• As a result of the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak, airline workers are worried about losing their jobs as the demand for flights continues to decrease.
• Some flights have been cancelled and some airlines have temporarily suspended operations as a result of the epidemic.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides data on wages and employment in the air transportation industry.
• Airports and airlines employ a wide variety of workers, and salaries range from around the median wage to very high paying.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak has had a major impact on the airline industry.

Flights have been cancelled, some airlines have temporarily suspended operations, travel restrictions have been implemented by governments, and airlines were flying passenger-free "ghost" planes just to keep their time slots in accordance with aviation rules. 

Because of the overall decrease in flight demand, some airline workers are worried about their jobs.

United Airlines said in a letter to their employees that a decrease in flight demand may continue into the summer and might affect the airline workers' pay, although the company said it is doing the best they can.

Airports and airlines employ a wide variety of workers, and salaries range from around the median wage to very high-paying.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics program offers data on employment and wages across different occupations and industries.

According to that report, there were about a half-million Americans employed in the air transportation industry in May 2018, the most recent year for which data is available.

Airline jobs tend to be fairly high-paying. The median annual wage for an employee in the air transportation industry was $60,550, well above the overall median wage of $38,640.

Here are all the occupations for which at least 5% of air transportation industry establishments reported having employees, ranked from lowest to highest wage, along with their median annual pay and the number of people in that job:

SEE ALSO: Here's how much money workers make at America's amusement parks

23. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers earn a median of $36,880 a year, and 40,500 are employed in the air transportation industry.

22. Secretaries and administrative assistants earn a median of $39,660 a year, and 1,810 are employed in the air transportation industry.

21. Office clerks earn a median of $41,110 a year, and 2,170 are employed in the air transportation industry.

20. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks earn a median of $43,950 a year, and 1,530 are employed in the air transportation industry.

19. Cargo and freight agents earn a median of $44,630 a year, and 7,590 are employed in the air transportation industry.

18. Customer service representatives earn a median of $47,620 a year, and 15,520 are employed in the air transportation industry.

17. Reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks earn a median of $50,680 a year, and 67,740 are employed in the air transportation industry.

16. Stock clerks and order fillers earn a median of $52,880 a year, and 4,960 are employed in the air transportation industry.

15. Flight attendants earn a median of $56,230 a year, and 116,770 are employed in the air transportation industry.

14. Services sales representatives earn a median of $61,200 a year, and 3,470 are employed in the air transportation industry.

13. Aircraft cargo handling supervisors earn a median of $61,860 a year, and 3,150 are employed in the air transportation industry.

12. First-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers earn a median of $64,490 a year, and 1,950 are employed in the air transportation industry.

11. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers earn a median of $68,750 a year, and 9,340 are employed in the air transportation industry.

10. Maintenance and repair workers earn a median of $70,510 a year, and 2,390 are employed in the air transportation industry.

9. Accountants and auditors earn a median of $73,120 a year, and 1,130 are employed in the air transportation industry.

8. Business operations specialists earn a median of $77,560 a year, and 2,030 are employed in the air transportation industry.

7. Aircraft mechanics and service technicians earn a median of $80,470 a year, and 39,760 are employed in the air transportation industry.

6. Commercial and charter pilots earn a median of $83,420 a year and 14,770 are employed in the air transportation industry

5. First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers earn a median of $88,000 a year, and 4,360 are employed in the air transportation industry.

4. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers earn a median of $112,020 a year, and 2,330 are employed in the air transportation industry.

3. General and operations managers earn a median of $114,390 a year, and 3,000 are employed in the air transportation industry.

2. Air-traffic controllers earn a median of $129,180 a year, and 20,430 are employed by the FAA and other federal agencies.

The overwhelming majority of air traffic controllers in the US are employed by the federal government, rather than private-sector companies in the air transportation industry, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies them as such in the Occupational Employment Statistics Program.

1. Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers earn a median of $146,880 a year, and 74,180 are employed in the air transportation industry.

• As coronavirus fears spread across the US, experts advise people not to withdraw from their 401(k) plans or employer-sponsored retirement savings accounts. 
• A withdrawal from a 401(k) plan can be damaging.
• According to the IRS, an early withdrawal can result in penalties of up to 10%, and you may have to pay income taxes on the amount.
• We've rounded up three ways for you to retain your 401(k) plan during a crisis. 
• Click here for more BI Prime content.

As fears over the novel coronavirus spur a slump in US markets, it may be tempting to dip into your 401(k) account. 

