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Lately, teachers have been asked to be more flexible than ever. Not only do you need to teach in-person, virtually, or a mix of the two, but you must also be ready in case the plan suddenly changes.

The uncertainty, as well as the shift to distance learning, can mean extra planning, or wasted time on lessons that don't end up getting used. Now, more than ever, Nearpod's flexibility can help. With Nearpod, the same lesson can be used in any scenario, which means you can trust that your work (and your lesson!) will not be in vain.

Nearpod helps you keep students engaged with media like simulations and VR, and gives you real-time insight into student learning with 11 ways to check for understanding. It works in class and for distance learning; live or self-paced.

Here are 6 ways Nearpod can support flexing for instruction in-class, virtually, and everything in between.

1. With three instruction modes and a platform that works on any device, your lesson plan works anywhere

Nearpod works on any device, which means that even if students are using different tech in school and at home, your lesson will work. But we know that device type isn't the only way instruction needs to be flexible. With Nearpod, the same lesson can be launched three ways, meaning it works no matter how you're teaching, synchronous or asynchronous.

Live Participation

Student-Paced

Front of Class
Plus, all of your favorite Nearpod features work in Student-Paced mode, so students can complete on their own! Collaborate Boards and Time to Climb are great ways to keep classrooms connected, even when they're not physically together or online at the same time.

2. You can use your existing resources

With Nearpod, you can start with any video, PowerPoint, Google Slides presentation, or worksheet, and enable it to work in any learning environment.

Sharing a video with your students?

Upload any video or search YouTube within Nearpod, then add in checks for understanding to make learning active. Here's how!

Have the perfect presentation?

Take your existing Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation, and add questions, activities, and media to boost engagement in any setting. Show me!

Want to make your worksheet digital?

From multiple-choice questions to word searches, you can use Nearpod's formative assessments to create digital versions of your worksheet in a flash. Upload your worksheet as a Draw It background, or recreate your worksheet in Nearpod.

3. Add in engaging media and formative assessment, all in one place

When students are learning at home, especially when the whole class can't be online at the same time, dynamic ways to learn and check student understanding are more important than ever.

Try adding an Open-Ended Question right after a VR field trip so students can explore, and then write about what they observed. With our new Audio Recording feature, students can also answer the question by recording their voice!

4. Pair with video conferencing for seamless, live virtual instruction

Nearpod works with any video conferencing solution, and makes it easy for students to join in on your lesson. Watch a tutorial video on how to use Nearpod with video conferencing!

Using a different video solution? You can use Nearpod with ANY video solution by sharing a link to the Nearpod lesson with your students in the video conferencing chat, or by sharing the Nearpod code with students.

5. Organize the list of resources you want to share with your students

If learning needs to shift to home, you can use Nearpod to transform a "list of links" into a dynamic, interactive lesson that's easy for students to navigate. Simply use the Web Link feature to transform your list of links onto an experience.

Remember to add in checks-for-understanding with Nearpod's assessment features.

6. Save time with premade lessons and interactive videos

Nearpod has a Library of lessons, videos, and activities built in partnership with some of your favorite brands, like Learnzillion, CrashCourse, PhET Interactive Simulations, iCivics, and more. They're standards-aligned, and contain all of your favorite Nearpod features. You can use them "as-is" or customize to meet the unique needs of your students.

We know that navigating the flex between in-person and virtual learning can be challenging. We're hoping that Nearpod can help by making sure your lesson plans work, no matter what. Want to share ideas and hear from other educators about how they're using Nearpod? Join our Facebook community!

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Distance learning guide: Lessons that work for in-class, virtual learning & hybrid - Nearpod Blog

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Teachers have been asked to be more flexible than ever. Not only do you need to teach in-person, virtually, or a mix, but you must also be ready in case the plan suddenly changes. See how Nearpod can help in this post!

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Widespread working from home could lead to an increase in racism and prejudice, a new report warns.

Workplace friendships are key to breaking down misconceptions, the England and Wales study for the Woolf Institute suggests.

Institute founder Ed Kessler said as more people work from home they risk going "back into isolated silos".

He called on ministers to focus on offices and workplaces as a "vital" area for improving community relations.

The study, conducted by polling company Survation for the Woolf Institute, which researches interfaith relations, surveyed 11,701 people.

Understanding each other

Hadiya Masieh, who is Muslim, became close friends with Samuel Rosengard, an Orthodox Jew, after working together.

Samuel said that while he had never had racist or Islamophobic views in the past, he may have had "misconceptions" about Muslim communities.

"Meeting Hadiya has really helped clarify where my thinking can be askew," he said.

Hadiya agreed saying that for her "it was more of a political thing about Israel and Palestine".

But through their work they have become close friends.

"It was just a very natural relationship that we formed because we had the exact same agenda and passions," Hadiya said.

"We were both from very different backgrounds and the idea of Israel and Palestine was a hot topic. But we were able to discuss that in a way that was understanding of each other."

Samuel added: "Before Covid we would have regular discussions about these kinds of issues. And also identifying common cultural traits between Jewish and Muslim communities, and areas of agreement and disagreement.

"Hadiya and I would often start off conversations just bumping into each other in the open plan office and then head off for a coffee. But that just doesn't happen. So that is a loss."

The study suggests that of those who work in shared offices, three-quarters (76%) - regardless of ethnicity - were in a setting that is ethnically diverse.

However, it suggests that unemployed people are 37% more likely to only have friends from their own ethnic group.

And it warns that without alternative settings to offices being set up, opportunities for social mixing between different religious and ethnic groups will be greatly reduced.

The study also examined people's opinions on diversity.

Its findings suggest that while nearly three-quarters of non-black or non-Asian respondents were comfortable with a close relative marrying a black or Asian person (74% and 70%), less than half (44%) said they were comfortable with the idea of a close relative marrying a Muslim person.

"The word 'Muslim' appears to trigger more negative sentiment than the word 'Pakistani'," the report says. This is "despite the fact that 90% of people of British Pakistani heritage are Muslim".

The report also indicates that a majority of Muslims were themselves uncomfortable with a close relative marrying a Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish or Sikh person, or someone of no religion. Around a third of Muslim respondents (38%) said they were uncomfortable with a close relative marrying a Christian person.

"Muslims were both the primary target for 'uncomfortable' responses, but also the primary source," the report said.

The study estimated the level of prejudice in each local authority across England and Wales. Researchers used a technique known as Multilevel Regression Poststratification (MRP), which looks at the survey responses and the demographics of each area.

As well as being the most common target of negative attitudes by other faith groups, the report indicates Muslims are the group most likely to hold negative attitudes towards people of other religions.

