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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Michael Johnston was making six figures in a remote job he enjoyed when his second child was born.</li><li>He fell in love with <keyword id="23944982" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="full-time-parenting" source="keywords">full-time parenting</keyword> and his wife, a successful editor, was keen to keep working.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Johnston, 41, a <keyword id="23944981" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="stay-at-home-dad" source="keywords">stay-at-home dad</keyword> who lives in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Johnston's financial claims have been verified with documents. It has been edited for length and clarity. I graduated from Boston University in 2006 with a degree in mechanical engineering. I then got a job in the semiconductor industry. The role allowed me unlimited creative freedom and had crazy big budgets. Life was good. A few years into this amazing job, things shifted. The 2008 recession hit, and though I survived layoffs, everything changed. Money dried up for creative projects, and suddenly, I was doing paperwork all day. After my wife Maddie finished school, we wanted a fresh start. We moved coasts onto a ranch in California. I found a new role at KLA Corporation, in manufacturing, with much less paperwork. When my wife told me she was pregnant, I had a steady job with a manageable workload, but I traveled frequently to China, Taiwan, and South Korea. I was grateful for the income when our son Lincoln was born. <div type="image" title="Dad with baby in a carrier." height="4032" width="2268" msid="114981391" hostid="261"></div><h2>The impossible task of pandemic parenting</h2>Like many parents, March 2020 was a very difficult period for my family of three. Lincoln was around three years old, and suddenly my world narrowed to just four walls during lockdown. Instead of traveling and working in the office, my role was being permanently on the phone. I had meetings the entire day and would try to get my actual work done in the evening. Calls from around the world pushed late into the night. At some points, I worked almost 24 hours a day. Maddie, Lincoln, and I tried to maintain daily family life while we kept up with our careers. Now we were both fully remote, so we bought a beach house in Maine in 2020 and left California in 2021. But that wasn't the only reason we were moving back closer to home: our second baby was on the way. <div type="image" title="Michael Johnston and his kids." height="3357" width="1888" msid="114981168" hostid="261"></div><h2>Crunching numbers on <keyword id="21017792" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="paternity-leave" source="keywords">paternity leave</keyword></h2>I fully intended to go back to work after paternity leave. I was making six figures doing work that I loved — prior to the pandemic shift — and my team was great. But over 12 weeks of leave, I fell in love with being a full-time dad. If I was up at 3 a.m. I was comforting a sleepless kid, not fielding international calls. It was some of the best times we'd had as a family. My wife has a successful career in editorial work, and we began examining whether we could afford to be a one-salary family. We'd spent our early career days digging out of student and credit card debt from moving around. Right before kids, we'd finally paid off our debt, which was tough even with two incomes. Moving back to Maine was a major savings opportunity. We streamlined our spending on our mortgage, rental property, two cars, and everything else it takes to run a family in California. We no longer had to pay for flights back, preschool or daycare. We dug into what life would look like on one income, and my financial projections showed it was doable in Maine. We walk the kids to school and don't have a pricey commute. We no longer pay for any day care — a drastic change from the insanely California options at around $2,000 for one child. Maine also has free breakfast and lunch at school. <h2>Deciding to stay home</h2>It came down to how we viewed our work. After maternity leave, my wife was excited to see her coworkers and jump back into her job. I saw work as a means to an end. My future wasn't ever really tied up in my workplace. I'd missed so much of my first child's youngest years that I was determined not to repeat that with my second. On the work front, I'd used my degree for 17 years and accomplished what I wanted to. A week or two before the end of my leave, I set my team up for success and gave my boss my two weeks' notice. <div type="image" title="Michael Johnston and his family." height="1690" width="2253" msid="114981165" hostid="261"></div><h2>Settling into full-time dad life</h2>The first few months were awesome. We knew we'd made the right choice. I walked the kids to school every day and got to experience small moments I'd previously been too busy to enjoy. I did have misconceptions about stay-at-home parenting life. I thought I'd renovate our 1954 Airstream during naps. Instead, I get up at 5:30 a.m., make lunches, have a cup of coffee for 15 minutes in peace, and then get everyone ready for school. Once my oldest is at school, my new mission is potty training. I'm lucky to grab a shower during naptime. I clean and reset the house for the evening, getting dishes under control and dinner started. My wife and I always split the cores, her taking the mental labor of organizing school and social life comms and I did more physical chores. This is now just more official – I manage school runs and all the household tasks. When others find out I'm a stay-at-home dad, they always ask: "When are you going back to work?" Maybe I will, maybe I won't. If I do, I'll have different boundaries. I spent too long wrapped up in my job. We are trained to graduate, get a good job, work that job forever, then retire at 65. I plowed along for long enough. Now I know a corporate job isn't a mandatory trajectory. It was a choice. I'm happy doing something different. Correction: November 8, 2024 — A previous version of this story misstated that the Johnston family didn’t have a car. They do have a car in Maine.

