Scroll TikTok long enough, and you'll spot someone ‘body doubling.’ At first glance, it's just a person at their laptop, working away, often in silence, the sounds of a keyboard, and maybe light music. And they remain there, working, for hours, and hours. But … why?
Body doubling is also called “parallel working,” and it is a “new term for an old strategy: doing work in the presence of others.”
Some (mostly young) workers go “live” on TikTok for hours a day, every day, live-streaming themselves working from home to audiences “ranging from hundreds to thousands of viewers.”
For some, body doubling is a way to find the community that remote work leaves them without. For others, it's a way to be held accountable while working from home - or from a coffee shop.
One ‘body doubling’ enthusiast says it is how she can “work alone together.” The ”aesthetic desk setup" and “ambient music” add to the effect. She pauses periodically to “answer questions in her comments section from viewers who work alongside her.”
Some who embrace body doubling say it helps their concentration – and the loneliness that comes with working remotely. Others say it helps provide accountability and has dramatically increased their productivity, with benefits similar to co-working, but less distracting.
Read more via Fortune (via Yahoo) – Screenshot via @Hannahshirleyy on Tiktok
A Maryland bill that would have “incentivized employers to shift to a shorter workweek” has been “pulled from consideration,” according to news reports.
The bill, proposed by two Democratic state senators, would have “created a pilot program wherein employers would receive a state income tax credit of up to $750,000 per fiscal year if they move at least 30 employees from a five-day workweek to a four-day workweek without reducing pay or benefits.”
The bill's co-sponsors said they withdrew the bill from consideration because they "anticipate the Department of Labor will study this issue over the interim.”
Lawmakers in Maryland say they are planning to ask the state's labor department to “assess how many businesses already use a four-day workweek, how feasible it would be to provide technical assistance to interested businesses and how feasible it would be to move to a 35-hour workweek for state government jobs.”
Read more via HR Dive