The study also suggests that diversity of friendships and colleagues varies significantly around the country.

Even after accounting for factors such as the age, educational attainment and ethnic makeup of an area, people in north-east England are 150% more likely to have only British friends and 68% more likely to have only British colleagues, compared with people in London.

The report says any apparent prejudice toward religion could be due to people feeling it is more acceptable to express negative sentiment towards religion than ethnicity.

Religion remains "a place where individuals are willing to express negative attitudes," the report says.

"Being Muslim, in particular, appears to remain a 'trigger' for prejudice, making religion a 'final frontier' for prejudice in England and Wales," the report's author Dr Julian Hargreaves added.

The survey was undertaken by Survation on behalf of the Woolf Institute. Survation spoke to a nationally representative sample of 11,701 adults across England and Wales between 29 March and 5 April 2019.

The results indicating the proportion of people in each local authority who would be happy with a friend or close relative marrying someone from various backgrounds use a technique called Multilevel Regression Poststratification (MRP).

MRP projects the results of the survey onto local authorities based on the demography of the area. However, some estimates contain wide margins of error and statistically non-significant differences between local authorities.

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Working from home could lead to more prejudice, report warns

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Widespread working from home could lead to an increase in racism and prejudice, a new report warns. Workplace friendships are key to breaking down misconceptions, the England and Wales study for the Woolf Institute suggests. Institute founder Ed Kessler said as more people work from home they risk going "back into isolated silos".

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Video: What working from home could mean for your wallet

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Video: What working from home could mean for your wallet

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Alice

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GENESEE COUNTY, Mich. (WJRT) - It was a change at work Amy Ford could not have imagined a year ago.

"It was something I didn't really want to do," she said.

The longtime Team One Credit Union employee in Saginaw had to adjust to a remote schedule back in March. Ford said at the beginning, it had been challenging.

"You got everything at work that you need, right? Your printer, your scanner, all of these things. Then you go home and you've got a laptop," Ford said.

It was a transition more and more Americans could be making during the pandemic. Researchers with Global Workforce Analytics said more than half of all full or part-time U.S jobs could be done from home.

Elena Molar-Younger of Fenton remembered setting up her office at home when she started remote working in 2013.

"I didn't necessarily have the support of an office. So you don't necessarily have the printer, the printer ink, the things that you might not think about when you're working in an office," Molnar-Younger said. "Even something as silly as toilet paper, those types of supplies, or water at the water cooler."

It was not just office supplies that could factor into the costs of working from home. A study from creditcards.com showed people who were forced to work from home in the pandemic were spending an average of $108 more per month on food and utilities.

The study also found overall savings averaged $34 on child care, $33 on gas and public transit, $27 on restaurants and takeout and $4 on clothes and dry cleaning. In total, it was a savings of $98 per month.

Ford said the remote working schedule had helped her budget. She was saving on gas and oil changes, as she no longer has a 35-minute work commute each day.

"Groceries stayed the same, because I'm pretty much doing the same thing I was at work -- eating my lunch from home," she said.

Her electricity bills almost remained steady from year to year. She paid $122.49 for June 2019 and $117.26 for June 2020 -- a drop of $5.23. Ford found she didn't need the full office setup she had.

"You just find you don't need a printer. You don't really need a scanner," she said. "There are a lot of things we think we need."

For jobs require tools or supplies workers don't have at home, one option would be to communicate with employers.

"Having a conversation with colleagues or your boss to say, 'Hey, I'm taking on the costs of printer ink, printer paper.' It's possible they may reimburse you for it," said Molar-Younger.

There was also the business side of more people working from home and questions about how it could impact office space.

Flint Township said it is not seeing companies close offices. But there were concerns about struggling retail stores at places like Genesee Valley Center mall.

"The changing landscape of retail has caused us to lose some of our national chains," Economic Enhancement Director Tracey Tucker said. "So we're still worried about where we're going to be at the end of the shutdowns."

The township said its master plan for attracting businesses and jobs included targeting more mixed-used spaces with a retail look. It included the logistics company Northgate's plan to expand into the former Lowe's Home Improvement store on Corunna Road.

"We have worked diligently to get reinvestment in the area. We've courted site developers, we've contacted realtors, developers to keep them interested," said Tucker.

Looking ahead, many believed the business world had been forever changed in the pandemic. For companies with employees already working at home, the genie was out of the bottle.

Researchers said 5 million Americans were currently working half or full time from home. Some predicted it would grow to 25 to 30 million within the next two years.
Copyright 2020 WJRT. All rights reserved.

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What working from home could mean for your wallet

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GENESEE COUNTY, Mich. (WJRT) - It was a change at work Amy Ford could not have imagined a year ago. "It was something I didn't really want to do," she said. The longtime Team One Credit Union employee in Saginaw had to adjust to a remote schedule back in March.

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Article: Teachers' experiences working from home during the pandemic

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Article: Teachers' experiences working from home during the pandemic

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Alice

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Teachers' Experiences Working from Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic, a new report by Associate Professor Matthew Kraft and Nicole S. Simon (CUNY) was published in June 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered schools across the United States, upending traditional approaches to education. The health threats posed by the coronavirus, sudden shift to remote teaching, and added caretaking responsibilities at home have created a uniquely stressful and demanding context for teachers' work. Kraft and Simon developed the Teaching From Home Survey for Upbeat to support districts in better understanding and responding to teachers' experience working remotely. Between April and May, a diverse sample of over 7,000 teachers working across nine southern, midwestern and eastern states answered the survey. The large and diverse sample of respondents allow us to explore how teachers' experiences working remotely differ across both individual and school characteristics.

Their findings suggest that the sudden move to remote teaching has created substantial challenges for teachers' work and limited the degree to which students can engage in learning. Mid-career teachers -- those most likely to have children at home -- have particularly struggled to balance their work responsibilities with their home lives during the pandemic. And veteran teachers are over three times more likely than early-career teachers to report being uncomfortable using the technological tools required for teaching at home. Importantly, schools with more supportive working conditions have been far more successful at helping their teachers maintain a sense of success during the pandemic.

Teachers estimate that, on average, only 60% of students are engaged in remote learning on a regular basis, with wide gaps in perceived engagement along racial and socio-economic lines. Teachers working in high-poverty schools and in schools that serve a majority of Black students report that their students are facing dramatically more challenging experiences engaging in school. Their students are less likely to have the technology they need to access online resources and, consequently, are less likely to engage in remote learning activities regularly.

In order to succeed this fall, schools will need to support teachers in balancing the many demands they are facing and provide those students most negatively affected during the crisis with more intensive, individualized support.