I quit my 6-figure job to be a stay-at-home dad. After leaving California, we could afford to be a single-income family.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Traffic patterns have shifted since the pandemic.</li><li>US drivers are taking 23% more car trips in the middle of the day than they did in 2019.</li></ul>After roads went eerily quiet during the early months of the pandemic, traffic is back with a vengeance. Traffic congestion is as bad as it was pre-pandemic in about half of the world's top urban areas, but traffic patterns have shifted, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://inrix.com/press-releases/2023-global-traffic-scorecard-us/">a new report by INRIX</a>, a transportation data and analytics company.Congestion no longer reflects the traditional nine-to-five work schedule. These days, as many Americans start a car trip at noon as do at five pm. Average hourly traffic during the middle of the day is up 23% since 2019, INRIX found.New remote and hybrid work schedules and a rise in car ownership in recent years have transformed traffic and congestion patterns.The INRIX report found that the traditional morning peak rush hour has given way to a steadier pace of trips starting later in the morning. The number of weekday car trips starting in the 6 AM hour fell from around 80 million a day in 2019 to about 50 million in 2023, while about 60 million trips began in the 9 AM hour in 2023, up from a little over 40 million in 2019. Over 75 million trips now start between noon and 1 PM.On the reverse side of the day, midafternoon trips are up and evening trips are down. Putting that all together, it looks like many Americans have shifted from a traditional 9-to-5 commute to a noon-to-4 or even more truncated workday.Bob Pishue, a transportation analyst at INRIX, said that midday travel started to rise when COVID hit, and that pattern hasn't dissipated. Despite many employers pressuring their employees to spend more time in the office, remote work has endured. With more flexible work schedules, people are making more midday trips to the grocery store and the gym, or getting to work late or leaving early."They're either going into work late so that they can continue to drop kids off at school," he said. And "people are still doing midday or two o'clock trips" or leaving early for vacation.Congestion in cities varies based on where jobs are located. "The importance of downtown as a destination for commuting is much different in Dallas than it is in New York," Pishue said, noting that downtown Manhattan is home to far more of its region's jobs than downtown Dallas.INRIX calculates congestion by gathering data from millions of anonymized sensors and vehicles and commercial vehicle data. The report calculated commute times using the time taken to drive "to and from major employment centers within an urban area from surrounding commuting neighborhoods."This travel shift has many implications for policymakers and transportation planners. Mass transit schedules, road tolls, and even traffic lights have long been designed around the 9-to-5 workday and the rush hours that it creates. But traffic data shows cities might need to adjust their schedules and redesign their physical infrastructure to fit the new post-pandemic, remote work paradigm."This is something that now needs attention," Pishue said.<div type="image" title="PJ Clarks in New York City" height="1333" width="2000" msid="112063713" hostid="261" sizebytes="293612"></div><h2 id="1c481284-b034-4152-810b-b67a65681ae4">Congestion is here to stay</h2>Since the pandemic hit, mass transit ridership has plummeted while driving has become more popular.New York City had the worst congestion of any city in the world in 2023, the INRIX report found. Last year, New Yorkers lost an average of 101 hours to congestion delays. The city saw a 13% year-over-year increase in vehicle trips into its downtown — the sharpest increase in the country.Car ownership has also <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/car-insurance/car-ownership-statistics/">risen in recent years</a>, including in New York.Car ownership in the five boroughs has soared over the last decade. While the population of New York City residents rose 1.4% between 2012 and 2021, the number of registered passenger vehicles <a target="_blank" href="https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/04/19/komanoff-dissects-new-york-citys-car-baby-boom">rose by 12%</a>. Still, about 54% of city households reported not owning a car in 2021.A year into the pandemic, Americans drove more despite many closed offices. People drove 2% more, measured by mileage, across US cities in March 2021 than in February 2020 and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/the-pandemic-changed-car-ownership-how-can-cities-adapt/604497/">20% more than in March 2020</a>, when pandemic lockdowns first took effect.The shift from denser urban living to suburban and even rural living is part of this uptick in driving. Many city dwellers moved into far-flung, car-dependent exurbs and rural towns during the pandemic — and that trend <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-young-kids-families-fleeing-big-cities-urban-doom-loop-2024-7">appears to be continuing</a>. For many, this means more time in their cars.Have you changed your commute in the last couple years? Tell your story to this reporter at <a target="_blank" class="" href="mailto:erelman@businessinsider.com">erelman@businessinsider.com</a>

The noon-to-4 is the new 9-to-5 for driving commuters, but it's not helping traffic congestion

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Many Americans stopped commuting daily amid lockdowns and working from home in the last year.</li><li>The average amount of time spent traveling each day dropped from about an hour and 12 minutes in 2019 to 47 minutes in 2020.</li><li>Only about two-thirds of Americans traveled anywhere on an average day in 2020, down from 84% in 2019.</li></ul>The daily grind is over.It's one of the smaller, but potentially surprisingly pleasant, changes from the horrible last year of pandemic and lockdowns: Taking the subway or driving a car to work has come to an end for millions of Americans.The <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm">Bureau of Labor Statistics' recently released results from the American Time Use Survey</a> showed that the average amount of time Americans spent traveling on a given day dropped from about an hour and 12 minutes in 2019 to 47 minutes in 2020.Even more dramatically, while 84% of Americans traveled somewhere outside their homes on a typical day in 2019, only 67% did in 2020. These stats include commuting, but also time spent traveling to stores, taking children to school, or any other trip to or from the home.The Time Use Survey annually asks thousands of Americans to keep a diary, listing how they spend their time on a typical day. Because of the disruptions caused by the onset of the pandemic last spring, BLS released estimates comparing May through December 2019 to the same months in 2020.One consequence of this is that all of the 2020 figures reflect the period after COVID-19 began to spread widely and lockdowns were implemented across the country.The Time Use Survey also showed that the share of Americans working from home almost doubled from 22% in 2019 to 42% in 2020. That varied across industries, with sectors like finance and professional services seeing much higher telecommuting rates than <keyword id="34991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="transportation">transportation</keyword> or leisure and hospitality:Other data also show a big drop-off in commuting during the pandemic. A study of traffic congestion by the Texas A&amp;M Transportation Institute found that the number of hours <keyword id="6409148" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="commuter">commuter</keyword>s spent stuck in traffic each year was cut nearly in half, from 54 hours per commuter in 2019 to 27 hours in 2020.A Zillow analysis <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-home-buyers-length-of-commute-drops-in-importance-new-data-shows-11626832140">reported by The Wall Street Journal</a> found that homebuyers are paying much less of a premium for living close to work, as remote working situations make <keyword id="4251245" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Commute-Time">commute time</keyword> less of a factor in choosing where to live.The Journal's Nicole Freedman wrote, "in the two-year period ended in May 2021, home values in neighborhoods with a 70-minute <keyword id="6438468" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="commute">commute</keyword> rose 30.2%, strongly outpacing a 9.2% price gain for 20-minute-commute areas and a price decline of 2.5% for neighborhoods within 10 minutes of a job center" in the Boston metro area.We'll see what happens as the <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword> continues to reopen, but for now at least, lots of Americans are saving time on one of the most frustrating parts of the workday.

