closure. He emphatically stated, "We're going to be honest with our employees. We're going to tell them what's happening. We're going to give them advance notice even though we aren't obligated to do so under the union contract. And we're going to make sure our customers are served."

Accordingly, we told the employees of our plans about nine months before we closed the plant. We explained that we needed to build up enough inventory to serve our customers during the transition and that we couldn't afford to have workers leave or to let productivity and quality decline. And we helped our workers line up new jobs. The result: Rather than leaving their brains in the parking lot, they delivered the highest quality and productivity ever. Customers were so appreciative that they not only stuck with us after the closure but gave us more business. That experience convinced me that there was indeed a better way.

Since the mid-1990s I've put the "soft hands" approach to some major tests, and in the process developed the principles described in the following pages. In 1995 Corning sent me to head Corning Clinical Laboratories, which at the time was the biggest business in the company. In a bid to become a major player in and consolidate the fragmented blood-testing industry, Corning had bought more than 100 competitors. My predecessors had not integrated the acquisitions, however.

When I arrived, the business was in free fall. We had far too much capacity and no common systems, processes, company name, or brand. We were being fined by the federal government for alleged Medicare fraud and abuse. Morale and service were horrible, and our customers and employees were leaving us in droves. To build a sustainable business, I had to get out and help improve employee satisfaction and loyalty to the company. It became crystal clear that if my employees were satisfied and loyal, the customers would follow; if the customers followed, the owners would be happy; and if the owners were happy, some of their happiness would circle back to the employees. Although I had learned this lesson from Forry, it became an integral part of my personal leadership approach at the lab business.

At the end of 1996, after I'd been there about a year and a half, Corning spun us off. I then served as chairman and CEO of the new company, Quest Diagnostics. We embarked on a number of measures to regain the loyalty of customers and employees. We launched major initiatives to improve our processes for everything from collecting and transporting specimens to performing diagnostic tests and billing for them. Equally important, we changed the culture by creating and then religiously adhering to a set of values and goals, which resulted in a radical shift in management and employee behavior. We told people the truth about the business. We let them know how they fit in-how they could help the company succeed-and then recognized their accomplishments. And we made the senior leadership visible and accessible. For example, I invited employees to e-mail me personally with any questions or concerns they might have, vowed that either I or a more knowledgeable person would respond within 48 hours, and then kept that promise.

Once we had stabilized the company, we made a bold move to further consolidate the lab industry by buying the slightly larger SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories (SBCL) in 1999. The integration involved reducing the combined workforce by more than 10% and the number of lab centers from 40 to 27. Making such significant cuts added tremendously to the challenge of melding two fierce competitors into one company. We met that challenge. Tellingly, Quest went on to win accolades for its earnings and stock performance, and the results of employee-engagement surveys dramatically improved.

At the end of 2004 I retired from Quest and a short time later accepted an offer to join Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, where I've been ever since. My main responsibility has been helping to improve the performance of a number of companies in KKR's portfolio. In the cases of Masonite and Accellent this has meant stepping in for a time as interim CEO.

KKR bought Masonite, a global manufacturer of residential and commercial doors, in 2005. I was sent in to stabilize the business and upgrade its processes. As our efficiency increased, we closed a handful of operations and trimmed the workforce a bit. Then, in late 2006, the housing market started to collapse. Since then we've lost almost 30% of our sales volume and have had to make radical cuts. All told, we've reduced the employee base from about 15,000 to 8,500 and the number of facilities from 80 to 57. Given the dismal state of the housing market, I can't say that we're finished. Nonetheless, product quality and customer service have improved, the senior leadership has experienced zero attrition, and employee morale has remained remarkably strong. Executives running the business say that the soft-hands approach largely accounts for these results.

Like Quest, Accellent has been a consolidator in its industry, medical components, and has grown through acquisitions. Shortly before my arrival, in January 2007, the company had gone through major layoffs involving about 530 people, or almost 15% of the workforce, because of weak sales. The cuts had been made in a rush. The leadership did not play an active role in implementation. Neither employees nor customers were given adequate information. As a result, their attitudes were off-the-charts negative. Unfortunately, the slow market forced us to trim our workforce even more in 2008 and to close a factory in Memphis, Tennessee. But we used the soft-hands approach this time around, which made all the difference.

Using Soft Hands

Let me describe in detail what using soft hands means. Although many of these principles may seem obvious or just plain commonsensical, I've long been amazed by how frequently they're ignored.

Treat employees with dignity, fairness, and respect-the way you want to be treated.

Reducing a workforce is painful, but you can do it in such a way that people will someday say, "You know, I once worked for Company X. I didn't like the fact that they shut my plant down, but I still think it's a good company." Here's how:

Address "What does it mean for me?"

Employees have a right to be treated as adults. They should be told why they are losing their jobs (whether it's because of a drop in demand, changes in technology, or productivity and quality issues), how the closure will affect them (in terms of timing and severance benefits), what you will do to help them land on their feet, and what you will need from them to help customers through the transition.

Communicate until it hurts.