People make early withdrawals from their retirement savings accounts because they're looking for a safety net. Some may be stressed about an economic recession, which experts say may happen in upcoming quarters, or want to pay down high medical bills. About 59% of young investors in an E-Trade report acknowledged that they took money out of their retirement accounts. Still, experts say early withdrawals are a big no-no. 

"People may be more tempted to do this because they're looking for security — this actually does the exact opposite and exposes you to more risk and instability in the future," Eric Roberge, a certified financial planner and the founder of the financial-planning firm Beyond Your Hammock, told Business Insider. "If you're struggling to not panic, stop looking at your portfolio."

This money is reserved for your future, he said.

"This is long-term money that is supposed to be there to fund your retirement; it is not designed to act like an emergency fund because the markets have you spooked," Roberge said.

It is important that people stay calm and focus on saving money. Early withdrawals from an account can be damaging. According to the IRS, when someone withdraws from a 401(k) account before age 59 and a half, that person is subject to ordinary income taxes, plus a 10% penalty. 

Here are three ways to manage your 401(k) account during a crisis based on advice from financial experts. 

Do nothing

During a financial crisis, don't cash out on your investments. Taking money out of your retirement savings will force you to pay penalties, and your account will be exposed to even greater financial risks.

Leaving money in the account is good because the market will eventually bounce back, Laura McCamy wrote for Business Insider. McCamy left her 401(k) investments alone during the last recession and experienced a 30% increase in her retirement savings. Now she knows there's an advantage to staying put. 

"I might not be able to stop touching my face, but I'm definitely not touching my investment portfolio; that's easy," McCamy wrote.

For example, the S&P 500, one of the major indexes measuring the US economy, lost about 37% during the 2008 recession, which caused a severe loss in 401(k) retirement-plan assets, according to an analysis from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. 

"In most cases, if there is a recession, you will see your account value go down due to market volatility," David Blackston, the founder of Blackston Financial Advisory Group, told US News & World Report.

Since the coronavirus outbreak started, the S&P 500 has reached a new low, with an estimated market loss of $6 trillion, Business Insider reported. "Risks are now greater from consumer responses to the virus and lower oil impacting solvency, business investment, energy employment, and financial conditions via credit markets," Michael Wilson, an economist, told Markets Insider.

Lay out your long-term 401(k) goals 

According to Roberge, it's important to stick to your plan. This means saving and developing a strategy for your future investments.

"Consider adjusting your allocation to take less risk (so if you're allocated 80% to equities and 20% to bonds, consider adjusting to something like 60-40)," Roberge said. 

If you're young, you have time to recover from any losses you may take during a financial crisis. Danielle Harrison, a certified financial planner in Columbia, Missouri, told Business Insider that young people could take on more risk. Therefore, they can invest and receive more returns for their retirement. 

"Although young individuals have the odds stacked against them with large amounts of student-loan debt, low starting salaries, and high insurance costs eating up the majority of their paycheck, they do have one extremely valuable thing on their side — time," Harrison said. 

People older than 50 can open a Roth individual retirement account or a tax-advantaged retirement savings account and contribute $1,000. However, if you don't have $1,000, you can open an IRA with a credit union and set aside about $100 a month, Business Insider reported.

"Remember that things don't have to be all or nothing; you don't have to stay on the extreme end or throw everything into stocks," Roberge said. "And you don't have to jump out and move to cash. Again, this is long-term money. Don't make a short-term decision based off of fear and speculation." 

Contribute to your 401(k) account

Experts agree that during a crisis, it is important to invest in your 401(k) account. During times of financial stress, you should continue to put money toward your retirement. The more you save for retirement in the long term, the more interest you can earn on your investments over time. 

"There's no reason to stop contributing as you normally do to your plan, and if you had no plans to dip into your 401(k) before these events, you should not be changing your plans now," Roberge said. 

What's more, people who regularly contribute to their 401(k) accounts may also receive a matching contribution from their employers. 

"It's hard not to emotionally react to volatile situations, but we have financial plans for a reason: to keep ourselves grounded in turbulent, uncertain times," he said. "If you don't have a plan, this is a good sign it's time to make one so you're not flying blind."