The pandemic ended the daily commute

Madrid, May 3 (AP) Halfway through his 30-minute bike ride to work, police ordered Juan Pasamar to dismount, accusing him of breaking Spain's coronavirus lockdown rules by exercising in public. The officers were not buying his explanation he was commuting to his job outside of Zaragoza, the northern city where he lives."You have a car, don't you? Why don't you use that?" he said he was asked.Pasamar eventually had to hire a lawyer to convince police that the government had not banned cycling during the lockdown.As countries seek to get their economies back on track after the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, bicycle use is being encouraged as a way to avoid unsafe crowding on trains and buses.Cycling activists from Germany to Peru are trying to use the moment to get more bike lanes, or widen existing ones, even if it's just a temporary measure to make space for commuters on two wheels.The transition to more bike-friendly urban environments "is necessary if we want our cities to work," said Morton Kabell, who co-chairs the European Cyclists' Federation."A lot of people will be afraid of going on public transportation, but we have to get back to work someday. Very few of our cities can handle more car traffic," he said.In addition to bike lanes separated by curbs, Kabell backs subsidising electric bicycles, which could encourage commuters who have longer or hilly journeys.The benchmarks are Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, where half of the daily commuters are cyclists, and the Netherlands, with its vast network of bike lanes.Still, countries around the world are catching up at different speeds.The French government asked cycling activist Pierre Serne to draw up a plan for when its lockdown ends May 11. His recommendations, including bicycle lanes separated from other vehicles at an estimated cost of 50,000 euros per kilometre (USD 32,000 per mile), have been submitted to the Transportation Ministry.For now, France has said it will subsidise riders up to 50 euros (nearly USD 55) for repairs so the French can get their bicycles ready for post-lockdown rides.In Berlin, the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg council simply painted yellow lines on the some roads to take space from car lanes. This bike infrastructure builds on what is called "tactical urbanism" - low-cost changes that are technically simple and reversible, and they can make an immediate difference.Similar initiatives are popping up elsewhere. Officials in Lima, Peru; Barcelona, Spain; and Milan, Italy, are speeding up plans to expand bike paths or take space from cars or current parking sites.In Bogota, where bicycles are used mostly by Colombia's blue-collar workers, Mayor Claudia Lopez has urged everybody returning to work this week to cycle instead of using public transportation, which is now operating at 35% of capacity.With many US nonessential businesses closed, there is little point now in cycling that isn't recreational. But cities like Oakland, San Francisco and New York are closing some streets to traffic to allow room for runners and cyclists.Pedro Diaz, a member of Pedalibre, a Madrid cycling club, sees this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take over space from cars and resist giving it back when the pandemic ends."If we wait for proper infrastructure for bicycle lanes, we'll need a municipal plan, which will take at least four years to be designed and get approved," Diaz said. "This way, it's just a matter of putting a fence and stopping cars from using a lane. Then it will be a fait accompli." If arguing for environmentally friendly transportation was a key factor for activists before, the economic fallout from the virus is adding momentum, said Laura Vergara, head of Spain's ConBici advocacy group.With tourism accounting for nearly 15% of the GDP in Spain, outdoor vacations - whether on two wheels or not, but away from crowded beaches and resorts - could keep the industry afloat, she said."In Australia, bicycle sales have already skyrocketed," Vergara said. "Why couldn't that happen here?" Despite having sunny days the year round, car-loving Spaniards seem to be decades behind northern Europe when it comes to commuting by bicycle.Environment Minister Teresa Ribera, in charge of post-confinement planning, says the changes "must overcome resistance derived from habits and conceptions that are well-established." Ribera said she has asked mayors to extend bike lane coverage, reduce car speed limits and provide for bike parking. But it wasn't clear if the government would fund it."We can, and we should, take advantage of this impulse to advance towards a new paradigm of sustainable mobility," she said in a statement to The Associated Press.Beyond infrastructure, cycling advocates say many minds must still be changed, noting that many officials have called for prioritizing the use of private vehicles in the lockdown.That's where differences by country are sharper. In Britain, where people are still allowed to leave home to exercise, cycle shops stayed open during the lockdown that began March 23. In Spain, gas stations were considered essential, but not bicycle repair shops.And while bike-sharing in London and Paris was made free to health care workers, most Spanish cities rushed to shut down the services, saying they would be a source of contagion. Madrid's hugely successful bicycle sharing operation reopened only last week, the sixth of Spain's strict lockdown. Bikes are disinfected nightly and riders must wear gloves.Many riders have been fined. The French Federation of Bicycle Users has received more than 800 reports from cyclists stopped by police, and dozens had to pay a 135 euro ($146) fine for violating restrictions."The attitude of the police is the attitude that many people show in the streets," said Pasamar, who keeps riding despite the risks of being stopped again. Unfortunately, he said, "bicycles are for many just a nuisance." (AP) SCYSCY

