Over Labor Day weekend, real estate mogul Rob Speyer got a call from an old friend: Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, the union that represents New York City’s 75,000-plus educators. Mulgrew had a favor to ask. Could Speyer, through his role as president and CEO of Tishman Speyer, help monitor and improve ventilation in some of the city’s public schools, as he had done across his own commercial real estate portfolio? Good ventilation could reduce the spread of COVID-19 in enclosed spaces like classrooms—and lay the foundation for reopening the schools that serve New York City’s 1.1 million students.
“Within an hour we had a team mobilized and ready to go,” says Speyer. On a pro bono basis, he started sending Tishman Speyer employees to two of the city’s largest school buildings to check that airflow was at an appropriate level. In addition, Tishman Speyer sourced a domestic supplier that could deliver more than 100,000 MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value) filters, currently in high demand across the world, to New York City schools within a short time frame. While the effort would help keep teachers safe, it also presented a potential lifeline for working parents, who had spent the spring struggling to manage their children’s remote learning alongside their own professional obligations. As a landlord with a vested interest in seeing employees return to offices, Speyer understood the importance of reopening New York City schools, which provide childcare as well as education. “We’re doing what we can as citizens,” he says.
Corporate efforts such as Tishman Speyer’s, to lift the fortunes of entire communities, have been few and far between these past several months, which is a shame. Business leaders have an opportunity to alleviate some of the burdens that have fallen on American workers during the pandemic—and put into practice the oft-espoused idea that companies have obligations to stakeholders beyond their investors. More frequently, though, they’ve been focused on simply boosting (or, at least, restoring) the productivity of office workers who are now stuck at home.
Throughout the pandemic, companies have piled on the perks for white-collar employees: They’ve suspended performance reviews, encouraged staffers to take “staycations,” and invested in benefits such as bike-sharing, teletherapy, and even virtual magic shows. It would be easy to cast this coddling as a tale of haves and have-nots, given that recent layoffs and furloughs have disproportionately affected blue-collar women. Indeed, for some knowledge workers, such perks may be sufficient to overcome their COVID malaise.
The pandemic could erase six years’ worth of progress toward greater representation of women of color in senior leadership roles.
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
PDOGG (KANG HYO-WON)
“WE COMMUNICATE A LOT.”
The Parent Trap
Stranded by the pandemic, working parents are receiving little help from their employers. It’s time for corporate America to find its voice.
N.K.JEMISIN
“I BASICALLY HAD A MIDLIFE CRISIS.”
ROZ BREWER
“I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE IF A BARISTA IS MAKING COFFEE, I SHOULD BE DOING SOMETHING.”
Secrets Of The Most Productive People – Brandy Zadrozny, Reporter, NBC News
“I can report from my backyard with my feet in a baby swimming pool.”
Secrets Of The Most Productive People – Gina McCarthy
President and Ceo, National Resources Defense Council
Secrets Of The Most Productive People – Florian Krammer
“Science is not a job. It’s somewhere between a hobby and a passion.”
Secrets Of The Most Productive People – Bubba Wallace – Nascar Driver
“The more stressed out I am, the better we do on the racetrack .”
Secrets Of The Most Productive People – Jacqueline Guichelaar
“Every individual on the team is important, regardless of what time zone they’re in.”
Daniel Dae Kim – Actor and Producer
“I’ve spent about two and a half months in quarantine .”
Invest in These Great Places to Work
These companies do well by their workers, which can translate into gains for investors.
SALESFORCE TO BUY WORK CHAT SERVICE SLACK FOR $27.7 BILLION
Business software pioneer Salesforce.com is buying work-chatting service Slack for $27.7 billion in a deal aimed at giving the two companies a better shot at competing against longtime industry powerhouse Microsoft.
Invest in a Landmark
Go from sightseer to part-owner with these notable property stocks.
Optimizing The Supply Chain With Predictive Inventory Management
Optimizing the supply chain with predictive inventory management
Trust His Gut
Salesforce’s remarkable growth has relied on Marc Benioff’s personality-driven, pricey deals. Can he keep it up?
Co-founder Of Salesforce Buys Time Magazine For $190 Million
Time Magazine is being sold by Meredith Corp. to Marc Benioff, a co-founder of Salesforce, and his wife, it was announced this week.
Salesforce acquires Slack for $27.7B. What lies ahead in the digital collaboration space?
Just when we thought the collaboration space was plateauing with multiple players who were reaching saturation points with features and tools, the industry woke up to news that Slack was being acquired by Salesforce for $27.7B.
THE FORCE IS WITH ARUNDHATI
TWO AND A HALF YEARS AFTER RETIREMENT, THE FORMER SBI CHAIRMAN STUNNED EVERYONE BY JOINING SILICON VALLEY DARLING SALESFORCE AS ITS INDIA HEAD. NOW COMES THE TOUGH PART— ADAPTING TO A VERY DIFFERENT INDUSTRY AND CULTURE. SHE ALSO HAS A CELEBRITY SUPERBOSS.
Salesforce cuts 1,000 jobs despite a strong quarter
GLOBAL enterprise software firm, Salesforce has announced layoffs which will impact 1,000 roles globally even as the company posted the strongest quarterly results of $5 billion on Tuesday. The California-based company said that it will retrench 1.9 per cent of the 54,000 workforce globally.
Baybayin: a renewal through art
Filipino-American Baybayin artist Kristian Kabuay talks about Baybayin as a didactic art form that bridges past and present