To dive deeper into their research and read the full report, click here.
News coverage includes: School Organizational Practices And The Challenges Of Remote Teaching During A Pandemic - Shanker Institute Want to Maximize Student Learning When Schools Reopen? Minimize Classroom Interruptions - EdWeek America's great remote-learning experiment: What surveys of teachers and parents tell us about how it went - Chalkbeat

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Teachers' Experiences Working from Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Teachers' Experiences Working from Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic, a new report by Associate Professor Matthew Kraft and Nicole S. Simon (CUNY) was published in June 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered schools across the United States, upending traditional approaches to education.

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Alice

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Stephanie Silva didn't have a proper home office set up before the coronavirus pandemic, so the transition to remote work from her Orange County, California, home over the past couple of months was "surprisingly expensive."

During most of April, the HR assistant sat on the floor and worked from her personal laptop. But with the COVID-19 shutdown extending into May, she and her boyfriend invested in a more comfortable setup.

They ordered a desk from Wayfair, an office chair from Amazon, ink for the printer and other home office staples. In total, they spent more than $600.

"It all added up quickly," Silva said. "I had no idea it would cost this much."

Silva is far from the only person scrambling to piece together a home office in the stay-at-home era, and setting one up from scratch isn't cheap.

In fact, most people (54%) didn't have a remote work setup before the government moved to curb nonessential gatherings, according to a survey conducted by YouGov in partnership with USA TODAY and LinkedIn. Meanwhile, 74% of professionals age 18 to 74 said they're now working from home.
Supermarket spending: Bye-bye butterfly keyboard: Apple unveils 13-inch MacBook Pro with a better typing experience April grocery store prices made highest jump in more than 40 years
While remote work cuts down on the cost of commuting, home offices come with other sets of expenses.

People who are used to endlessly charging their laptops and other devices at the corporate office are now facing higher household electricity bills. Then, there's the expense of office furniture and reliable Wi-Fi. You may even feel pushed to invest in a printer or extra monitors.

But do companies have to reimburse you for any of these?

"It's tricky," said Lara Shortz, a labor attorney at Michelman & Robinson. "But it largely depends on the state you live in."

Several states such as California, Illinois, Minnesota and South Dakota have laws that require some sort of reimbursement for necessary work-related expenses. That means companies are more likely to cover the cost of hardware that you need to fulfill your job, like a computer or laptop, Shortz said.

Upgrades to your home internet typically wouldn't qualify for reimbursement under state laws, Shortz added.

Nearly a third of those working from home (32%) have had their calls or video chats interrupted by Wi-Fi or technology challenges, the study with LinkedIn and YouGov found. Some people are paying for more internet bandwidth to overcome these issues.

Johanna Appel, an elementary school teacher in Long Island, New York, upgraded her home internet plan to accommodate an influx of Zoom calls with dozens of faculty members and students.

Her job provided her with a Chromebook laptop, though it wasn't powerful enough, she said. She spent nearly $2,000 on a Dell HP desktop, a set of headphones and a printer since the school closed its doors in mid-March.

"I had to do it for my sanity," Appel said. "I think the money was worth being spent, but I don't think I'll get reimbursed at all."

If you use part of your home for business, you may be able to deduct some of the expenses when you file your taxes. The IRS website says the home office deduction is available for both homeowners and renters.

Not everyone can afford a comfy work setup at home. Internet providers like AT&T and Comcast have offered incentives to ease the burden. And not everyone has space to fit a work desk. But experts have tips for using what you do have.

A quality pair of headphones is a simple way to help you focus on your tasks by reducing the noise you hear around you, according to Madeline Pratt, founder of the technology consulting agency Fearless in Training.

"With people having kids, dogs and partners at home, getting a really good headset situation is critical to be clear and focused on calls," Pratt said.

You don't necessarily need to buy a desk in order to look professional on Zoom calls, said LinkedIn career expert Blair Heitmann. Just "avoid couches, beds and cozy chairs that put your posture in a more relaxed position," Heitmann said.
Follow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.
These days, coworkers are understanding when it comes to occasional interruptions from kids or pets. Still, finding a dedicated space to work that's free from unnecessary distractions is essential.

"Try to find a place that is set apart from the rest of your family with a door," Heitmann said. "And be sure to communicate with your family when you need some alone time."

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Home offices are expensive: Study says most people didn't have one before coronavirus

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Stephanie Silva didn't have a proper home office set up before the coronavirus pandemic, so the transition to remote work from her Orange County, California, home over the past couple of months was "surprisingly expensive." During most of April, the HR assistant sat on the floor and worked from her personal laptop.

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Article: Working from home? Get ready for higher utility bills

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Article: Working from home? Get ready for higher utility bills

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Alice

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While most Americans have cinched their pursestrings since the coronavirus pandemic started, spending in one area is surging: electricity, internet and phone bills for millions of people who are working from home.

For Sarah Coryell, a college lecturer in Madison, Wisconsin, her former habit of two hours of daily internet usage has ballooned into as many as 10 when she moved to full-time teaching from home in mid-March. Hunkered down at home and leaving only to buy groceries, her electricity bill nearly doubled.

"We're here all the time, we have the lights on, everything's plugged in - we're just using more," said Coryell, 27. "The shutdown and working from home has probably cost us several hundred dollars."

In California, residential energy use during the pandemic has risen 15% to 20% over the same period last year, the state's utilities commission reports. In New York City, residential power use is up 4% to 7%, according to Columbia University researchers.

The Big Apple's main electricity provider, Con Edison, recently told residents to expect higher bills this summer "due to more people staying home." Engineers also have warned of potential blackouts this summer as people crank up their air conditioners.

Where the money goes

It's not just electricity. Costs that might go unnoticed in an office environment are suddenly becoming visible as homebound workers brew their own coffee, run the dishwasher multiple times and even purchase equipment for working from home.

Coryell's cell phone data use has increased about tenfold since she started working from home, forcing her to upgrade to an unlimited-data plan. She's also bought a webcam and an office chair with back support. She briefly considered making a request from the university where she works for a second monitor, but was overwhelmed by simply getting everything set up in time. As a former elementary-school teacher, she said she was used to covering work expenses out of pocket.

"We had other charges that we put on credit cards in the time being," she said. "With the COVID thing, everyone had to do emergency work, emergency make-do, and it's not like I was going to stop teaching."

Who pays?

Social media is deluged with people upset about their work-from-home power bills. One person suggested on Twitter that their employer should "at least pay the electric bill for the unnecessarily powerful laptop I have to run 8 hours a day now." Another tweeted, "[I]t's spring in South Texas, and if I have to work from home, it has to be comfortable."