Cycle power: Bikes emerge as a post-lockdown commuter option

<ul class="summary-list"><li>British <keyword id="6" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="fashion">fashion</keyword> giant <keyword id="331704" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Primark">Primark</keyword>'s sales were down 30% year-on-year in the quarter, its parent company said.</li><li>More than 75% of its stores are currently closed.</li><li>Primark's total loss from store closures could reach £1.05 billion ($1.43 billion), it said.</li></ul>Store closures could cost British fast-fashion giant Primark £1.05 billion ($1.43 billion) in lost sales, parent company Associated British Foods (AB Foods) <a href="https://www.abf.co.uk/media/news/2021/trading_update_jan_2021">announced Thursday</a>.More than three in four of the retailer's 389 stores are currently closed, AB Foods said. This included all 190 stores in the UK, as well as all its sites in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Austria. Its 11 stores in the US remain open.Under current <keyword id="91743" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="lockdown">lockdown</keyword> rules, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-says-england-going-back-in-national-coronavirus-lockdown-2021-1">all non-essential stores in England must remain closed</a> until at least mid-February, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last week. Other countries have implemented similar measures in response to surging COVID-19 cases.If stores that are currently closed remain shut until February 27, the total lost sales caused by temporary closures during the pandemic could reach about £1.05 billion ($1.43 billion), AB Foods said.In December, prior to England's new national lockdown being announced, it had estimated this figure at £650 million ($887 million).Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bed-bath-beyond-ceo-ecommerce-digital-sales-2021-1?r=gd-sub">Mark Tritton is bringing his digital learnings from Target to Bed Bath &amp; Beyond and leading the company through a major e-commerce overhaul aimed at fending off competitors like Amazon</a>Primark, which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/primark-low-prices-justify-no-online-shopping-2020-6">shuns online sales in favor of bricks-and-mortar stores</a>, reported falling sales in the previous quarter.In the 16 weeks to January 2, Primark's sales were down 30% year-on-year, AB Foods said. It attributed this to lockdown measures both in the UK and its international markets, ranging from restricted trading hours to compulsory store closures.The company noted that when stores were open, "trading was strong given the circumstances," with a 14% drop in like-for-like sales compared to the same period the previous year.But performance varied between stores, AB Foods said. Sales at its stores in <keyword id="6354851" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="retail">retail</keyword> parks were up year-on-year, while mall and large city-center stores fared worse because fewer commuters and tourists visited them, it said. Primark isn't the only British apparel retailer struggling during the pandemic.Topshop owner <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arcadia-group-administration-topshop-philip-green-covid-19-2020-12">the Arcadia Group fell into administration</a> in late November, putting more than 13,000 jobs at risk. Its CEO blamed compulsory store closures during the UK's national lockdowns.The next day, British department store chain <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/debenhams-liquidation-job-losses-risk-2020-12">Debenhams said it would close all of its 124 stores as it enters liquidation</a>, with 12,000 jobs at risk.

Cut-price apparel retailer Primark predicts that store closures during COVID-19 will cost it $1.4 billion

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Some <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> employees slept in the company's <keyword id="16069" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="data-centers">data centers</keyword> during the pandemic, an exec said.</li><li>Kristen Roby Dimlow said these employees were worried about being unable to travel home.</li><li>Another Microsoft exec previously told CNBC the company provided staff transport to data centers.</li></ul>Employees at Microsoft data centers sometimes slept on site during the pandemic, according to an executive at the tech giant.For some Microsoft employees in technical roles, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-work-from-home-policy-coronavirus-october-2020-5">remote working</a> proved impossible. These included some staff at sites housing servers for Microsoft's online services, including Microsoft Teams, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/13/microsoft-executive-says-workers-slept-in-data-centers-during-lockdown.html">CNBC</a> reported."I heard amazing stories about people actually sleeping in data centers," Kristen Roby Dimlow, corporate vice president for total rewards, performance, and human resources business insights at Microsoft, said Wednesday during a conversation with Morgan Stanley analysts, per CNBC."In certain countries there was huge lockdown, and so we would have our own employees choose to sleep in the data center because they were worried they'd get stuck at a roadblock, trying to go home," she said.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-plans-quiet-return-physical-retail-leaked-audio-reveals-2021-6">Leaked audio shows Microsoft is getting back into physical retail a year after closing all of its stores, as it quietly reopens its flagship New York City location</a>When asked for comment by CNBC, Microsoft would not say where or how many staff slept in data centers. Microsoft did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.During the pandemic, the company let data-center employees <keyword id="123591" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Work-from-home">work from home</keyword> where possible if they didn't want to come on site, Noelle Walsh, corporate vice president for Microsoft's Cloud Operations and Innovation group, told CNBC in April.She said that the company provided transport to and from the sites, and let people stay in hotels if they didn't want to take public transport. In some cases, the company turned to shift work to ensure the centers were properly staffed, she said.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-flexible-work-policy-how-it-works-2020-10">Microsoft is introducing flexible working</a>, allowing most of its 160,000 employees to choose their return-to-office schedules. Under the policy, most staff can spend less than half their week working remotely without manager approval.Microsoft CEO <keyword id="276564" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Satya-Nadella">Satya Nadella</keyword> said last year that he believed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-satya-nadella-remote-work-2020-6">most employees would still want a desk</a> in physical offices, rather than working from home permanently, but the company said that people who returned to the office in spring 2021 <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2021/03/22/the-philosophy-and-practice-of-our-hybrid-workplace/">were spending much less time there than pre-pandemic</a>.In May, the company released <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-teams-meetings-hybrid-remote-work-2021-5">a video showing what it thinks the future of hybrid working looks like</a>. This included eye-level cameras installed in meeting-room tables so that in-person attendees can make eye contact with their virtual teammates.