Studies say that people need to hear a message at least six times to internalize it. The shock of the initial announcement will prevent employees from absorbing everything you tell them at that time. After all, their lives are being turned upside down. So follow up with both written and oral communications. Then keep people constantly informed along the way. Counter the rumor mill with frequent town meetings, and tell people the truth in a forthright fashion.

Also be sensitive to any language barriers. Many members of the workforce at Accellent's Memphis plant were Vietnamese and didn't speak English. We brought in translators to ensure that everyone understood our communications.

Be visible and personal.

A closure or a downsizing is not an excuse for leaders to go into hiding. To the contrary, it's an occasion when people need to see their leaders. I've known businesses where the CEO or the division manager was visible when there was something good to say and hid in his or her office when layoffs were necessary. Such people ended up with zero respect in their organizations.

If the operation being closed or downsized is large or historically important to the company, the CEO should make at least one visit. Other executives-the division manager or the head of the business unit-should be visible from beginning to end.

Employees' accomplishments and contributions should be recognized. Someone might say, "Gee, my factories have thousands of people. There are limits to how personal we can be." That may be true, but it's extremely important to follow a general announcement with smaller group discussions led by members of your management team, who should also make themselves available for individual conversations.

Don't assume that your managers all have the necessary communication skills. Work with the HR department to train them in advance. Serve as a model yourself, coach the managers who need help, and ask senior managers who are good communicators to do the same.

Set the tone.

The leader should take personal responsibility for the organization's behavior. Although the CEO of a major corporation obviously can't do all the nitty-gritty stuff himself, he must be engaged and stay abreast of the discussion and the implementation process. During the integration of Quest and SBCL, for instance, I told everyone at both companies, "Yes, there are going to be layoffs, but we're going to treat everybody-I mean everybody-with dignity, fairness, and respect." I made it clear to the organization, which was not used to a soft-hands approach, that I was taking it really seriously.

Deliver messages that are consistent and positive but grounded in reality.

To ensure that employees don't let up during and after the closure or layoff, be as positive as possible and give everyone a purpose. By "everyone" I mean those who know they're going to leave, those who know they're going to survive, and those who don't yet know their fate. Explain that the decision is being made for the sake of the overall business, not because the people who are leaving have done a bad job.

An experience in the early 1990s drove home the importance of providing honest and balanced messages. I was heading most of Corning's corporate administrative staffs when the company launched a major reengineering initiative. The outside consulting firm that helped with the effort focused on how we would reduce costs by $600 million. I pointed out to the CEO that cost reductions don't motivate people and urged him to promote the initiative instead as a campaign to reduce costs and build capabilities for the future. He listened. The program, called Corning Competes, was extremely successful. If it had been only a cost-reduction program, we couldn't have engaged the thousand or more people on the various teams we created to help identify how to make the company more effective. Although a lot of people ended up leaving the company in the process, it wasn't driven by "Let's cut the head count." That experience told me that you can keep your people engaged as you do the challenging work needed to carry out a tough decision.

Don't summarily throw people out into the street.

I cringe whenever I see newspaper photos of newly laid-off employees toting boxes of their personal belongings as they're being escorted off the premises of some company. Remember that the world's a small place and people don't forget.

Concerns about sensitive information are often used as an excuse for such behavior. I don't buy it. You can protect information and treat people humanely at the same time. You may have to cut their access to sensitive information immediately-which means, of course, that they will no longer be able to perform their jobs. But you can always give them time to say their good-byes and retrieve personal material from their computers. You can explain, "We will work with you to collect whatever you need. But we hope you understand that we have to protect highly proprietary or confidential information, so we can't give you unfettered use of the machine."

Honor company commitments.

The company's severance policies regarding health care, retirement, insurance, and outstanding bonuses should be explained when a person is hired and should be included in the employee handbook. The company should feel obligated to adhere to those policies. If any of them are changed, employees should be informed at the time-not when they are told they are losing their jobs.

Treat everyone equitably.

Who stays and who goes should be decided on an objective basis. When Quest and SBCL joined together and I was assembling the new management team, senior colleagues who had been with me at Quest for three years said, "We won. They lost. We should be in."

The SmithKline Beecham folks said, "Our company has been in business for more than 100 years. You guys are latecomers. We really should have bought you. We should run this company."

I said to both groups, "Not so fast," and then put the top layers-more than 200 people-through an evaluation process. In addition to considering their past performance reviews, I required them to go through an externally conducted assessment of their leadership skills and behaviors. As you might expect, about half of the senior leaders I chose came from Quest and about half from SBCL.

People throughout the organization took notice. They said, "Hey, Ken is taking a very deliberate approach to staffing his senior team, and if he's doing that, he's probably expecting us to do something similar."

Help people find jobs.

If conditions warrant it, consider affected employees for opportunities at other locations in your company or offer them contract work. At the very least, hold job fairs and help them write effective résumés and learn how to leverage their personal networks.

Put yourself in their shoes.