Sooooo is the government going to pay for my energy bill? Because it's been like $35 during the winter, but it's spring in South Texas and if I have to work from home, it has to be comfortable.
- C.D.O. (@seedeeorkeys) March 26, 2020

Some employers have made moves on this issue. Facebook offered some of its workers a $1,000 cash bonus to help with work-from-home costs.

Employers typically save money when people work from home, for a range of reasons - from spending less on office space to getting more of a worker's time when their commute is eliminated. A recent Deutsche Bank study suggested that companies give a financial bonus to remote workers so they can build a home office: "Might it then make sense for employers to raise salaries for staff who work from home?" the investment bank mused.

For now, getting an employer to cover a heavy electricity bill is a question that will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

"Does that potentially mean an employer pays for electric bills? The answer will vary state to state and even city to city," said Krista Slosburg, an employment lawyer based in Seattle. "Some states and cities have laws that actually require employers to reimburse employees for work-related expenses. Depending on what that law or ordinance provides, employers might be required to pay for internet or phone usage."

California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Montana and Pennsylvania are among the places requiring companies to pay back employees for certain out-of-pocket work costs. Courts have also sided with workers in this scenario. Businesses have been told to pay for increased cell-phone use and even chip in for a workers' rent after requiring that person to work remotely.

It's also in the employer's interest to make their employees comfortable, no matter where they're working from, said Paul Scialla, CEO of Delos, a real-estate "wellness" company whose investors include Bill Gates. Wellness issues for the work-from-home crowd could range from testing for air and water quality to standup desks to relieve achy backs.

"If the company is going to get the benefit of having employees work and not pay for an office lease, there needs to be a financial consideration," Scialla said. "The environment that people put themselves has an impact on how well they perform."

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Working from home? Get ready for higher utility bills

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While most Americans have cinched their pursestrings since the coronavirus pandemic started, spending in one area is surging: electricity, internet and phone bills for millions of people who are working from home. For Sarah Coryell, a college lecturer in Madison, Wisconsin, her former habit of two hours of daily internet usage has ballooned into as many as 10 when she moved to full-time teaching from home in mid-March.

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Article: The Hidden Expenses of remote teaching

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Article: The Hidden Expenses of remote teaching

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Alice

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While COVID-19 has altered our pedagogical approaches to many of our course designs both positively and negatively -- particularly with the early pivot from in-person to online teaching -- it is having another large impact on professorial work. Some faculty members are now feeling the weight of the instructional shift not only emotionally and physically but also financially.

Before the pandemic, many faculty members resisted teaching online due to uncertainties about intellectual property, ownership, quality of instruction and enrollment. Those conversations seem to have been sidelined now that teaching online isn't a choice.

In the old version of distance learning, we instructors could load information onto a dedicated site for students to read, review and complete their assignments. We could essentially deliver our courses from anywhere without needing much beyond our computer and perhaps a scanning device at the office to upload readings and assignments. But current online teaching, particularly from the privacy of our homes, has forced us to retrofit our living spaces into professional offices.

Recently, several colleges and universities have issued guidance on how to appear professional while teaching online. Many of the recommendations have to do with lighting, the actual space where you're teaching, your appearance and so on. And sometimes, depending on where faculty members live, any of this can pose challenges. For many faculty members, the redesign has been far more expensive than we envisioned, with little to no financial support from our institutions.

Being on camera and teaching synchronously intensifies the pressure to invite students into our homes. The challenges can be endless: the dog barks in the background, the UPS delivery person rings the bell incessantly, the next-door neighbor decides to play music in his backyard, the ice cream truck parks right below our window. Some of us have converted a bedroom into a makeshift office by way of a Pinterest hack, complete with the purchase of materials to build a desk into a small wall. Meanwhile, the expenses of offering a better-quality online experience quietly yet steadily increase.

One faculty member I spoke to over the phone found that the sudden extra costs incurred from teaching remotely were so high that she thought about resigning from her teaching post altogether. "Sure, I save on the commute, but now I need to make three meals a day because there's no school lunch or summer camp to help support meals. I don't live near the locations where they are giving away meals, and if I did, I'd have to find time in the schedule to get there and back. I also have to get stuff for my kids to do while I'm teaching. This adds up over time."

To her point, virtual summer camp costs were just as expensive in some places as in-person programs. As they continued to offer virtual activities, the camps required a device, internet/Wi-Fi and sometimes supplies, as well as enrollment fees per child.

An acquaintance of mine who is a part-time adjunct working at multiple institutions found himself in need of a new computer because the one he has can't handle all the digital requirements, such as Zoom and Google Classroom; headphones; a desk chair; chair mat; router; and keyboard. It cost him a total of nearly $2,000 in a single purchase. "At the college, the wait for a device was too long, and they aren't brand-new," he told me. "Who's going to service it if something should happen while I'm working on it from home?" His wife, also a faculty member at a different institution, needed her own set of equipment because their teaching schedules have collided, requiring them to use multiple devices each day.

Another faculty member explained over an exasperated phone call with me that, had she been working from her office, supplies would be included in the work she does. Now she finds herself purchasing reams of paper as digital reading negatively impacts her vision. "I need basic things to get through my work on a daily basis, including simple stuff like highlighters, hole punchers, binders and paper clips. I had to buy all that just to finish up the spring term." Now that the fall semester has arrived and is in full swing, she, like many of us, has more than 25 students in a class. Those of us teaching multiple classes find ourselves with additional financial impacts as our classes meet different days across the week and have different requirements in terms of books and other supplies.

While these supplies are the basic tools necessary for remote teaching, broader financial strains can also impact not just faculty members but also our families. One faculty member described how her "electric bill skyrocketed to over $600 across the summer months," because she has been home and using much more electricity while teaching. No doubt this will also take place once the winter sets in and we are home needing much more heat than usual for longer periods of the day. Her husband's university ran short of computers to distribute and "stopped approving these kinds of purchases," requiring him to personally buy a computer, printer, scanner, and Wi-Fi service just to effectively teach his two classes. They have both increased their mobile phone packages to include more minutes, further coverage and more data capacity.

Further, faculty members who are also now at home alongside their children often have to deal with countless childcare issues. Administrators who call meetings during school hours fail to realize that faculty parents aren't in a position to hire sitters or nannies. And in some cases, it's too dangerous to send children to a grandparent or have one come over to help out. How faculty tend to older children, who are also remotely learning for parts of the day, is also a major concern. Depending on your salary scale, and where you live, after-school program costs might be feasible, but they are out of reach in some places for faculty members with children.