A Microsoft exec said that some staff slept in data centers during the pandemic to avoid getting stuck in roadblocks on the commute home

<ul class="summary-list"><li>London-based junior lawyers at <keyword id="12458987" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kirkland-ellis" source="Orion">Kirkland &amp; Ellis</keyword> worked 14-hour days during lockdown, a survey found.</li><li>Average <keyword id="12183067" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="working-hours" source="Orion">working hours</keyword> across the <keyword id="11975980" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="legal" source="Orion">legal</keyword> sector have risen, according to the survey by Legal Cheek. </li></ul>Junior lawyers at the London office of a major US firm worked more than 14 hours a day on average during lockdown in early 2021, according to <a href="https://www.legalcheek.com/2021/10/revealed-law-firms-average-start-work-and-finish-times-2021-22/">a survey of sector working conditions</a>.Juniors at the US <keyword id="11899820" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="law" source="Orion">law</keyword> firm Kirkland &amp; Ellis clocked off at 11:38 p.m. on average during lockdown, the survey, by Legal Cheek, an industry-focused <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">news</keyword> site, found.Legal Cheek <a href="https://www.legalcheek.com/2021/10/revealed-law-firms-average-start-work-and-finish-times-2021-22/">surveyed</a> 2,500 trainees and junior associates at 100 law firm offices in London and the UK about their working hours at the start of 2021, when the UK was in lockdown due to a surge in COVID-19 infections.Survey data showed that, on average, junior staff at eight of the 10 firms with the longest working hours were starting earlier than during the same period in 2020, while junior staff at all 10 firms were working later into the night.Remote working and a surge in demand for legal services were the reasons behind the uptick, Legal Cheek said.With an average working day of 14 hours, Kirkland &amp; Ellis topped the list, with junior staff clocking on at 9.14am and finishing at 11.28pm on average. Other US-headquartered firms Ropes &amp; Gray and Weil, Gotshal &amp; Manges were second and third with average days of 13.5 hours and 12.5 hours respectively, per the survey. Demand has been particularly high for firms specialising in private equity deals, which <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3091dd08-0301-424e-a049-7227a4883ef2">surged in December 2020</a> as buyers took advantage of low interest rates and government stimulus packages.At Kirkland &amp; Ellis, revenues are expected to grow from $4.15 billion to $5 billion this year due to a surge in such deals, for which it consults, according to the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/dcbd038f-23a3-4c8d-81e0-867ed84ea8a7">FT</a>. Kirkland &amp; Ellis, Ropes &amp; Gray, and Weil, Gotshal &amp; Manges did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.One anonymous respondent at an unnamed firm told Legal Cheek that their work-life balance had been "totally eroded" by working from home, as their days blurred into one without commutes or routine. Some were working longer as a result of increased deal flow. "Finishing work before midnight is unheard of during the week, and weekend working is a regular occurrence," one unnamed respondent said. However, other anonymous respondents told Legal Cheek that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-big-law-associates-share-why-they-left-their-firms-2021-9">long hours were expected within the sector</a> and that senior managers were understanding. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/law-firms-offer-164k-bonus-structure-extra-vacation-workers-burnout-2021-6">Pay</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/big-law-associate-bonus-hiring-spac-ma-kirkland-davis-polk-2021-4">starting bonuses</a> have increased as firms battle to retain staff.The impact of the pandemic and remote work have been felt in other sectors. Last year junior staff at <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-junior-bankers-inhumane-working-conditions-survey-2021-3">Goldman Sachs highlighted excessive working hours in a pitch deck to senior management.</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/soaring-pet-ownership-angry-clients-causing-vets-burn-out-2021-10">Veterinary surgeons</a>,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thousands-healthcare-workers-quitting-striking-burnout-grows-staff-shortages2021-10"> health care workers,</a> and<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-workforce-is-feeling-more-burned-out-than-ever-2021-6"> office staff</a> have all said they're burning out after nearly two years of increased demand, and COVID-19 pressures.

Junior lawyers at a leading US firm clocked off at 11:28 pm on average during lockdown, a survey found

New Delhi, Mar 31 () Ride-hailing company Uber on Tuesday said it has launched a new service 'UberMedic' to help transport frontline healthcare workers to medical facilities and other critical areas across India."Uber is providing a new service, UberMedic, to transport frontline healthcare workers and help the government contain the spread of COVID-19 in India. Working closely with a network of hospitals and leveraging our global experience and technology, UberMedic allows hospitals to easily and reliably arrange transportation for doctors and other health workers to and from their homes as well as to health care facilities," Uber India and South Asia President Pradeep Parameswaran said in a statement.With the implementation of the 21-day lockdown, the government has allowed only people in essential services like healthcare, banking and media to commute. Limited mobility options have made it difficult for these people to travel to their workplace.On Monday, Uber's rival Ola had said it is in discussions with various state governments and the Centre to offer its transportation and kitchen services in India.While it has already started working with Karnataka government, it is in talks with other states and the Centre to extend its transportation services to help facilitate the transit of healthcare professionals, senior citizens, government officials and quick response teams who need mobility options, Ola had said.Uber, in its statement, said UberMedic is designed to ensure that all healthcare workers who need to be mobile have a reliable and efficient way of getting around. The company will facilitate top-rated drivers and dedicated cars to the hospitals through its platform.Keeping the safety of drivers in mind, and in line with government advisory, it will work with partner hospitals to provide drivers with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including hand sanitisers, gloves, disinfectant sprays and face masks."We hope that this 24/7 dedicated service gives hospitals and their health care workers the flexibility to provide optimal healthcare. The drivers will be well-trained in COVID-19 related safety protocols, such as not allowing riders to sit in the front passenger seat. We will also provide dedicated phone support to our riders who use this service," Uber said. SR MKJ