How can you know whether employees are being treated with dignity, fairness, and respect? Attitude surveys throughout the shutdown or layoff process are one obvious way. In addition, regularly ask yourself how you'd react to various actions or inactions. There are times when managers think, "I have an MBA or a PhD. I'm a really smart guy. So what I would need to know is a little different from what the guy on the factory floor needs to know." Well, the folks on the factory floor know as much as or more than anybody else in the company about your customers and how to make things work. If you're going to shut their facility down or relieve some coworkers of their jobs, everybody has to have a common platform of understanding. If it's not provided, you'll create chaos and lose a lot more than you gain.

Treat your customers and suppliers like valued partners during the shutdown process, and they will stick with you.

If you're consolidating operations, you might want your customers to agree to transfer their business from the plant being closed to another factory. If a customer conducts business with several units of the same company, it may retaliate against other units if a shutdown leaves it in the lurch. Furthermore, bitter memories linger for years and people move around, taking their resentment with them to new employers.

Here are some ground rules for keeping customers and critical suppliers happy during a shutdown:

Make sure they're informed and consider their needs.

You don't want your customers learning in the newspaper or on the internet of your plans to close an operation. Before announcing the closure of Accellent's Memphis plant, we went to our core customer, Medtronic, and said, "We want to shut our plant as soon as we can, but we want to work out a solution that serves everyone's interests." We had a good relationship with Medtronic before the Memphis closure, but it strengthened dramatically because of how we handled the closing.

In some cases such an arrangement might mean keeping an operation open longer than you initially wanted. In others you might learn that you overestimated customers' needs and can close a facility sooner than you thought.

Of course, you can't always give customers everything they want. A balanced approach is important. But when you're calculating the economic impact, be sure to weigh the value of the customer relationship. The higher cost of putting off a closure by a week or even several months may be more than offset by the future business your company gains from an appreciative customer.

After you strike a deal, keep customers informed of progress and any hiccups that occur along the way. Have managers in your organization provide a weekly update.

Don't reduce the focus on quality.

This is one more reason to treat employees of an operation that's being phased out with respect; you don't want disintegrating morale to take a toll on quality. Leaders should regularly remind everyone of the importance of quality and keep measuring and celebrating it. They should also practice what they preach. If the company stops cleaning the restrooms, the odds are that workers won't clean their work areas or strive to provide superior quality and service.

Use appropriate incentives to retain critical employees.

Who they are isn't always obvious. For example, you almost always have employees who know how to run a particular machine or database that is crucial for serving customers. It's important to make sure you don't lose that knowledge or capability during the transition.

Work with suppliers to ensure that service and product quality are sustained.

If they find out secondhand that you're closing an operation, they may unilaterally decide how they're going to cope. Like customers, important suppliers should be treated as partners and be told in advance where you're heading and why. Then hammer out a joint plan with them.

Take pains to transfer the business smoothly.

If a customer intends to transfer its business to a competitor and you will no longer have the capability to serve the customer yourself, offer to work with the competitor. If you're moving the business to another operation of yours, don't assume it will be easy sailing. It can be complex-especially in a heavily regulated industry. The surviving operation may need to be certified or may lack certain equipment or capabilities, which may have to be moved from the facility being closed. This raises the level of complexity another notch. Preventing a disruption in customer service requires disciplined project management, a topic I'll discuss next.

Manage the closure or layoff like a project.

If you wanted to expand the capacity of a factory, you'd employ project-management techniques. Why is it that the same kind of discipline is so rarely applied to closures? Considering how much money, credibility, and reputation can be at stake, it doesn't make sense. Here's some advice:

Appoint an experienced, full-time project leader and a strong team.

Typically, this assignment is bigger than the plant (or department or functional) manager's role. So although the project manager must work closely with the plant manager, he should report to the CEO or division manager and the plant manager's boss. The role can be an outstanding developmental opportunity for a high-potential performer and provides managers with a chance to watch people grow, to coach them, and to determine what they are really made of.

The project leader should have sufficient experience, authority, and credibility in the organization to address the interests of all constituents: the company, employees, customers, suppliers, and communities. Masonite and Accellent have leaders who bring the full package. Engineers by background, they are people-oriented and good communicators, and have run substantial parts of the company. They have high credibility with the employee base and customers, and they get results.

The project leader should assemble a team of people with the special expertise that's required. I don't mean just technical skills: Product knowledge, customer sensitivity, disciplined focus, and strong people skills are extremely important, too.

Use the techniques of conventional project management.

Define stages from the planning phase through the closure; assign clear responsibilities; establish criteria that must be met to get to the next stage; and conduct regular reviews involving senior leaders.

Use judgment and, if necessary, fight back.

Managing a closure or a workforce reduction like a project does not mean mechanically going through steps and checking off all the items on a list. Considerable judgment is involved. If a customer repeatedly asks you to postpone a closing, you will ultimately have to decide when you've gone far enough. Often there's a fine line between doing the right thing and being abused.

At the same time, resist those who would have you go so fast that the wheels fall off. I still remember how Forry Behm pushed back when some Corning executives pressed him to close Bluffton quickly. After the merger of Quest and SBCL, I had to stand up to Wall Street, which looks only at numbers. Analysts told me, "You've got to go very fast, Ken, and get those synergies right away. Just get it done."

