Tech:NYC Digest: August 19

Tech:NYC Digest: August 19

August 19, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Thursday, August 19, 2021

In today’s digest, new CDC data casts doubt on long-term vaccine effectiveness, incoming Gov. Hochul expected to institute statewide school mask mandates, and companies try to solve more burnout with more vacation.

  • ☀️ Quick reminder: It's another summer Friday for the Tech:NYC team, so no newsletter tomorrow. We’ll see you on Monday! 

Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 5,138 (+437)

    • New positive cases, NYC: 2,380 (+123) 

  • Statewide Fatalities: 17 (+1)

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 2.6 percent

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 77.9 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 65.6 percent

(For fuller breakdowns, find the state’s numbers here and the city’s numbers here.)

Today’s latest:

  • Several CDC studies found COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness may decline due to waning vaccine immunity, a lapse in precautions like wearing masks, the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant or a combination of all three. Federal health officials said the new data justified promoting booster shots, but some scientists disagreed, saying not every American needs another dose. (New York Times)

  • A month after Mayor de Blasio said all municipal workers must get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing, the rate of inoculation among that group has barely budged. As of Monday, 58 percent of city workers — 211,115 people — have received at least one dose of the vaccine, an increase of just four percentage points. (Gothamist)

  • President Biden said Wednesday his Education Department would use its broad powers — including taking possible legal action — to deter states from barring universal masking in classrooms. (New York Times)

    • Florida, Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah currently prohibit school districts from imposing mask requirements.

    • In New York, incoming Gov. Kathy Hochul anticipates a universal, statewide mask mandate when school starts next month. (NY1)

    • Mayor de Blasio has already said city students will be required to wear masks when classes resume next month.

  • Concerns over the Delta variant have triggered more cancellations of big events. Some quintessential New York summer favorites — including the West Indian Day Parade and the annual Mermaid Parade on Coney Island — have been postponed or outright canceled. (NBC New York)

  • Starting next Monday, commuters from Staten Island will have another way to get to Manhattan. The newest New York City ferry route takes riders up the Hudson River for the first time and stops in Midtown West, with a total travel time of about 35 minutes from St. George. (6sqft)

In other reading:

  • How New York City Has Changed for You (New York Times)

  • As City Reopens, Performers Try to Uplift New York’s State of Mind (New York Times)

  • How Will the City Actually Enforce the Restaurant Vaccination Mandate? (Grub Street)

Companies that want to retain talent are looking for ways to reduce burnout, which can cause reduced productivity and higher turnover. One strategy they’ve embraced is encouraging — or in some cases, forcing — employees to take vacation. (New York Times)

  • Over the last few months, companies including LinkedIn, Hootsuite, Mozilla, and Bumble have tried to stem this burnout with a new approach to vacation time: shutting down the entire office for a week. 

  • PwC went a step further: on top of two global weeks off, the company is offering workers $250 each time they take 40 consecutive hours off.

Americans are historically bad at taking time off, in part because workers fear taking time off will hurt their chances for promotions or recognition.

  • In 2019, U.S. workers earned 23.7 days of paid time off, but used only 17.2, per U.S. Travel Association data. (Axios) 

And it's gotten even worse during the pandemic, as many workers are delaying time off until they feel safer traveling or until vacation sites are fully open.

  • Underusing time off is exacerbating burnout across the U.S. workforce. 52 percent of workers said they're experiencing burnout in 2021, per a recent Indeed survey. That could push employees to quit at a faster clip than they are now.

Employers are addressing burnout by encouraging workers to take time off, making vacation days mandatory, or giving the entire company the same week off.

  • After the devastation of the pandemic, policies like these could be a way for companies to acknowledge that the last year and a half has been anything but normal, and mental health precedes business health. (Fast Company)

Our take: While a company-wide vacation or two may not be a perfect salve for many employees — or a fix for burnout — it could be a step in the right direction. And whatever loss in business for that time off should be paid back in renewed productivity and motivation in the workforce.

In other reading:

  • Put Your Smartphone to Work for Your Return to the Office (New York Times)

  • Never going back to the office? Facebook has an app for that. (Vox)

  • An Exact Breakdown of How One CEO Spent His First Two Years of Company-Building (First Round Review)

  • The Sad Desk Salad Is Migrating From the Office to the Suburbs (Bloomberg)

  • CertiK, a New York-based blockchain cybersecurity startup, raised $24 million in an extension of its Series B funding. The round was led by Tiger Global Management and GL Ventures. (Coindesk)

  • FinTech Collective, a New York-based venture capital firm focused on financial services and emerging digital assets, raised $250 million across two funds. (Businesswire)

  • Ondo, a New York City-based DeFi company, raised $4 million. Pantera Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Genesis, Digital Currency Group, CMS, CoinFund, Chapter One, Bixin, Divergence, Protoscale Capital, and The LAO. (FinSMEs)

  • August 25: Virtual: The Digital Transformation of Consumer Engagement, with Amperity CEO Kabir Shahani. Hosted by Savills America. Register here.

  • August 26: Virtual: What’s Next in Cybersecurity, with Adobe chief security officer Mark Adams, Salesforce chief trust officer James Alkove, Microsoft vice president of security Ann Johnson, and others. Hosted by The Information. Register here.

  • October 6: In-Person Outdoors: 2021 Propelify Innovation Festival, with Tech:NYC founder and executive director Julie Samuels, Capsule CEO Eric Kinariwala, Noom CEO Saeju Jeong, Bowery Farming CEO Irving Fain, and others. Hosted by TechUnited:NJ. Use code WeInventTheFuture to register for a free general admission ticket for a limited time here.

Any feedback or suggestions of things to add? Get in touch here. Was this digest forwarded to you? Sign up to receive it directly here.