Many colleges and universities now confront budget cuts and fiscal crises, and many faculty members are having to shoulder additional teaching loads and teach larger classes as others have been laid off. At this juncture, institutions should allocate funds to help serve the needs of students as well as the current faculty, supporting the best delivery of instruction possible. Here are a few ideas that I recommend they consider.

Supply stipends. Since many of us will not be returning to our offices, colleges should provide a stipend for, as one faculty put it, "simple stuff that we need to get through our jobs, like printer paper, books that are in our offices that we now need to replace, paper clips and folders to keep track of student work." Transforming a personal office into a working office that is visible to others requires some semblance of organizational appearance. Otherwise, institutions might consider allowing all faculty members to go asynchronous and off-camera.

Equipment stipends. When equipment is unavailable for loan, colleges should allow faculty members to purchase devices that help them design their courses most successfully. To that end, they should also allocate funds for accompanying equipment like printers, printer ink, scanners, computer cameras, ring lights, headphones and video drivers. In addition, since not every faculty member is teaching from a well-lit home office or soundproof room at our houses or apartments, and digital backdrops do not work on every device, colleges should provide support for what's needed to improve the instructional location. Ideas for this might include the purchase of screens that divide rooms, cubicle covers that can create privacy or materials from the local hardware store to build out spaces where possible.

Childcare support. Colleges would do well to assist faculty parents with stipends for eligible child dependents to take online classes, engage in extracurricular programming or purchase other intellectually supportive tools and games. Faculty parents should not be forced to spend $300 from our own pockets for video-game devices to occupy our children while we tend to the needs of our students during classes, office hours or (often lengthy) faculty meetings. In addition, as faculty members are called away from caring for their children during these times of teaching and meeting, we should be compensated for any additional hours spent working (that are not contractual teaching hours) where we might need to pay for additional support in the home.

Utilities support. As one faculty member shared over a text message about her electric bill, utilities use at our homes has increased much more than normally would be the case if we were in our offices. As we teach and perform other work from our home "offices" all day, air-conditioning, heat, phone, gas, electric and light bills have all climbed higher.

While we recognize that many of our colleges and universities are struggling financially, the kind of stipends and support this essay describes would be an investment well spent. After all, this isn't just about teaching in the time of COVID, although the goal is for us all to be as safe and healthy as possible for as long as we can. And it's not solely about remote teaching, either. It's also about maintaining the intellectual quality of an invaluable college education.

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The hidden yet rising expenses of teaching remotely during the pandemic (opinion)

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While COVID-19 has altered our pedagogical approaches to many of our course designs both positively and negatively -- particularly with the early pivot from in-person to online teaching -- it is having another large impact on professorial work. Some faculty members are now feeling the weight of the instructional shift not only emotionally and physically but also financially.

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Article: The social and economic costs of working from Home

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Article: The social and economic costs of working from Home

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Alice

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To have a job without a workplace, you must build an office of the mind. Structure, routine, focus, socialization, networking, stress relief-their creation is almost entirely up to you, alone in a spare bedroom or on your couch, where your laptop might vie for attention at any given moment with your pets or kids. If the coffeepot runs dry, there is no one to blame but yourself.

The first time I undertook this construction process was in 2009, and it was an abject failure. I was nine months out of college and had already been laid off from my first full-time job, thanks to Wall Street's evisceration of the American economy. A woman I knew only from an internet message board hired me to write blog posts for her fashion website, a stroke of luck that turned me nocturnal within six weeks. I lived like a 13-year-old on perpetual summer break-no gods, no masters, no parents, no bedtime. It took two years for me to meet my co-workers in person, and I often fantasized about eating lunch with a live human being, or even just bumping into one on the way to the bathroom. What would it be like to have "work clothes" again? I had never expected to miss driving 45 minutes to sit at a desk in a makeshift office above a country-club pro shop, where, in my first full-time job, I'd done menial tasks in the marketing department.
From the May 2020 issue: After the pandemic, the office dress code should never come back
At first, I assumed my setup would soon be common, and therefore somehow better-we'd all build our internal offices together. "There's no stopping it," a Reuters writer proclaimed a few months after I began my blogging gig. "The work force that fuels tomorrow's small businesses may largely be a stay-at-home crowd." Laptop prices were shrinking, and more employers were issuing them to their workers. Smartphones started to fill Americans' pockets. Skype was well established as an early leader in videochat, and co-workers silently traded jokes on GChat. The Great Recession would force a reckoning in how stuffy old companies operated, and offices would soon be obsolete.

Then it just didn't happen. In fact, something like the opposite happened: Co-working spaces sprang up for people without traditional offices, and the concept attracted hundreds of millions of investment dollars and, for a couple of years, my patronage. In 2018, I finally got a regular job. I sometimes ate lunch with my new colleagues. I bought a fancy water bottle for my desk. After a few months of commuting, I understood the allure of podcasts.
Young people who work remotely risk remaining unknown quantities. And unknown quantities don't become beloved colleagues, or get promoted.
Now a once-in-a-century pandemic has resurrected the abandoned future. I'm back on my couch, along with millions of other Americans. And as soon as we were remanded to our homes in the spring, the predictions of a decade ago sprang back to life: If the COVID‑19 experiment has proved anything, it's that employees can be productive without being physically present, so why not jettison expensive corporate leases and free everyone from commutes? But the longer people spend editing spreadsheets or taking conference calls at the kitchen table, the more obvious it is that workers lose far more than physical space when they lose their office.

"There are tons of studies on the positive benefits of teleworking, but most of that research is interviews and surveys with people who have self-selected into remote work," says Kati Peditto, an environmental-design psychologist at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Workers who value day-to-day flexibility in their schedules are ideal work-from-home candidates; those who like strict boundaries between their professional and personal lives, not so much. Career positioning also matters-people who have already built strong social and professional networks may not suffer much from the lack of face-to-face contact at the office, but for those still trying to make such ties, remote work can be alienating.
Derek Thompson: The workforce is about to change dramatically
Contrary to managerial paranoia, people generally want to be good at their job. To do that, many need the support, collaboration, and friendship of colleagues, which is more difficult to foster online. "Outside of immediate family, people's co-workers become their most consistent opportunity for social interaction," Peditto told me. "What happens when you lose that is one of my greater concerns."