I said, "No, we need to have a business when we're through. We'll get the synergies, but it's not going to happen in three months, because we're going to proceed in a deliberate manner, making sure that we take care of our customers and our employees." In the end, the integration took almost three years, and we created much more value than if we'd done it the old-fashioned way.

A version of this article appeared in the May 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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The Idea in Brief When you're closing or shrinking an operation, you've got to be a tough guy, right? Making the hard decision and then getting on with it in order to reap the maximum savings is what matters, isn't it? This conventional approach may please Wall Street, but as Kenneth W.

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Wordwall - Create better lessons quicker

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1) Would you _______ my dog for me this weekend? a) LOOK DOWN b) LOOK AFTER c) LOOK UP d) LOOK FOR 2) John _______ when he knew his baseball team had lost the game. a) BROKE INTO b) BROKE UP c) BROKE OUT d) BROKE DOWN 3) Our boss _______ our meeting until next week. a) PUT UP b) PUT DOWN c) PUT OFF d) PUT OUT 4) Could you _______ the music while I'm on the phone? a) TURN DOWN b) TURN OFF c) TURN ON d) TURN UP 5) My mother_______ eggs while she was making a cake yesterday. a) RAN AWAY b) RAN OUT OF c) RAN INTO d) RAN OVER 6) I don't _______ my new science teacher. a) GET UP b) GET TOGETHER c) GET ON WITH d) GET OVER 7) We both _______ meeting your new girlfriend. a) LOOK UP b) LOOK AFTER c) LOOK OUT d) LOOK FORWARD TO 8) My car _______ on the highway today. a) BROKE OUT b) BROKE DOWN c) BROKE IN d) BROKE UP 9) I can't _______ the cold I caught last week a) GET AWAY b) GET AROUND c) GET OVER d) GET BACK 10) _______ your dirty boots before you walk in the house a) TAKE AFTER b) TAKE OFF c) TAKE APART d) TAKE OUT 11) Tomorrow's game has been _______ because of bad weather. a) CALLED AROUND b) CALLED BACK c) CALLED ON d) CALLED OFF

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1) Would you _______ my dog for me this weekend? a) LOOK DOWN b) LOOK AFTER c) LOOK UP d) LOOK FOR 2) John _______ when he knew his baseball team had lost the game. a) BROKE INTO b) BROKE UP c) BROKE OUT d) BROKE DOWN 3) Our boss _______ our meeting until next week.

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Budgeting gets a bad reputation.

"The first image that comes to most people's mind is dieting or imprisonment," says Jesse Mecham, founder of the budgeting software You Need A Budget. But that, Mecham says, is an inaccurate picture. "Budgeting is not about being handcuffed. It's really about being liberated."

It might just be empowering for you. There's no easy or simple solution to fixing the huge financial impact that COVID-19 has had on many Americans. But during the coronavirus pandemic, keeping tabs on where your money is going is a good first step to cutting back on spending and saving more, if you're able to do so.

These six budgeting tips will help you track your spending and make more informed decisions about your money - and your life.

1. Don't budget just because you think you should.

If you're budgeting because you think that's what responsible grown-ups do, that's not super-concrete or motivational. Instead, set a specific goal that has meaning to you, like paying off credit card debt or student loans or saving for a vacation, says Kristin Wong, author of Get Money: Live the Life You Want, Not Just the Life You Can Afford. "Now you have a reason to say no to that $50 dinner, because you have something to say yes to now," Wong says.

2. Harness your freakout.

Big life changes - a move, a job loss or, say, a global pandemic - can bring big stress. If you're dealing with major life changes because of COVID-19, you're not alone. Leverage that anxiety, channeling it into motivation to adjust your budget. "Those moments, where you have the willpower or you have the energy, you have this motivation," Mecham says. "That motivation is fleeting."

So take advantage of budgeting momentum while it lasts. If you mess up or overspend later on, don't quit. Mecham stresses the importance of being flexible: "You just make adjustments, like a coach [at] a basketball game making halftime adjustments. You just adjust to how the team plays."

3. Follow the 50-30-20 method.

When you get started, try the guidelines that Sen. Elizabeth Warren helped develop as a Harvard University professor. The largest portion, 50%, of take-home income should go toward basic living expenses - housing, groceries, etc. Then 30% for discretionary expenses, like entertainment and clothes; and 20% for savings and paying down debt.

4. Use the power of scarcity.

With credit cards and overdraft protections, "we've gotten really used to the idea that we never really run out of money," Mecham says. But having a sense of scarcity can be helpful when you're trying to save. Remember back when you were a kid and all you had was that $5 from babysitting or mowing lawns? You were probably pretty careful about how you spent that money because once you did, it was gone. Try designating a certain amount of money for each budgeting category every month, and when you run out, it's out.

