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2020-09-14 Simona Cuomo

Gender Balance in the Time of the Pandemic

The debate on the asymmetric effects of the Covid-19 pandemic is becoming increasingly fervent and concrete. The statistics finding that the victims of the virus are principally older men with pre-existing conditions has fed the conviction that women are less affected, which isn’t entirely true. In reality, the data must always be interpreted in light of specific situations, otherwise the interpretation can be misleading. The fact is that Covid-19 has not only affected women harshly, directly influencing their health, but has also had many indirect consequences. According to the latest UN Women ...

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2020-07-20 Zenia Simonella

25 Years After the Beijing Conference: Taking Stock

We will soon be celebrating 25 years since the Beijing Conference (September 4-5, 1995), the fourth global conference[1] convened by the United Nations on the issue of gender equality. On that occasion, the concept of gender became central for the first time, the principles of empowerment and mainstreaming were adopted, and a platform was defined with strategic goals in 12 areas considered critical.[2] The UN recently published the report Gender Equality. Women’s Rights in Review 25 Years After Beijing,[3] where it laid out the steps taken and those still to be taken, especially in terms of ...

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2020-06-26 Stefano Basaglia

What this Month of LGBT Pride Leaves Us with

June is Pride Month for the global LGBT community. This year, due to the Covid-19 emergency, pride marches were replaced by online events around the world. These events represent the occasion to take stock of the state of LGBT citizens and workers' rights, and from the standpoint of the management of diversity in organizations, to understand how businesses and public agencies have acted on this front. We already presented a general evaluation here in E&MPlus on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia (held every year on May 17)[1]. For Pride Month, it seems interesting to examine ...

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2020-06-22 Simona Cuomo, Zenia Simonella

Work at Home or Work in the Office? Both, Thanks

We have repeatedly expressed our opinion on the issue of smart working during the period of quarantine.[1] We return to the issue because in recent days the public debate has been particularly lively due to comments made by the labor law expert Pietro Ichino and the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala.[2] We asked Chiara Bisconti, the Councilor for wellbeing, quality of life, sports and leisure, green areas, animal protection, and human resources of the City of Milan from 2011 to 2016, a promoter and expert in smart working practices, for her opinion on this debate. What is your opinion regarding ...

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2020-05-20 Simona Cuomo and Zenia Simonella

Trust as the Basis of Smart Working

The relationship between businesses and workers must increasingly be based on trust. Leaders will have to abandon their own management style, shifting to one that favors collaboration, active engagement, autonomy, and individual responsibility in reaching goals. In this context, communication becomes central to avoid losing contact with employees working remotely, and creating a situation of isolation. "In addition to relaxing the pressure for balancing life and work, smart working favors the recognition of trust on the part of the employer, that is, the awareness of making an investment in people, ...

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2020-05-18 Stefano Basaglia

The Long Road of LGBT Rights

The International Day against Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia has been recognized every May 17 since 2004, to commemorate the 1990 decision by the World Health Organization to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. This anniversary, together with that of June 28 that recalls the Stonewall revolt and the season of pride days, is also the opportunity to take stock of the rights of citizens and LGBT workers in various countries. What is the situation in Italy? With respect to the analyses we conducted in 2010[1] and 2015,[2] the situation has improved; from the ...

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2020-04-29 Zenia Simonella

Please, Let's Not Call It “Smart Working”

It's already clear. What we are experiencing is not "smart working," as promoted by its supporters and then designed by lawmakers in the law of 2017.[1] We are adopting an "extreme" mode of work (not voluntary, from home, without any spatial-temporal flexibility) that has led to the emergence, and amplification, of the possible risks related to its adoption. First: isolation - we must remember - is not the same for everyone, since some categories of workers suffer more than others ("Isolation [is] a dimension that has a very different impact on different people: I'm thinking of my colleagues with ...

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2020-04-21 Simona Cuomo

Why It's Necessary to Reflect on Identity, Especially Now

In this and the next blog posts, we will discuss some comments that were left by the participants in our streaming event last April 1, "Smart Working: Are We Really Working Smartly?" Taking our cues from those comments, we will address some important social and managerial themes. Today we will talk about transformation of identity. We will then deal with living conditions, the impact of smart working, and "possible new leadership models." "The backgrounds behind the colleagues (or the speakers) during smart working are phenomenal, and we could even create links between colleagues that were previously ...

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2020-04-16 Stefano Basaglia

Covid-19 and the Prison of Categories

A broad debate is developing in Italian media on the so-called "phase 2" of the coronavirus emergency. This period will involve the gradual opening of non-essential activities (remember that essential ones are already open) and the reduction of the restrictions on mobility for citizens. In this debate, various categories are used to distinguish between businesses and workers. For businesses, the first major distinction is that between those that operate in essential sectors and non-essential sectors. This division into categories can be problematic, because while on the one hand it is possible ...

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2020-03-26 Zenia Simonella

Is a New Division of Work Possible?

In this period of emergency, family (im)balance is being put to the test by people being forced to be constantly together in the home. The question is: when mutual help between partners becomes essential, is a greater sharing of domestic work and care also emerging? For the moment, the answer seems to be no. An investigation conducted by the Valore D association on the issue of female smartworking[1] stresses that in Italy one out of three women is working more than before and is unable to reconcile her work activity with home life. Home work and care, which has increased out of all proportion ...

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