SEE ALSO: The coronavirus has already cost the ultra-wealthy more than $100 billion. Here's why they're likely to feel more pain from the market drops than the average American.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 5 things about the NFL that football fans may not know

• During the coronavirus pandemic, remote workers are relying on message platforms for office communication. 
• As Slack becomes more integrated into modern offices, employees sometimes slip up and use iMessage lingo in company chat rooms.
• While you should avoid acronyms with swear words like "WTF," communicating casually with your coworkers can help foster friendships. 
• Just remember your boss and company management can read everything you say on Slack, so don't discuss sensitive information.
• Click here for more BI Prime content.

For better or worse, Slack has disrupted office communication.

As more employees are forced to work from home because of the coronavirus pandemic they are turning to Slack to fill in the gaps of office communication. But, without subtle social cues, it's easy for some comments over Slack to be misconstrued.  

For me, our Slack-obsessed workplace led me to accidentally swear at my boss (kind of). He started a chat conversation over Slack to alert me of a shocking development in my careers beat. While I can't recall the exact comment, I found his news so disturbing I instinctively typed: "JFC." 

My boss questioned what I meant by the acronym, and I instantly felt my face get red with shame. The acronym stood for "Jesus F****** Christ"— not only did I take the Lord's name in vain, I used a swear word. 

But aside from communication issues, Slack can also sometimes become a distraction for employees. Just like social media, Slack may encourage misbehavior in the workplace, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

"It's obviously helpful to be able to communicate in real time," Lucas Miller, a productivity researcher and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business told the Journal. "It's also another distraction. It makes it very difficult for people to focus at work, because there's always a possibility that there's something urgent or something that you may be missing."

Despite the challenges, chatting has become an essential part of the modern workplace — Slack grew from 0 to 8 million daily users in just four years, and Microsoft says its competitor tool Teams might be growing even faster. 

You can be more casual on Slack than over email, and chat platforms can even help you form friendships at work. Still, there are some things — like swearing — that should stay out of the office entirely.

Here is the ultimate Slack etiquette guide for your workplace.

SEE ALSO: 20 things you should never say to your coworkers

SEE ALSO: 8 tips to nailing a video job interview in the age of coronavirus

Don't use acronyms with swear words in them.

Unfortunately for me, all career experts I spoke with said "WTF" has no place in your office Slack, no matter how ubiquitous the phrase has become.

Even though most people know what "WTF" means and are probably okay seeing it in their messages, Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of "The Humor Advantage," said that swearing still has no place at work. 

"We have to remember that a lot of eyes are watching," Kerr said. "You'll have to anticipate that there are future readers on Slack who might not be comfortable with that style or that kind of language."

Since your company can see your Slack, don't talk about job hunting, medical history, bank details, or ill feelings toward coworkers.

It's no secret your company can read your Slack messages and emails. Better technology has made tracking employee behavior easier and (sometimes) more invasive — and companies can legally access any communication that happens in the office or through work devices, employment lawyers told The Wall Street Journal.

Because of these restrictions, Marc Cenedella, founder and CEO of Ladders, a job search website, advises that employees not discuss sensitive information on Slack, like your medical history or banking information. While your employer cannot legally discriminate based on any disease or condition, you should still keep personal issues as private as possible.

Furthermore, if you're looking for a promotion (or not to get fired), don't tell anyone you hate your boss on Slack either.

"People just don't realize all of your chats are saved on Slack," Cenedella told Business Insider. "Do not overshare your personal details or personal feelings on Slack."

Don't get in an argument over Slack.

iMessage and chat rooms sometimes allow users to talk to others in ways that they normally wouldn't when chatting face-to-face, said Lynn Taylor, workplace expert and author of "Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant." Cyberbullying, for instance, is on the rise among young people with cell phones, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

While many professionals don't outright bully coworkers, Slack makes it easier to respond with passive-aggressive comments that we wouldn't use in person.

"Slack is just not a good venue for an employee to deploy passive-aggressive tendencies toward a coworker or worse, your boss," Taylor told Business Insider. "Think twice before you take that there because you might see that person five minutes later across your cube or by the water cooler."

Slack is a great place to compliment your coworkers.

While negativity has no place in the workplace, Slack can also be a good venue to send your coworker positive feedback. Since Slack messages live on for weeks, you can memorialize an accomplishment by posting about it in your team's main chatroom, Taylor said.

Plus, upper management reading those messages get a chance to view your team's good work the next time they check through your messages. 

"You're memorializing your communications with Slack," Taylor said. "What an opportunity to pay a kind word and memorialize it in this venue."

Don't over do it with emojis.

Emojis have also entered your office lingo — and that's not always a bad thing, Kerr said.