5. A roommate is worth a thousand coffees.

It's unlikely you'll reach your budget goal just by cutting back on coffees. Housing, food and transportation are usually the biggest expenses. "If you get a roommate or move to a cheaper place, those major decisions are going to save you so much more money," says Wong. "They're harder decisions to make, obviously. But they give you more bang for your buck."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, deciding to move in with a new roommate is more complicated than usual. But opting for a cheaper apartment or a less ideal location might be a good solution for you during this time. Or, if it's someone inside your small bubble of trusted friends and family members whom you are already spending a lot of time in close proximity with, moving in with them might be something to consider.

6. Try different budgeting techniques to see what works for you.

Whether it's a simple spreadsheet or a budgeting app with lots of categories, use the system that works for you. Mecham says the main thing is not to wait until a "normal month" to get started - that will never come. So just start doing it, like right now. It's worth making a budget now, and if it changes in the coming months or year, as life starts looking a little like it did before the pandemic, that's OK.
You Need A Budget has been a sponsor of NPR in the past.
Sylvie Douglis produced the audio portion of this story, which was originally published in 2019. You can listen to the original episode audio here.

We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

For more Life Kit, subscribe to our newsletter.

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How To Spend Less Money, Starting With A Budget

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Budgeting gets a bad reputation. "The first image that comes to most people's mind is dieting or imprisonment," says Jesse Mecham, founder of the budgeting software You Need A Budget. But that, Mecham says, is an inaccurate picture. "Budgeting is not about being handcuffed. It's really about being liberated."

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Write an email to a colleague or business contact describing the cause and effect of some changes in your business.
Some ideas are given below, but adapt and change them as you wish.
a) An email to a business contact, a colleague or your line manager explaining the reasons for some changes in your business. Ideas: changes in the market; changes in your product range; changes in the economic or social context; changes in your organisation. When you finish, check  grammar, spelling, punctuation and style. Is everything clear, well-structured and easy to understand?

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Everyone has a creative “type”—knowing yours helps you maximize your potential. Take our quiz to discover your type!

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1. Shankar describes the saying "we're a nation of immigrants" as more than a fact, but a foundational story. Christina Maria Garcia agrees and says that "immigrants and refugees are central to the American national mythology." In your own words, what do these statements (e.g. American national mythology) mean?

2. Think of another example of a foundational American story.

3. What tension or contradiction does Garcia say has always been a part of the politics around immigration?

4. What was the "know-nothing" party?

5. What was Garcia's immigration experience like? How did it compare to the experiences of other immigrants she saw?

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Police shootings in African American communities have prompted public outcry in recent years, triggering a national conversation on the need for reform. A year ago, Tetrina Blalock's cousin was killed by police after being shot more than a dozen times following a narcotics pursuit.

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1. Coronavirus broke out in almost every country of Europe
2. Argentina called sports activities off in Buenos Aires
3. I cut back on activities outside as a consequence of coronavirus advance.
4. Brazil decided to use up PCR test for detecting cases and work out the subtest
5. People don’t count on the government can solve the financial problems of small industries.
6. Different countries have to sort out a meeting with OMS for clarifying studies and analysis.
7. Scientifics came up with a faster and efficient coronavirus test.
8. I get on with my family in this hard context.
9. People fall out with runners in CABA.
10. A partner came down with three days before and called his health insurance.
11. A lot of people lost their jobs and are going over for a desperate situation, but I hope that they will get over very quickly.
12. Several elderly passed away from coronavirus.
13. I am going to cheer my parents and my brother up with a videoconference.
14. I need to work out at my house because I need more activities and to reduce my abdomen.

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Do you remember we talked about phrasal verbs?

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Do you remember we talked about phrasal verbs?

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Here we have some useful ph. Verbs to talk about pandemics. They are explained and with examples. Later, we will work with some others more ;) hope you find it useful ;)

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Coronavirus Phrasal Verbs for fluency in English conversation

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To practise :) DON'T Forget to work on it.

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Created with Hot Potatoes by Half-Baked Software, registered to Klaus Rosmanitz.

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WF067 - Word Formation Sentences - English Vocabulary Exercises

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In these difficult times, we've made a number of our coronavirus articles free for all readers. To get all of HBR's content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter.

If you're finding that you're more exhausted at the end of your workday than you used to be, you're not alone. Over the past few weeks, mentions of "Zoom fatigue" have popped up more and more on social media, and Google searches for the same phrase have steadily increased since early March.

Why do we find video calls so draining? There are a few reasons.

In part, it's because they force us to focus more intently on conversations in order to absorb information. Think of it this way: when you're sitting in a conference room, you can rely on whispered side exchanges to catch you up if you get distracted or answer quick, clarifying questions. During a video call, however, it's impossible to do this unless you use the private chat feature or awkwardly try to find a moment to unmute and ask a colleague to repeat themselves.

The problem isn't helped by the fact that video calls make it easier than ever to lose focus. We've all done it: decided that, why yes, we absolutely can listen intently, check our email, text a friend, and post a smiley face on Slack within the same thirty seconds. Except, of course, we don't end up doing much listening at all when we're distracted. Adding fuel to the fire is many of our work-from-home situations. We're no longer just dialing into one or two virtual meetings. We're also continuously finding polite new ways to ask our loved ones not to disturb us, or tuning them out as they army crawl across the floor to grab their headphones off the dining table. For those who don't have a private space to work, it is especially challenging.