Americans were struggling with feelings of loneliness so widespread that they were considered a major public-health burden even before the pandemic began, and the virus has only exacerbated that problem. I don't suggest trying to eat lunch with a friend on Zoom-watching yourself wolf down a salad on video is horrific. Even if you're not eating, watching yourself do anything on Zoom is pretty bad. There are plenty of awkward pauses, weird shadows, glitchy Wi-Fi connections, and unfortunate angles, along with ambient anxiety about whether or not your hair always does that. Unfortunately, it's hard to avoid watching yourself on Zoom at all times, because of the software's display and the stubborn human desire to stare at one's own face.
Juliette Kayyem: Never go back to the office
The social by-products of going to work aren't found only in shared projects or mentoring-many are baked into the physical spaces we inhabit. Break rooms, communal kitchens, and even well-trafficked hallways help create what experts call functional inconvenience. "We have these interdisciplinary connections because people have to take the stairs, or the bathroom is on a different floor," says Peter Berg, the director of the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations at Michigan State University. "Moving through that space in an inconvenient way is really important to connection." People end up talking to their co-workers-complimenting a new haircut, asking how the kids are-when they're corralled together waiting for the elevator or washing their hands next to each other in the bathroom. Over time, those quick encounters build a sense of belonging and warmth that makes spending so much of your life at work a little more bearable.
Read: The end of open-plan everything
"You talk to people who really felt excited for the first few weeks of remote work," Peditto said. Among other benefits, who doesn't relish the chance to be out from under the literal watchful eye of a supervisor? But now a fair number of the early enthusiasts are starting to go stir-crazy, she said, with no relief on the horizon and, maybe worse, no one to commiserate with at the office microwave for the 90 seconds it takes to nuke last night's spaghetti.

When I began working from home at 23, I soon realized that the potential harm wasn't limited to my sleep schedule or my mood. Even if I successfully made myself a disciplined, 9-to-5 worker bee, I was far removed from the structure of my career itself. For the first few years, I had an inexpensive apartment in a small town that I loved, but it was far away from New York City, the country's fashion capital. I wasn't meeting anyone else who did similar work, wasn't being invited to anything, wasn't getting introduced to any friends of friends. If I had wanted or needed a new job, completely changing careers would probably have been easier than getting another gig in my field with the experience I'd accrued at home.

Moving to New York a few years into the job helped, but it didn't totally solve the problem-I was still the girl on her laptop in her bedroom, trying to make people from Twitter like me enough to meet a stranger for an after-hours drink. After you've left the ready-made social environment of school, an office is a natural place to look for new people who share your interests and outlook. But with no place to go to but just as many professional obligations, people working from home might have the flexibility to do everything except make new friends.

Workplaces are complex ecosystems, and decentralizing them can obliterate the things that make them satisfying.

Even those who self-select into the work-from-home "lifestyle" report feeling distant from new professional opportunities, outside their companies as well as inside, Peditto told me. Deprived of desk neighbors, impromptu coffees, and any real way to, for a lack of a better term, read everyone's vibe, she said that new hires and young people who work remotely risk remaining unknown quantities. And unknown quantities don't become beloved colleagues, or get promoted. How you begin your working life tends to shape your professional and financial prospects for decades to come. Those who were just starting out during the financial cataclysm of 2008 and the recession that followed have had their fortunes stunted by it, and many will never recover. For recent graduates beginning work via Zoom in the twin chaos of a pandemic and a financial crisis, the impact could be even more profound.

Women-of all ages- particularly suffer when telecommuting, Berg told me, with fewer promotions and slower wage growth. Employers already tend to assume that women, and especially mothers, are less dedicated to work than their male counterparts are, no matter how hard they toil. If those same women seek permission to stay home for good-opting out of the "face time" that many of their bosses hold irrationally dear-it could encourage the assumption that they're sitting on their couches eating SkinnyPop and watching HGTV.
Read: The coming setback for women in the workplace
Good employers can account for those biases in their work practices, and theoretically, workers can organize their colleagues to pressure management toward better accommodations, such as expansion of parental leave and greater transparency in pay. But those efforts, including forming a union, are much harder when people can't meet face-to-face. A dispersed workforce means that employees have to go out of their way to compare experiences with one another, and that those with relatively little power have a tougher time sensing who their allies might be.

Ultimately, that might be the biggest problem of working from home in perpetuity. Workplaces are complex social ecosystems just like all other places humans inhabit, and decentralizing them can obliterate the things that make them satisfying: knowing eye contact with a co-worker when a change you've been begging for is finally announced. A slightly-too-long lunch break with your desk neighbor because your boss is in meetings all day. Giving a presentation to your peers and watching them receive it well. Figuring out whom you can rely on, and whom you can't. "There's so much unspoken that you absorb as an employee," Peditto said. "You don't get that right now with just a set of scripted meetings." At home, though, you probably get better coffee.
This article appears in the October 2020 print edition with the headline "A Cubicle Never Looked So Good."

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Generation Work-From-Home May Never Recover

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To have a job without a workplace, you must build an office of the mind. Structure, routine, focus, socialization, networking, stress relief-their creation is almost entirely up to you, alone in a spare bedroom or on your couch, where your laptop might vie for attention at any given moment with your pets or kids.

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Article: Working from home could lead to more prejudice

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Article: Working from home could lead to more prejudice

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Alice

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Widespread working from home could lead to an increase in racism and prejudice, a new report warns.

Workplace friendships are key to breaking down misconceptions, the England and Wales study for the Woolf Institute suggests.

Institute founder Ed Kessler said as more people work from home they risk going "back into isolated silos".

He called on ministers to focus on offices and workplaces as a "vital" area for improving community relations.

The study, conducted by polling company Survation for the Woolf Institute, which researches interfaith relations, surveyed 11,701 people.

Understanding each other

Hadiya Masieh, who is Muslim, became close friends with Samuel Rosengard, an Orthodox Jew, after working together.

Samuel said that while he had never had racist or Islamophobic views in the past, he may have had "misconceptions" about Muslim communities.

"Meeting Hadiya has really helped clarify where my thinking can be askew," he said.

Hadiya agreed saying that for her "it was more of a political thing about Israel and Palestine".

But through their work they have become close friends.

"It was just a very natural relationship that we formed because we had the exact same agenda and passions," Hadiya said.

"We were both from very different backgrounds and the idea of Israel and Palestine was a hot topic. But we were able to discuss that in a way that was understanding of each other."

Samuel added: "Before Covid we would have regular discussions about these kinds of issues. And also identifying common cultural traits between Jewish and Muslim communities, and areas of agreement and disagreement.

"Hadiya and I would often start off conversations just bumping into each other in the open plan office and then head off for a coffee. But that just doesn't happen. So that is a loss."

The study suggests that of those who work in shared offices, three-quarters (76%) - regardless of ethnicity - were in a setting that is ethnically diverse.

However, it suggests that unemployed people are 37% more likely to only have friends from their own ethnic group.