A "thumbs up" emoji can be a great way to tell your boss you received their message or you agree with their statement without sending another notification, he said. A "smiley face" emoji tells your coworker you are being friendly, Taylor said. 

Yet sending a string of eight emojis in a row that "people have to decipher like it's hieroglyphics" won't cut it in the workplace, Kerr said. "Be careful of getting too cutesy with them the way you might on a text message with a friend."

If you're speaking with a senior leader at your company, or conveying a serious message, avoid emojis at all costs. "This is still about having a professional dialog," Taylor added.

Use miscellaneous Slack channels to make friends around your office.

When you first get a new job, you don't want to be overly eager for friendship before getting a chance to settle down in your role, Cenedella said. After getting situated, though, you can start branching out and trying to make friends.

Slack can help with that.

Often, companies have miscellaneous Slack channels for specific employees, such as those for parents, college alumni, and remote workers. These channels are a great way to get friendlier with your colleagues. 

Some companies even have fun channels for cat-lovers or NBA fanatics that are designed to get you to speak more candidly about the topics you're passionate about. In these spaces, you can use more colloquial language than with your boss or in the main channel.

"You probably don't want to be sharing in your first week, your favorite Old Town Road memes," Cenedella said, referring to the hit song by Lil Nas X. "But if there's a channel called #BillieEilishForever, you can probably be a little bit more relaxed and casual in that channel as you chat with other people who follow Billie Eilish."

Don't send your colleagues a bunch of Slack messages when you could just use one...

When I text my friends, I tend to send out five to six small messages at a time:

"hey"
"what's up?"
"by the way do you know where Cristina is?"
"i saw her Instagram story about being in New York but I don't know where she's staying"
"i want to see if she can hang out with us on Friday!" 

Over Slack, however, sending lots of tiny messages is a big no-no, Kerr said. Quickly sending people a bunch of messages — which he refers to as "Slack bombing"— sends them lots of notifications for no reason, and distracts them from a more urgent task.

"It's really annoying for people," Kerr said about Slack bombing. "Remember, it's not texting."

... and don't send big blocks of text over Slack.

In the same way you don't want to Slack-bomb your coworkers with a bunch of tiny messages, a big block of text can be an eyesore. 

Kerr describes Slack as between a text and an email. If you're sending a lengthy message that requires a detailed response, or if you need to write in complete paragraphs, simply emailing your coworker will suffice. 

"I think it's important to remember that the purpose of Slack ideally is to cut down on email use," he said. "[Slack] is not quite as formal as or as structured as an email might be." 

Taylor, too, says that if you are going off on a tangent about a subject over Slack, you risk "putting everyone to sleep in the chat room." 

"You should put that in an email," Taylor added.

Be wary of slang.

While many people have certain colloquialisms they use with friends, slang comes and goes quickly, and not everyone is up to the latest trend. 

Take "on fleek," Cenedella said. The phrase, meaning "cool," hit mainstream popularity back in 2015 — so much so that The New York Times, Quartz, and other publications had to break down the term. Nowadays, young people have moved on to "yeet" and "stan."

Because of the short shelf-life of trendy words, your coworkers might not be fully up-to-date on today's slang, even if they're from a similar background as you. It's not offensive to use a colloquial term on Slack sometimes, Cenedella said, but just know your coworkers might not be aware of what you're saying.

"It's not like you have to avoid [slang] altogether, but the latest and greatest slang comes and goes away pretty quickly."

Tailor your speech to who you're talking to.

Most of us speak to colleagues we would see at happy hour much more colloquially than  we'd talk with a company's CEO. 

Over Slack — just like in person — the same communication differences hold up, said Cenedella. It might be okay to slip in acronyms like "LOL" or talk more casually if you're chatting with your close coworker, especially if the company culture is one where everyone is working at a startup three years out of college. 

But type as professionally as possible with your boss or another senior executive.

"There's not really one universal right way to use Slack," Cenedella said. "You've got to follow the cues of your particular office."

• Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, have come a long way since the early days of the company. 
• What started as a bookseller in 1995 has quickly become a behemoth and one of the most valuable companies in the world. 
• Here are some little-known facts about Amazon's first few years.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When Amazon launched in 1995 as a website that only sold books, founder Jeff Bezos had a vision for the company's explosive growth and ecommerce domination.

He knew from the very beginning that he wanted Amazon to be "an everything store."

In author Brad Stone's 2013 book on the origins of Amazon, he paints a picture of the early days of the company and how it grew into the behemoth that it is today.

