Tech:NYC Digest: October 29

Tech:NYC Digest: October 29

October 29, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Friday, October 29, 2021

In today’s digest, thousands of city workers face unpaid leave over vax mandate, AG James announces governor run, and why the four-day workweek (or at least “flexible Fridays”) is gaining ground in tech.

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 5,064

    • New positive cases, NYC:  876

  • Statewide Fatalities: 33 (+6)

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.0 percent (no change)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 87.2 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 74.0 percent

Today’s latest: 

  • City officials are crafting contingency plans and bracing for the possibility that thousands of essential workers — including police officers, firefighters, and sanitation employees — could be placed on unpaid leave starting Monday. (New York Times)

    • Mayor de Blasio has said overtime, shift changes, and even things like Sunday garbage pickups will be adjusted to cope with personnel shortages.

  • The CDC has amended its website to add mental health illnesses, including depression and schizophrenia, to its list of health conditions that make people of any age more likely to become severely ill from COVID-19. The change makes about 85 percent of the US adult population eligible for booster shots. (New York Times)

  • Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city would be ready to begin vaccinating New York City children next week, within hours of final approval. Kids ages five to 11 will be able to get their first COVID vaccine dose at city-run vaccination sites within 24 hours of approval by the CDC. (PIX 11)

  • Former Gov. Cuomo was charged on Thursday with a misdemeanor sex offense by the Albany Sherriff’s Department in an Albany court. Cuomo is to appear in court on Nov. 17 per a summons issued yesterday. (Reuters)

  • The 2022 race for governor is officially on: This afternoon, Attorney General Letitia James became the first Democrat to announce she would challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul in next year’s primary race. (New York Times)

  • But one reminder for the next general election on Nov. 2: if you vote early this weekend, don’t forget to flip your ballot! Five ballot proposals are up for a vote and include questions on the future of political representation in Albany, environmental protections, easier access to voting, and how New York’s civil courts function. (THE CITY) 

In other reading:

  • The Rise of the Designer Deli (New York Times)

  • America's falling Covid case rate, in 3 charts (NBC News)

  • Where to Go and What to Eat During Halloween Weekend in NYC (Eater NY)

More startups and tech companies are experimenting with four-day workweeks. (CNBC)

  • Brooklyn-based Kickstarter led the way, announcing earlier this year it would pilot a four-day workweek. Bolt is now the latest company to jump on board.

  • There are cross-industry campaigns underway too: 4 Day Week Global and 4 Day Week Campaign are just two hoping to get more companies signed on. 

But others are seeking alternatives to the trend. Mathilde Collin, the CEO and co-founder of Front, a customer communication platform, felt instating a four-day workweek was not innovative enough. (Protocol)

  • "There are a lot of inefficiencies in the way we work today. And it's like if you try to make four days of inefficiencies versus five days, it's like the same thing at reduced time. So it felt to me that it was not innovative enough,” Collin said. “I'm happy that some companies are doing this, don't get me wrong — but I wanted to think more holistically about the business."

So Front started “Flexible Fridays,” which allow workers to choose what they do every Friday without the conflict of scheduled internal meetings. 

  • Employees are encouraged to be intentional and can use the day to catch up on deep work, spend time with family or take personal time. There is no expectation for employees to be online.

Of course, Flexible Fridays took some getting used to. But once they did, workers used the day for a range of things. And while some would guess most would take the full day off every week, the experiment has shown otherwise: 

  • Only four percent of employees use the day for personal/family time, and 7.6 percent use the day for PTO. Whereas, 44.4 percent use Friday as a normal workday and nearly 44 percent take Friday as a mixed-use day. 

In return-to-office updates:

  • Citigroup became the first on Wall Street to tell staff Thursday that US-based employees must be fully vaccinated if they want to stay employed. (CNN)

  • Adobe told U.S. employees Friday that they have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8th or they will be placed on unpaid leave. (CNBC)

In other reading:

  • Black Tech Entrepreneurs Invest Their Start-Up Hopes in New York (THE CITY)

  • Why Co-Working Spaces Are Betting on the Suburbs (New York Times)

  • What To Do About “Back to Office” Jitters (Harvard Business Review)

  • The 37-Year-Olds Are Afraid of the 23-Year-Olds Who Work for Them (New York Times)

  • Immunai, a New York City-based therapeutic discovery and drug development company, raised $215 million in Series B funding. Koch Disruptive Technologies led the round and was joined by Talos VC, 8VC, Alexandria Venture Investments, Piedmont, and ICON. (TechCrunch)

  • UnitedMasters, a Brooklyn-based independent artist distribution company, raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. (Music Ally)

  • November 3: Virtual: Catalyze Tech DEI Innovation Summit, with working panels and a keynote with Idris Elba. Hosted by Snap. Register here.

  • November 4: Virtual: Frontier Tech Spotlight: Deep Tech Investment, with Seeqc CEO John Levy, Quantum Daily CEO Alex Challans, and Newlab chief product officer Satish Rao. Hosted by Newlab. Register here.

  • November 8: In-person and virtual: TechDay Founders Summit, with The Fund general partner Jenny Fielding, Eniac Ventures co-founder Nihal Mehta, The Muse founder and CEO Kathryn Minshew, and others. Admission is for founders and C-suite executives by short application. Register here.

  • November 10: In-person: 2021 Open Source Strategy Forum, with FDIC chief innovation officer Sultan Meghji, Goldman Sachs co-head of technology John Madsen, and others. Hosted by FINOS and the Linux Foundation. Register for early bird pricing using the code OSSF21NYEARLY here.

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