When is being sick not being sick enough?

Gone are the days when calling in sick meant the difference between a day in bed and a day at work, The Financial Times notes. Remote work has blurred these lines, making it tough to determine whether employees are expected to power through from home or take a sick day. HR experts are concerned that this confusion leads to “presenteeism” — working while sick — and “leaveism” — using vacation days to cover for illness.

The option to work from home has blurred the line between working hours and downtime. With Covid-19 and other illnesses making a comeback, the importance of the boundaries are cropping back up. Ann Francke, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute, sums it up: “It’s the new age of ambiguity. Are you well enough to work? Are you ill enough to take time off? Who decides?”

Despite the wake of Covid, company guidelines are still unclear, and many workplaces haven’t updated their policies. Pre-pandemic, being sick enough to stay home automatically meant taking a day off to rest, but now people are asking themselves how sick you need to be to be unable to work at all, even from bed. According to the CIPD, a British association for human resource management professionals, more than half of employees have worked despite feeling unwell, often due to pressure — whether real or perceived — to perform.

Where does the responsibility lie? People and transformation director at the CIPD Amanda Arrowsmith says that previously, sick days were given to stop the spread of illness, not out of concern for an employee’s health. The solution? Francke advises managers to “create an environment that respects the employee’s needs to stay healthy and productive,” and for employees to be mindful of their judgment on whether or not their ailments allow them to work from home while taking care of their health.

EVs are all the rage right now. But if you’re thinking of a quick turnaround, they may not be the best option. Data shows that EVs depreciate the minute they’re driven out of the dealership.

Prepare for loss. In the UK, some EVs, including the Audi e-Tron GT, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq, and Tesla Model 3, lose around half of their value within the first year, according to data from Cap HPI.

Mileage isn’t the issue… The distance covered by the car doesn’t factor into its resale value. Experts give an example of a year-old Porsche Taycan 4S with 10k miles on the odometer fell from GBP 100.2k to GBP 50.7k. If it had covered 20k instead, the value would only have dropped by an additional GBP 2.6k, only an extra 2.6% of its original value.

…nor is age. If that same Porsche Taycan had been two years old instead, then the value would have dropped an additional GBP 4.1k, only 4.1% of its original value, according to data shared to Wired by Edmunds.

Secondhand supremacy. The significant depreciation, along with the fact that the batteries are beginning to last longer than initially expected, works in favor of savvy second hand buyers, who’ll then be able to get great deals on electric vehicles, according to Recurrent.

Gas-powered cars win in that department. Cap HPI data shows that in the UK, a gas-powered Audi Q7 55 holds about 42% more value after a year than the electric Audi e-tron 55, despite its higher initial cost. Even lower-value cars like the Volkswagen Golf exhibit a 46% higher resale value for their gas variants over electric models.