Finally, "Zoom fatigue" stems from how we process information over video. On a video call the only way to show we're paying attention is to look at the camera. But, in real life, how often do you stand within three feet of a colleague and stare at their face? Probably never. This is because having to engage in a "constant gaze" makes us uncomfortable - and tired. In person, we are able to use our peripheral vision to glance out the window or look at others in the room. On a video call, because we are all sitting in different homes, if we turn to look out the window, we worry it might seem like we're not paying attention. Not to mention, most of us are also staring at a small window of ourselves, making us hyper-aware of every wrinkle, expression, and how it might be interpreted. Without the visual breaks we need to refocus, our brains grow fatigued.

If this all sounds like bad news, don't despair. We have five research-based tips that can help make video calls less exhausting.

Avoid multitasking.

It's easy to think that you can use the opportunity to do more in less time, but research shows that trying to do multiple things at once cuts into performance. Because you have to turn certain parts of your brain off and on for different types of work, switching between tasks can cost you as much as 40 percent of your productive time. Researchers at Stanford found that people who multitask can't remember things as well as their more singularly focused peers. The next time you're on a video chat, close any tabs or programs that might distract you (e.g. your inbox or Slack), put your phone away, and stay present. We know it's tempting, but try to remind yourself that the Slack message you just got can wait 15 minutes, and that you'll be able to craft a better response when you're not also on a video chat.

Build in breaks.

Take mini breaks from video during longer calls by minimizing the window, moving it to behind your open applications, or just looking away from your computer completely for a few seconds now and then. We're all more used to being on video now (and to the stressors that come with nonstop facetime). Your colleagues probably understand more than you think - it is possible to listen without staring at the screen for a full thirty minutes. This is not an invitation to start doing something else, but to let your eyes rest for a moment. For days when you can't avoid back-to-back calls, consider making meetings 25 or 50 minutes (instead of the standard half-hour and hour) to give yourself enough time in between to get up and move around for a bit. If you are on an hour-long video call, make it okay for people to turn off their cameras for parts of the call.

Reduce onscreen stimuli.

Research shows that when you're on video, you tend to spend the most time gazing at your own face. This can be easily avoided by hiding yourself from view. Still, onscreen distractions go far beyond yourself. You may be surprised to learn that on video, we not only focus on other's faces, but on their backgrounds as well. If you're on a call with five people, you may feel like you're in five different rooms at once. You can see their furniture, plants, and wallpaper. You might even strain to see what books they have on their shelves. The brain has to process all of these visual environmental cues at the same time. To combat mental fatigue, encourage people to use plain backgrounds (e.g. a poster of a peaceful beach scene), or agree as a group to have everyone who is not talking turn off their video.

Make virtual social events opt-in.

After a long day of back-to-back video calls, it's normal to feel drained, particularly if you're an introvert. That's why virtual social sessions should be kept opt-in, meaning whoever owns the event makes it explicit that people are welcome, but not obligated, to join. You might also consider appointing a facilitator if you're expecting a large group. This person can open by asking a question, and then make it clear in what order people should speak, so everyone gets to hear from one another and the group doesn't start talking all at once. It's easy to get overwhelmed if we don't know what's expected of us, or if we're constantly trying to figure out when we should or should not chime in.

Switch to phone calls or email.

Check your calendar for the next few days to see if there are any conversations you could have over Slack or email instead. If 4PM rolls around and you're Zoomed-out but have an upcoming one-on-one, ask the person to switch to a phone call or suggest picking up the conversation later so you can both recharge. Try something like, "I'd love a break from video calls. Do you mind if we do this over the phone?" Most likely the other person will be relieved by the switch, too.

For external calls, avoid defaulting to video, especially if you don't know each other well.

Many people now feel a tendency to treat video as the default for all communication. In situations where you're communicating with people outside of your organization (clients, vendors, networking, etc.) - conversations for which you used to rely on phone calls - you may feel obligated to send out a Zoom link instead. But a video call is fairly intimate and can even feel invasive in some situations. For example, if you're asked to do a career advice call and you don't know the person you're talking to, sticking to phone is often a safer choice. If your client FaceTimes you with no warning, it's okay to decline and suggest a call instead.

Some of these tips might be hard to follow at first (especially that one about resisting the urge to tab-surf during your next Zoom call). But taking these steps can help you prevent feeling so exhausted at the thought of another video chat. It's tiring enough trying to adapt to this new normal. Make video calls a little easier for yourself.

If our content helps you to contend with coronavirus and other challenges, please consider subscribing to HBR. A subscription purchase is the best way to support the creation of these resources.

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In these difficult times, we've made a number of our coronavirus articles free for all readers. To get all of HBR's content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter. If you're finding that you're more exhausted at the end of your workday than you used to be, you're not alone.

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All the radio around the world in one single place :) 

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All the radio around the world in one single place :) 

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Explore live radio by rotating the globe.