Uber launches 'UberMedic' service to help healthcare workers commute during COVID-19 crisis

Hyderabad, Apr 15 ()Ready Assist, a Bengaluru-basedroadside assistance provider, has come forward to offer freebreakdown service to doctors, police personnel and otheremergency vehicles by assisting them with technical supportand repairing vehicles during lockdown period, the companysaid on Wednesday.The initiative is launched in Hyderabad, Bangalore,Mangalore, Mysore, and Vijayawada, under which the support canbe availed round-the-clock by contacting its toll-free number,it said.Founderand CEO ofReadyAssist, VimalSinghsaid, "Beingan expert in handling breakdowns on road, it is ourresponsibility to help our nation by ensuring that theseemergency services move ahead without getting stranded."According to him, the firm was able to successfullymobilise 960 breakdowns in the last few days of lockdown.These vehicles are used by either medical professionals,essential goods delivery executives, food delivery partners orother individuals commuting for medical and other emergencies.Besides, Vimal Singh has decided to take 100 per cent paycut till the situation arising out of the pandemic improves,while top executives of the firm havevolunteered to take 50per cent cut in their salary, the release added. GDKROH ROH

Ready Assist to offer free services to emergency vehicles during lockdown

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Many work-from-homers are missing the alone time that once came with <keyword id="58218" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Commuting">commuting</keyword> to and from the office each day.</li><li>Librarian Lucy Ahmad says she's incorporated an hour-long 'fake commute' walk into the end of her day during the pandemic to help transition from work to personal time.</li><li>Whether a morning run, short drive, or daily walk, re-adding some quiet time to your day can help balance the stress and monotony of working remotely.</li><li>It might be hard, but the first thing to do is give yourself permission to draw boundaries.</li></ul>Every morning before her workday, medical office assistant hops in her car and drives. She spends anywhere from three minutes to 90 minutes on the road, before returning home and getting started with her day. Cameron is a "fake commuter," an increasingly common work-from-home trend that's being praised by workers and productivity coaches alike. "Fake commuting" is a substitute for the "me time" commuters once got on their way to a formal office space, whether they walked, drove, read a book or listened to a podcast on the train. Commuters had the time to clear their minds on their daily commute. With fake commuting, those who work from home do, too. We spoke to experts and seasoned fake commuters to understand the benefits of fake commuting and how to implement it in our own lives as the pandemic looms on. <div type="image" title="Alexis Cameron on her fake commute" height="832" width="1110" msid="79664825" hostid="261"></div><h2>Commuting created boundaries between work and home - fake commuting does too</h2>In 2018, the average American spent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/07/nine-days-road-average-commute-time-reached-new-record-last-year/">225 hours</a> (over nine calendar days!) commuting. However, since the pandemic started, more people are working from home and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-23/working-from-home-in-covid-era-means-three-more-hours-on-the-job">working 3 hours more daily</a> than they did before."Commuting was a great legitimate experience to set up a barrier between the outside world of work, family, [or] social life and demanding your attention," explains clinical psychologist Dr. Jeannette Raymond. "'Fake commute' time is about setting up personal care boundaries -- emotional oases and a guilt-free space [and] time to check in on themselves." The real commute, she explains, created those boundaries artificially; now people have to do it for themselves in a world where those boundaries are increasingly blurred.<h2>Unblurring the lines between work and home when you're working from home</h2>As someone who's been working from home for over a year, Rianna Kate, wellness educator and lifestyle coach says she came across the idea of fake commuting when some of her clients, who weren't used to working from home, were forced to do so due to the pandemic. Because that commute time was no longer there to fill, she explains, people were reluctant to make that time themselves.<div type="image" title="Fake commuting coach" height="331" width="442" msid="79664830" hostid="261"></div>"Suddenly, people were waking up late, grabbing a laptop off the floor next to their bed, sitting in bed in their pajamas [and] checking their emails," said Kate. "Normally, when you are in an office, you shut your laptop, walk out the door, get on the [train] and come home."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/upstream-ceo-on-remote-work-leaving-new-york-during-covid-2020-11">I moved my family from NYC to Miami this year and it was the best thing I could've done as a tech cofounder</a><h2>Fake commuting can be an opportunity to get active</h2>Charlotte Barnacle, a project management officer from Oxfordshire, UK, took to fake commuting after she realized her work-from-home lifestyle was somewhat sedentary."I had started to gain weight over lockdown, and I knew it was mainly because I wasn't moving around during the day," said Barnacle, whose commute lasted up to half an hour by car. "Although at the office I sat at a desk all day, I was walking… around the building a lot and getting out for a lunchtime walk."Since starting a daily 2.5-mile fake commute in the form of a walk, she's come to notice a surge of energy. "Walking before breakfast really gives me a feeling of accomplishment and sets me up for the day." <h2>Fake commuting is not the same as winding down after a long day</h2>Fake commutes are not about "rewards," like drinking a glass of wine after work, or watching a show, explains Raymond, they are about "erecting necessary personal boundaries that allow a person to separate family life from work life from reward time and friend time."Librarian Lucy Ahmad, whose commute was once a 45-minute walk each way, found her hour-long fake commute walk after work (in addition to a morning run) to be instrumental in bookending her day. "I decompress and disengage, psychologically drawing a line under the day… [it] keeps work and home separate."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-build-company-wellness-program-employees-healthy-motivated-2020-8">How to build a comprehensive wellness program that keeps employees happy, healthy, and motivated for the long haul</a><h2>Reaping the benefits of 'fake commuting'</h2>Nowadays, as we switch between hundreds of open tabs on our laptop, shopping online while replying to work emails during the day and streaming shows into the night, we have no boundaries. " Without [boundaries] one becomes disoriented, overwhelmed, and unable to monitor when you need a break; when you need a chance of pace or activity," explained Raymond.<div type="image" title="Akanksha Singh" height="1694" width="2259" msid="79664832" hostid="261"></div>It might be hard, but the first thing to do is give yourself permission to draw boundaries. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and drowning in family stuff, children's schooling and having no break, says Raymond, adding it might even feel like there is no legitimate reason to take breaks since everything blurred into everything else.Once you've done that, Kate suggests working out what works for you. It might not be Ahmad's morning run and walk schedule or Cameron's daily drive. Rather says Kate, it's about taking guilt-free time for yourself and setting up boundaries. Whether that's multiple desktops set up on your Mac to draw lines between your "work" and "personal" modes like Kate, setting a time every morning to say, "Today I'm going to turn off my laptop at 5 and go for a walk," or listening to a true-crime podcast, fake commuting, however you choose to practice is about your individual <keyword id="6354774" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mental-health">mental health</keyword>.

