Slack and other company messaging systems have become omnipresent in remote work, but set boundaries by updating your profile to include your work hours by time zone. Managers should set the tone in Slack and create separate channels for water cooler talk to not disrupt workflow for others.

Delegating responsibilities in the workplace can be a frustrating exercise, but it doesn't have to be. CEO coach and speaker Sabina Nawaz says that to delegate successfully, leaders should empower their staff members to keep the lines of communication open, think for themselves, correct their own mistakes and respond to open-ended questions and also need to be realistic about how much time tasks will take.

Change up this year's performance reviews and development conversation by asking employees to compile their successes ahead of time, reflect on what they learned and review how the organization has responded to their needs during the pandemic, writes Julie Winkle Giulioni. "Remembering that effort and partial wins deserve recognition, too," she writes.

Many companies are not changing their employee health benefits to avoid stressing employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, while some have added benefits, such as critical illness insurance and better telemedicine coverage. "There's a concerted effort on the employer part to make sure the benefit offerings are particularly supportive of individuals," said Kate Brown at Mercer's Center for Health Innovation.

Employment at U.S. airlines will have dropped by 90,000 between March and December, according to Airlines for America. Those losses, which include furloughs and employees who took departure offers, will bring airline employment to about 370,000, its lowest level since the 1980s.

Companies have created Recharge Day or invented a holiday to make sure employees take a day off during the pandemic. Indeed.com, Red Hat, Cisco, Google and others have mandated time off or closed their doors to make sure employees can reset or spend a day with family.

The idea of eliminating whipping will be ridiculed by many horse racing fans, but this could separate the great jockeys from good jockeys. Any jockey can use their whip to get more effort out of their horse at the top of the stretch, but great jockeys will adapt to the elimination of whips and learn how to get more from their horse ... humanely.