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Quarantine2020 2021  COLABORATIVA  (Música sólo en INGLES please)

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Quarantine2020 2021  COLABORATIVA  (Música sólo en INGLES please)

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Some people love working from home, and they can't imagine anything better than a day with their laptop clad in pajama pants. Others miss the structure and the casual chats with coworkers that happen at their offices. Whether you love it or hate it, working remote - for those who can do it; not every job lends itself to this kind flexibility - is common for many of us due to the pandemic.

For those of you new to working from home, there's lots of advice out there about how to deal with the pitfalls and stay productive and sane ("Take a shower!" "Don't spend too much time on social media!").

But from my own experience, working from home can be a real delight if you let it. So I'd like to share a few ideas for creating a workspace and routines that will make working from home a joyful, sustaining experience. And who knows? You might not even want to go back to the office!

1. Take care of your body

In her book Proposals for the Feminine Economy, Jenn Armbrust offers a series of principles, the first one being: "You have a body." Sounds simple, but working from home can make it easy to forget about your body's basic needs. At your office, you probably had an ergonomic desk chair or an adjustable workstation. However, unless you work from home regularly, your workspace may consist of a kitchen table and basic chair.

You don't need to invest in a whole home-office setup, but rather pay attention to how your body feels as you work from home. One advantage to working from home - as opposed to being in an office - is that you can change positions frequently. Try out lots of postures, whether that's sitting in a chair, standing at your kitchen counter, relaxing on the sofa, or sitting on a yoga block on the floor with your coffee table as a desk. It took me a long time (and some serious shoulder pain) to realize that the best position for long writing stretches for me is sitting on a backless bench at my dining table. Testing different positions can help you find physical ease faster.

Another thing to pay attention to is movement. You likely do some walking in the course of an office workday - to the office from the train or bus or parking lot, between meetings, to the café for more coffee - and these movement breaks disappear when everything you need is within a couple of rooms in your home. When I first started working from home, I was surprised to find that I sometimes got in fewer than 1,000 steps in a day!

The flexibility of home work means, though, that you can largely move when you want to. Try setting a timer for a yoga or workout to break up a long email session. While writing my book Joyful, I took impromptu dance breaks whenever I was stuck on a section, which cleared my head but would've been hard to do in the office. I also started to take a long walk in the park at the end of every day. In the summer, I'd print out the latest draft and take it with me and sit in the shade while marking it up. In the winter, I'd do this at the kitchen island after coming home.

2. Use your commute

How long was your pre-pandemic daily commute? For many people, it can range between 30 minutes to 2 hours (or more), round trip every day. It also really adds up. Even at the short end, that 30 minutes per day adds up to two and a half hours that you've now gained per week!

The key is being intentional about how you use that time. Schedule it in your calendar - it doesn't have to be at the same time as your commute - just as you would a meeting.

You can also block that time out for free, unstructured time, something most adults don't get enough of. But then make sure to put tools down when the calendar alert goes off and give yourself space to enjoy it.

3. Create a sensory landscape

With their dull color palettes, synthetic carpets and humming HVAC systems, most workplaces have a joyless sensory landscape. Add in the noise from open-plan seating, and the fact that many spaces are often too cold or hot, and the typical office can be deeply unpleasant to spend time in, much less get focused work done.

While many of us often see the problem as overstimulation, in fact offices are just as likely to be understimulating. Workspaces have traditionally been designed based on the belief that to maximize productivity you need to minimize distraction, leading to bland, featureless spaces. But research shows that when people in these "lean" workspaces are compared to people working in "enriched" spaces that have art, plants, and more sensorial stimulation, the workers in the enriched spaces are 15 percent more productive. And if the workers have control over the placement of things in their workspace? They're 32 percent more productive.

When you work from home, you can be like those workers in the study who controlled their own workspace - and create a sensory landscape that works for you. Part of this may mean eliminating unpleasant sensations, by getting noise-cancelling headphones to tune out distracting noises or adjusting the temperature so that it's comfortable for you.

Also, look for ways to add pleasant sensations into your workspace. Hang up an image that gives your gaze something to rest on while you glance away from your screen. Play nature sounds. Choose a brightly colored mug for your morning coffee.

The senses of touch and smell are particularly understimulated during the hours we're tapping away at a keyboard, so look for ways to appeal to them. For example, I cover the bench I sit on when writing with a sheepskin, which has a decidedly unofficelike soft texture. I keep a bottle of essential oils on my desk, and sometimes use a diffuser to scent the air.

4. Get some sunshine

One poorly designed aspect of many traditional offices is how little daylight exposure is available in workspaces. For most workers, the only light during the day comes from the dull fluorescents overhead. Yet research shows that workers who get more exposure to daylight sleep better (up to 46 minutes more per night), are less stressed, and are more active during the day. Light regulates key hormones and neurotransmitters, influencing everything from our alertness to stress levels, our immune system to our moods.

In your home, you have more control over where you choose to work, so if possible, choose a space near a window. And if you don't have much natural light in your space, use lamps to boost the brightness. Just as too much blue light from our screens can keep us up at night, a healthy dose of bright artificial light during the day can also help keep our 24-hour internal clock in sync.