And it warns that without alternative settings to offices being set up, opportunities for social mixing between different religious and ethnic groups will be greatly reduced.

The study also examined people's opinions on diversity.

Its findings suggest that while nearly three-quarters of non-black or non-Asian respondents were comfortable with a close relative marrying a black or Asian person (74% and 70%), less than half (44%) said they were comfortable with the idea of a close relative marrying a Muslim person.

"The word 'Muslim' appears to trigger more negative sentiment than the word 'Pakistani'," the report says. This is "despite the fact that 90% of people of British Pakistani heritage are Muslim".

The report also indicates that a majority of Muslims were themselves uncomfortable with a close relative marrying a Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish or Sikh person, or someone of no religion. Around a third of Muslim respondents (38%) said they were uncomfortable with a close relative marrying a Christian person.

"Muslims were both the primary target for 'uncomfortable' responses, but also the primary source," the report said.

The study estimated the level of prejudice in each local authority across England and Wales. Researchers used a technique known as Multilevel Regression Poststratification (MRP), which looks at the survey responses and the demographics of each area.

As well as being the most common target of negative attitudes by other faith groups, the report indicates Muslims are the group most likely to hold negative attitudes towards people of other religions.

The study also suggests that diversity of friendships and colleagues varies significantly around the country.

Even after accounting for factors such as the age, educational attainment and ethnic makeup of an area, people in north-east England are 150% more likely to have only British friends and 68% more likely to have only British colleagues, compared with people in London.

The report says any apparent prejudice toward religion could be due to people feeling it is more acceptable to express negative sentiment towards religion than ethnicity.

Religion remains "a place where individuals are willing to express negative attitudes," the report says.

"Being Muslim, in particular, appears to remain a 'trigger' for prejudice, making religion a 'final frontier' for prejudice in England and Wales," the report's author Dr Julian Hargreaves added.

The survey was undertaken by Survation on behalf of the Woolf Institute. Survation spoke to a nationally representative sample of 11,701 adults across England and Wales between 29 March and 5 April 2019.

The results indicating the proportion of people in each local authority who would be happy with a friend or close relative marrying someone from various backgrounds use a technique called Multilevel Regression Poststratification (MRP).

MRP projects the results of the survey onto local authorities based on the demography of the area. However, some estimates contain wide margins of error and statistically non-significant differences between local authorities.

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Working from home could lead to more prejudice, report warns

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Widespread working from home could lead to an increase in racism and prejudice, a new report warns. Workplace friendships are key to breaking down misconceptions, the England and Wales study for the Woolf Institute suggests. Institute founder Ed Kessler said as more people work from home they risk going "back into isolated silos".

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Alice

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For a growing number of office workers, remote work is now part of their long-term reality, whether they like it or not. By late spring, 50% of people who were employed before the pandemic hit were working remotely, according to nationally representative sample of adults surveyed by academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

When employees work from home, it can be a win-win for employers. Companies save money on operating costs and perks, and research has found that workers can be more productive at home. But it can take a stressful toll on employees as boundaries blur and privacy becomes scarce.

Working from home can also come at financial and psychological cost to employees who are suddenly shouldering expenses their company used to cover.

"Employers, they're silent. The silence implies that the expectation is that we as employees will figure it out at home."

Most people didn't have a dedicated home office before COVID-19, so they've had to cobble one together on their own. More than half of the respondents in one survey of remote workers said their employer did not allow them to bring home any equipment when they went remote; a majority also said they had to personally purchase equipment for themselves.

"I think employers, they're silent. The silence implies that the expectation is that we as employees will figure it out at home," said Elizabeth Patton, assistant professor of media and communication studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and author of " Easy Living: The Rise of the Home Office." "It's interesting that we fell into this idea that this is normal, that we should take up this cost."

For some workers, these work expenses are adding up to a lot.

There are real-life hidden financial and psychological costs of remote work.

Proponents of remote work often say, "Well, think of how much you're saving on your commute!" But for Danelle Clarke, who works in administration at a major utility company in Iowa, going remote resulted in a significant pay cut that outweighed whatever she is saving from no longer driving her short commute.

Clarke acknowledged she is fortunate to be able to work from home during the pandemic, but her company told her the choice to not return to the office would result in a 10% pay cut. Her employer said she'd save money by not buying as much gas and by putting less "wear and tear" on her car.

"I personally don't think you need to take a pay cut to work from home. I'm just as productive as I am in the office, if not more so," Clarke said. "I did not get any extra equipment. I was provided a laptop and a monitor, but no sort of desk or workstation."

Clarke's dining room table is now her desk, and she uses her personal phone and Wi-Fi for work. When she asked her employer for help covering the cost of a printer so she could print out invoices and timesheets, her request was denied.

"If you need a printer, should you really be working from home?" Clarke said her company asked.

Adjusted salaries like Clarke's may become the norm for some remote workers. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said many employees are welcome to work remotely permanently, but those who move to areas with costs of living lower than the San Francisco Bay Area may face a pay cut starting in January.

"It's embarrassing to call into work during the middle of your workday to say you cannot complete the shift because the internet went down."

In an office, an employer is responsible for maintaining a temperature-appropriate environment and for providing technology and equipment that does not fail. When the office is home, employees take on that responsibility.

Patton used herself as an example: "I have to pay for electricity, I have to pay for water, heat, air conditioning. These are things that happen at the office that we expect in terms of a comfortable environment. If we're shouldering those costs, these are hidden costs ... We're kind of trapped [with the idea of] 'Well, we're already here, and we're already paying for it.'"

Electricity bills were estimated to increase by 15-30% this summer, and more people are dealing with internet outages due to blackouts, storms and surging internet traffic as work and life continue to take place mostly online. This can have consequences for people's ability to do their work. Tracy, an IT professional working for an essential business based in Arizona (who asked for her last name to be withheld), said that when she was working from home, she needed to use paid vacation days because of an internet outage.

"I took one and a half days of [paid time off] due to internet going down," Tracy told HuffPost. "It's embarrassing to call into work during the middle of your workday to say you cannot complete the shift because the internet went down."

Can you make your company pay for some of these new expenses? It depends.

Bosses can be resistant to investing in their employees when the trend is that employees no longer stay with companies until retirement, Patton said.

"When they purchase office equipment for an office, the idea is that we're the interchangeables, the desk and chair are still there, the computer is still there," she said.

Some bosses, though, can be legally obligated to pay for work-related remote expenses, depending on the state where you work and how much you earn. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers can't require employees earning a minimum wage to pay for business-related expenses that would cause their compensation to fall below minimum wage.