People have started 'fake commuting' because they crave the alone time they used to get on their way to the office - and experts say it's a smart idea

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Travel and <keyword id="58218" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Commuting">commuting</keyword> nosedived in March when the <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> pandemic first hit the US.</li><li>Business Insider spoke with two <keyword id="386989" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="mobility">mobility</keyword> experts, Gary Hallgren of Arity, and Meera Joshi of Sam Schwartz, about how the pandemic has changed commuting. </li><li>Driving has dropped by as much as 70%, but as it's starting to return, people question the rush-hour commuting schedules they used to follow.</li></ul>With stay-at-home mandates, social distancing, and lockdowns in effect everywhere, it's tough to get away on a trip right now, to say nothing of regular commuting.But as time goes on, it's becoming clear that the pandemic is reshaping not just how we get around now, but how we'll plan to do so in the future. During <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKMueU2_8dQ&amp;feature=youtu.beu.be">Business Insider's Tuesday IGNITION: Transportation panel</a>, senior editor Alex Davies spoke with Gary Hallgren, president of mobility data and analytics company Arity, and Meera Joshi, principal at urban design firm Sam Schwartz and former chair and CEO of New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission. Using data collected across 23 million devices, including mobile phones and cars, Arity logs about a billion miles of driving data every two days. As much of the United States went into lockdown in March, the company statewide driving decrease by as much as 70% as people obeyed lockdown measures and stayed home. It's slowly starting to come back, though.Worryingly, however, Arity found that despite a drop in overall <keyword id="6361065" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="traffic">traffic</keyword>, there's been a 15% increase in high-speed driving. The risk of collisions has fallen, likely due to fewer cars being on the road, but the crashes that do happen are more severe because people are driving faster. That data matches up with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-dangerous-driving-illegal-roads-empty-police-jails-cops-spread-2020-5">the "free-for-all" on empty US roads</a> that various law enforcement agencies noticed during the spring. One of the biggest observed changes, Hallgren said, is when people are driving. Morning commutes have decreased dramatically and are still down about 20% across the country. Night and weekend driving have started coming back, though.Joshi believes the pandemic will reshape the way we think about rush hour. Historically, you'd need to be at your office at around 9 in the morning, but the rise of working from home has all but eliminated the very idea of rush hour for those employees."On March 13 we were all like sardines on a subway," she said. "That may be a thing of the past for a very long time. Not because people are hesitant to get back on the subway, but now we have control over the cadence of our work. Do we need to honor a rush-hour system if it's proven to be not necessary anymore?"People are still hesitant to ride trains, buses, and subways, despite <a href="https://www.samschwartz.com/apta-public-transit-and-covid19-report">a recent study conducted by Sam Schwartz</a> — a <keyword id="34991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="transportation">transportation</keyword> firm that tackles infrastructure and mobility issues — which found "no direct link between [public] transit and infection rates." That doesn't mean movement is down in urban areas. In New York City, Joshi said that traffic through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which connects Manhattan to Brooklyn, is actually greater now than it was in September of last year. She also noted that the scooter company Revel saw an increase in subscriptions and daily ridership during the pandemic. People are searching for alternative means of transportation to get where they need to go. Hallgren and Joshi agree that the pandemic has forced both people and companies to take a hard look at how commuting works. Hallgren questioned the necessity of long trips to and from work after this "grand experiment" that has made many realize they can do their jobs from home. Joshi reasoned that this could be an opportunity for states to rethink highway development. How many lanes will we need at the end of this? She doesn't want a world that finally leaves the pandemic only to find itself in an overly congested, highly polluted environment where people are driving faster and more aggressively."We can switch from one evil to another if we're not careful with how we plan to use this information," she said. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKMueU2_8dQ&amp;feature=youtu.beu.be">You can watch the full panel on Youtube here</a>.