Also, when you used to commute to work, you likely got at least a little sunlight on the way, which you lose if now you jump straight into work first thing. Light has the greatest impact on our circadian rhythms in the morning, so try to go outside for a brief walk before you sit down.

5. Green your workspace

One simple thing to do to make your workspace more joyful is to add greenery. Plants that might struggle in the dim light of an office can thrive in your home, and you gain the extra benefit of getting to enjoy them when you're not working as well. You don't have to have as many plants as Summer Rayne Oakes does in her home workspace, but even just adding a few has been shown to reduce stress and restore your ability to concentrate.

6. Make a "get to work" playlist

One challenge I've found in working from home is transitions. It can be hard to stop doing all those home things (emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry, etc.) and get down to work, especially if there's work you're avoiding. In fact, many writers joke that their home is never tidier than when they're working on a book.

One thing that helps is having some sort of ritual that marks a transition into a work session. I have a couple of "Get to Work" playlists that help with this: one for writing, one for email. The playlists always start with the same song, so it becomes like a sonic trigger that primes me to focus.

Other transition ideas might be pouring a fresh cup of tea or coffee, doing a quick stretch, or setting a focus timer (I use the Tide app on my phone).

7. Make snack time special

A lot of work-from-home guides advise you to take a real lunch, but I confess that when I'm in flow, I much prefer to eat at my desk. This doesn't mean that I don't believe in taking breaks, though. As I mentioned above, the most important features of breaks for me are to get outside and to incorporate movement into my day.

I also love a good snack break. We often think of snacks as fuel, but for me, they're more of a treat. And, as writer Gretchen Rubin has pointed out, treats can help make us feel cared for, energized and motivated. Having access to your own kitchen means that you don't have to rely on the processed foods that constitute a snack in most offices, nor do you have to eat it out of a bag.

I'm a big fan of cutting up fruit and arranging it in a wheel around my plate, or making little sampler plates from the fridge of pickles, olives and other nibbles. I also make energy balls or banana bread and freeze some so I can have it for a mid-week treat. You're your own office manager now, so think about what would make you feel cared for and create space for it in your daily routine.

8. Be playful

Offices have been designed with work in mind, and the prevailing view is that work is somehow the opposite of play. But, as play researcher Brian Sutton-Smith says, "The opposite of play is not work. It's depression." Bringing your work home gives you a chance to invite more play into your workflow. And this can start with your workspace.

A playful workspace creates more opportunities for play in your day. These can be small, like the miniature spinning tops I keep on my desk to spin when I get stuck on an idea, or they can be larger, like having a trampoline to bounce on or a hula hoop to play with. Changing out a desk chair for an exercise ball can also bring a sense of play. A giant bowl of Legos or a big puzzle can keep hands busy while your mind is working through ideas.

You can also experiment with adding playful forms of decor, like children's drawings on the wall, or cute objects for your desk. I put googly eyes on my stapler, for instance. Cute things may even benefit our productivity, according to research out of Japan, by enhancing our ability to focus.

Imagine: If you'd never been to an office before, what would you want it to look like? When you work from home, there's no reason not to create a space that lets your imagination run free.

9. Pack it up and put it away

Perhaps the worst thing about working from home is that it's hard to know when the workday ends. Writer Kevin Roose has found, for example, that remote workers take shorter breaks and fewer sick days, suggesting that boundaries can be an issue. This is even more challenging if you don't have a dedicated home office space. When your laptop sits on the dining table or your coffee table is covered in stacks of folders, it's hard to fully feel like you've turned off.

This is one reason why I insisted on building in two tiny home offices in our current renovation. I still will probably spend time working at the dining table, but I wanted a place to put everything at night so that I can close the door on it and not be distracted by the things I didn't get done.

You don't need a spare room to do this, though. Simply having a basket or closet to tuck your laptop and papers into at night will do the trick. Creating a physical boundary will help you reset your mind and reclaim your home as your home.
This post was originally published on The Aesthetics of Joy site. Watch her TED Talk now:

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9 things you can do to make working from home more joyful

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Some people love working from home, and they can't imagine anything better than a day with their laptop clad in pajama pants. Others miss the structure and the casual chats with coworkers that happen at their offices.

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How to Avoid Serious Back Pain While Working at Home

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If you're working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, you may be noticing new aches and pains. Here are tips to prevent back pain.

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In a tech-obsessed culture, it can be difficult to build genuine relationships with people, especially in the workplace. Robert Reffkin shares his tips and tricks for establishing authentic connections on the job.

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Robert Reffkin: 5 ways to create stronger connections | TED Talk

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In a tech-obsessed culture, it can be difficult to build genuine relationships with people, especially in the workplace. Robert Reffkin shares his tips and tricks for establishing authentic connections on the job.

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TED
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Linguee
https://www.linguee.es/ingles-espanol
Oxford Collocation
http://www.freecollocation.com/
Grammarly
https://www.grammarly.com/m
WordReference
https://www.wordreference.com/
Thesaurus
https://www.thesaurus.com/
DeepL
https://www.deepl.com/translator
Farflex Free Dictionary
https://es.thefreedictionary.com/