Some states like Illinois, Montana, South Dakota, New Hampshire and California require some form of employee reimbursement for work expenses. California, which has one of the strongest labor laws on this, requires employers to reimburse employees who are required to work from home for reasonable and necessary expenses. Donna Ballman, a Florida-based employment lawyer, said a comfy ergonomic chair would probably not quality, but the stuff required to do the job would probably be considered necessary. One lawsuit filed in California resulted in an employer being told to reimburse a percentage of the employee's cell phone billbecause the employee had to make work-related calls on their personal phone.

But before you ask your employer for help with expenses, consider what would be reasonable and what would be a risk.

"I'd caution against overreaching if your employer is reimbursing for home office expenses. Maybe don't try to bill for afternoon snacks and coffee even if the employer normally provides them for free. I'd err on the side of showing them you are being reasonable so they don't decide you are trying to take advantage," Ballman said. "Remember, most employees are still at-will, which means the employer can fire you for any reason or no reason at all, except for illegal reasons like discrimination and whistleblowing."

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There Are Hidden Costs To Working From Home

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For a growing number of office workers, remote work is now part of their long-term reality, whether they like it or not. By late spring, 50% of people who were employed before the pandemic hit were working remotely, according to nationally representative sample of adults surveyed by academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Article: Hidden Costs of Working from Home

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Article: Hidden Costs of Working from Home

# data[].attributes.body
Alice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For a growing number of office workers, remote work is now part of their long-term reality, whether they like it or not. By late spring, 50% of people who were employed before the pandemic hit were working remotely, according to nationally representative sample of adults surveyed by academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

When employees work from home, it can be a win-win for employers. Companies save money on operating costs and perks, and research has found that workers can be more productive at home. But it can take a stressful toll on employees as boundaries blur and privacy becomes scarce.

Working from home can also come at financial and psychological cost to employees who are suddenly shouldering expenses their company used to cover.

"Employers, they're silent. The silence implies that the expectation is that we as employees will figure it out at home."

Most people didn't have a dedicated home office before COVID-19, so they've had to cobble one together on their own. More than half of the respondents in one survey of remote workers said their employer did not allow them to bring home any equipment when they went remote; a majority also said they had to personally purchase equipment for themselves.

"I think employers, they're silent. The silence implies that the expectation is that we as employees will figure it out at home," said Elizabeth Patton, assistant professor of media and communication studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and author of " Easy Living: The Rise of the Home Office." "It's interesting that we fell into this idea that this is normal, that we should take up this cost."

For some workers, these work expenses are adding up to a lot.

There are real-life hidden financial and psychological costs of remote work.

Proponents of remote work often say, "Well, think of how much you're saving on your commute!" But for Danelle Clarke, who works in administration at a major utility company in Iowa, going remote resulted in a significant pay cut that outweighed whatever she is saving from no longer driving her short commute.

Clarke acknowledged she is fortunate to be able to work from home during the pandemic, but her company told her the choice to not return to the office would result in a 10% pay cut. Her employer said she'd save money by not buying as much gas and by putting less "wear and tear" on her car.

"I personally don't think you need to take a pay cut to work from home. I'm just as productive as I am in the office, if not more so," Clarke said. "I did not get any extra equipment. I was provided a laptop and a monitor, but no sort of desk or workstation."

Clarke's dining room table is now her desk, and she uses her personal phone and Wi-Fi for work. When she asked her employer for help covering the cost of a printer so she could print out invoices and timesheets, her request was denied.

"If you need a printer, should you really be working from home?" Clarke said her company asked.

Adjusted salaries like Clarke's may become the norm for some remote workers. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said many employees are welcome to work remotely permanently, but those who move to areas with costs of living lower than the San Francisco Bay Area may face a pay cut starting in January.

"It's embarrassing to call into work during the middle of your workday to say you cannot complete the shift because the internet went down."

In an office, an employer is responsible for maintaining a temperature-appropriate environment and for providing technology and equipment that does not fail. When the office is home, employees take on that responsibility.

Patton used herself as an example: "I have to pay for electricity, I have to pay for water, heat, air conditioning. These are things that happen at the office that we expect in terms of a comfortable environment. If we're shouldering those costs, these are hidden costs ... We're kind of trapped [with the idea of] 'Well, we're already here, and we're already paying for it.'"

Electricity bills were estimated to increase by 15-30% this summer, and more people are dealing with internet outages due to blackouts, storms and surging internet traffic as work and life continue to take place mostly online. This can have consequences for people's ability to do their work. Tracy, an IT professional working for an essential business based in Arizona (who asked for her last name to be withheld), said that when she was working from home, she needed to use paid vacation days because of an internet outage.

"I took one and a half days of [paid time off] due to internet going down," Tracy told HuffPost. "It's embarrassing to call into work during the middle of your workday to say you cannot complete the shift because the internet went down."

Can you make your company pay for some of these new expenses? It depends.

Bosses can be resistant to investing in their employees when the trend is that employees no longer stay with companies until retirement, Patton said.

"When they purchase office equipment for an office, the idea is that we're the interchangeables, the desk and chair are still there, the computer is still there," she said.

Some bosses, though, can be legally obligated to pay for work-related remote expenses, depending on the state where you work and how much you earn. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers can't require employees earning a minimum wage to pay for business-related expenses that would cause their compensation to fall below minimum wage.

Some states like Illinois, Montana, South Dakota, New Hampshire and California require some form of employee reimbursement for work expenses. California, which has one of the strongest labor laws on this, requires employers to reimburse employees who are required to work from home for reasonable and necessary expenses. Donna Ballman, a Florida-based employment lawyer, said a comfy ergonomic chair would probably not quality, but the stuff required to do the job would probably be considered necessary. One lawsuit filed in California resulted in an employer being told to reimburse a percentage of the employee's cell phone billbecause the employee had to make work-related calls on their personal phone.

But before you ask your employer for help with expenses, consider what would be reasonable and what would be a risk.

"I'd caution against overreaching if your employer is reimbursing for home office expenses. Maybe don't try to bill for afternoon snacks and coffee even if the employer normally provides them for free. I'd err on the side of showing them you are being reasonable so they don't decide you are trying to take advantage," Ballman said. "Remember, most employees are still at-will, which means the employer can fire you for any reason or no reason at all, except for illegal reasons like discrimination and whistleblowing."

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There Are Hidden Costs To Working From Home

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For a growing number of office workers, remote work is now part of their long-term reality, whether they like it or not. By late spring, 50% of people who were employed before the pandemic hit were working remotely, according to nationally representative sample of adults surveyed by academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.