COVID-19 didn't end driving, but mobility experts say it could spell the demise of rush hour

By Uzmi Athar New Delhi, May 16 () Almost two months into the coronavirus-induced lockdown, non-migrant workers in Delhi have seen their average weekly incomes drop by at least 57 per cent, according to a combined study done by a US and a Canadian universities. The study uses data collected from 1,392 non-migrant workers, many of whom live in Delhi's informal settlements. The data was collected in 2018, 2019, and during the lockdown, between March 27 and May 13. By the first week of May, nine out of 10 survey respondents stated that their weekly income had fallen to zero, the study conducted by the University of Chicago and the University of British Columbia said. The study found that non-migrant workers have seen their average weekly income drop by at least 57 per cent since the lockdown began. To capture the impact of the lockdown that started on March 25, the study compared economic and behavioral outcomes for these individuals before and after the lockdown. "For example, the average weekly income of our sample pre-lockdown was USD 39.46 (Rs 2,994). In Round 1, average income decreased to USD 24.10 (Rs 1,828.64) and in Round 2, average income fell further to USD 5.43 (Rs 412)," the study said.The Round 1 was from March 27 to April 19 and Round 2 was from April 25 to May 13. In addition, the study notes that there have been devastating impact of the lockdown. There are relatively high rates of mental and emotional well-being problems, ongoing challenges in food supply chains, in terms of higher prices and lower quantities, and dwindling levels of reported savings, it found. Despite this unprecedented income loss, the study found widespread compliance with public health directives important in reducing the spread of the coronavirus. Compared to levels before the arrival of COVID-19, mask usage rose from 20 per cent (during the air pollution season) to 90 per cent; time spent indoors increased from 44 per cent to 95 per cent, and regular handwashing rose from 88 per cent to 98 per cent, the study said."Even for non-migrant workers in Delhi, the lockdown has been devastating economically. But it also brought about a massive change in behaviour. People started wearing masks more, they stayed indoors and socialized less, they washed their hands more regularly, there were even fewer reports of smoking. These habits are crucial for limiting the spread and the health impacts of the virus," said Ken Lee, Executive Director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago in India (EPIC India) and the lead author of the study. "A big question we have right now is whether these positive behaviours can persist once the lockdown is lifted, even as fear and media coverage of COVID-19 begin to subside," he added. The researchers point to the role of extreme fear and media coverage in driving these unprecedented behavioural changes. Throughout the lockdown, 80 per cent of people reported feeling extremely concerned about COVID-19. To demonstrate the unparalleled media coverage of COVID-19, the researchers used Twitter data to show that since March 25, COVID-19 coverage has accounted for more than 56 per cent of all media coverage. Lee said, "For this particular group of mostly non-migrant workers in Delhi, we have not yet seen alarming changes in rates of hunger, access to health care, scarcity, or security. A lot of people reported benefiting from the Delhi government's food assistance programme. That said, the latest projections expect a surge in infections in the coming months, and so the government should prepare itself to rapidly expand these types of assistance programmes." India's economy has been severely hit by the coronavirus-induced lockdown and thousands of migrant workers across the country are walking back home due to lack of transport facilities. The non-migrant workers were also severely hit after most of them lost their means of livelihood post lockdown. The national lockdown also had a drastic effect on movement in Delhi. Using Facebook mobility data, the study also showed that intra-city movement dropped by 80 per cent, immediately following the Janata curfew, where it remained through early-May. The sample for the study was drawn from two subsamples, including individuals enrolled from hundreds of low-income, informal settlements across Delhi, as well as individuals (commuters) enrolled at public bus stops in Delhi and its surrounding environs. Both of these subsamples were generated through randomised sampling procedures. Between late-2018 and late-2019, prior to the onset of COVID-19, in-person surveys were administered across the sample, in which baseline social and economic data was captured. "Given the rapid onset of COVID-19 and the economic shock of the India lockdown, simple pre-post comparisons of data offer insights into the effects of the coronavirus, thus far," the study said. The average weekly income at baseline is roughly Rs 3,000, compared to roughly Rs 6,000 in the representative National Sample Survey (NSS) data corresponding to Delhi. Also, although 32 per cent of the sample held salaried jobs at baseline (i.e., occupations that pay income monthly, as opposed to daily), 29 per cent held jobs commonly associated with the lower rungs of the income ladder, including auto-rickshaw drivers, street vendors, skilled labourers, construction workers, and domestic workers. UZM SMNSMN

You Searched For "commute during lockdown" and got 12 results

I quit my 6-figure job to be a stay-at-home dad. After leaving California, we could afford to be a single-income family.

Alexandra Frost

The noon-to-4 is the new 9-to-5 for driving commuters, but it's not helping traffic congestion

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The pandemic ended the daily commute

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Cycle power: Bikes emerge as a post-lockdown commuter option

PTI

Cut-price apparel retailer Primark predicts that store closures during COVID-19 will cost it $1.4 billion

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A Microsoft exec said that some staff slept in data centers during the pandemic to avoid getting stuck in roadblocks on the commute home

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Junior lawyers at a leading US firm clocked off at 11:28 pm on average during lockdown, a survey found

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Uber launches 'UberMedic' service to help healthcare workers commute during COVID-19 crisis

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Ready Assist to offer free services to emergency vehicles during lockdown

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People have started 'fake commuting' because they crave the alone time they used to get on their way to the office - and experts say it's a smart idea

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COVID-19 didn't end driving, but mobility experts say it could spell the demise of rush hour

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Non-migrant workers in Delhi see income drop by at least 57 per cent during lockdown: Study

PTI

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