Spontaneous conversations and sharing of ideas is more difficult to recreate in remote work, but it is necessary to office culture. "These conversations happen naturally in the office, and it doesn't feel like you're slacking off, because you're not," says Anita Williams Woolley, associate professor of organizational behavior. "They ultimately feed into the quality of what you ultimately produce."

Eventbrite's Nick Popoff admitted on a staff video call that he was experiencing work burnout, and the message resonated with employees, resulting in the company introducing "recognizing burnout" sessions, professional mental health support and staff forums. Leaders from other companies, including Accenture, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fidelity Investments and Dell Technologies, also shared the initiatives they're spearheading to help employees during the pandemic.

If your team or a team member faces disappointment in the workplace -- such as a losing a client or getting a bad review -- don't ignore the issue but have a productive conversation about it. "When members of your team face disappointment or failure, you can use it to empower or strengthen them," says leadership consultant Dane Jensen.

Employees at Florida toy company Basic Fun are now back in their office -- wearing masks and socially distancing -- but CEO Jay Foreman had "so many sleepless nights" trying to decide how and when the return would happen. Some employees returned to the office over the summer, but a deadline of Nov. 2 was set.

With US unemployment currently at 6.9%, Goldman Sachs economist Joseph Briggs predicts it will take until 2024 to get the rate close to pre-pandemic 3.5%. He says workers who dropped out of the job search will start to trickle back into the workforce once a vaccine is available.

Logistics firms hired more people in October to keep up with e-commerce demands and prepare for an anticipated holiday surge, with 46,000 jobs added in warehouse and delivery operations and trucking, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Trucking businesses are struggling to find enough drivers, and delivery company LaserShip has had to stop taking on new customers to ensure it can serve existing ones.

Powell's City of Books in Oregon has created a fragrance, Powell's by Powell's, that's designed for book lovers who have missed being able to hang out in bookstores during the pandemic. Strong preorders for the fragrance, made with scents of wood, biblichor and violet to evoke nostalgia, spurred the independent retailer to order a second batch.