Jillian D'Onfro contributed to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: Here's where Amazon's first 21 employees are now

"Amazon" wasn't the company's original name.

Jeff Bezos originally wanted to give the company the magical sounding name "Cadabra."

Amazon's first lawyer, Todd Tarbert, convinced him that the name sounded too similar to "Cadaver," especially over the phone. (Bezos also favored the name "Relentless." If you visit Relentless.com today, it navigates to Amazon.)

He finally chose "Amazon" because he liked that the company would be named after the largest river in the world, hence the company's original logo. 

In the early days of Amazon, a bell would ring in the office every time someone made a purchase, and everyone would gather around to see if they knew the customer.

It only took a few weeks before the bell was ringing so frequently that they had to turn it off.

In the first month of its launch, Amazon had already sold books to people in all 50 states and in 45 different countries. 

An obscure book about lichens saved Amazon from going bankrupt.

Book distributors required retailers to order 10 books at a time, and Amazon didn't need that much inventory yet (or have that much money).

So, the team discovered a loophole: Although the distributors required that Amazon ordered 10 books, the company didn't need to receive that many. So, they would order one book they needed, and nine copies of an obscure lichen book, which was always out of stock. 

Amazon got started out of Bezos' garage. In the early days, Bezos held meetings at Barnes & Noble.

In the early days of Amazon, the servers that the company used required so much power that Bezos and his wife couldn't run a hair dryer or a vacuum in the house without blowing a fuse.

Jeff Bezos expected employees to work 60-hour weeks, at least. The idea of work-life balance didn't exist.

One early employee worked so tirelessly over eight months — biking back and forth from work in the very early morning and very late night — that he completely forgot about the blue station wagon that he'd parked near his apartment.

He never had time to read his mail, and when he finally did, he found a handful of parking tickets, a notice that his car had been towed, a few warnings from the towing company, and a final message that his car had been sold at an auction. 

Amazon's first intense Christmas season came in 1998.

The company was dramatically under-staffed. Every employee had to take a graveyard shift in the fulfillment centers to meet orders. They would bring their friends and family and would often sleep in their cars before going to work the next day.

After that, Amazon vowed that it would never have a shortage of labor to meet demand for the holidays again, which is why Amazon hires so many seasonal workers today. 

When eBay launched onto the scene, Amazon tried to build its own auction site to compete.

The idea flopped, but Bezos himself loved it.

He purchased a $40,000 skeleton of an Ice Age cave bear and displayed it in the lobby of the company's headquarters. Next to it was a sign that read "Please Don't Feed The Bear." It's still there today. 

Bezos liked to move incredibly fast, which often created chaos, especially in Amazon's distribution centers.

Amazon suffered extreme growing pains in the late '90s and early 2000s. Facilities would get shut down for hours because of system outages, piles of products would sit around ignored by workers, and there was no preparation for new product categories.

When the kitchen category was introduced, knives without protective packaging would come hurtling down conveyor shoots. It was extremely dangerous. 

In early 2002, Bezos introduced the concept of "two-pizza teams" to Amazon.

Employees would be organized into groups of fewer than 10 people — the perfect number to be satisfied by two pizzas for dinner — and were expected to work autonomously. Teams had to set strict goals, with equations to measure their success. Those equations were called "fitness functions," and tracking those goals was how Bezos managed his teams. 

"Communication is a sign of dysfunction," Bezos said. "It means people aren't working together in a close, organic way. We should be trying to figure out a way for teams to communicate less with each other, not more."

Many employees hated "two-pizza teams," and especially the stress of the fitness functions. 

Dissatisfied customers can email Jeff Bezos directly and he'll forward the message along to the right person, with one dreaded addition: "?"

Stone writes:

"When Amazon employees get a Bezos question mark e-mail, they react as though they've discovered a ticking bomb. They've typically got a few hours to solve whatever issue the CEO has flagged and prepare a thorough explanation for how it occurred, a response that will be reviewed by a succession of managers before the answer is presented to Bezos himself. Such escalations, as these e-mails are known, are Bezos's way of ensuring that the customer's voice is constantly heard inside the company."

Before Google had "Street View," Amazon had "Block View."

In 2004, Amazon launched a search engine, A9.com. 

The A9 team started a project called Block View, a visual Yellow Pages, which would pair street-level photographs of stores and restaurants with their listings in A9's search results. On a budget of less than $100,000, Amazon flew photographers to 20 major cities where they rented vehicles to start taking pictures of restaurants. 

Amazon eventually dropped Block View in 2006, and Google didn't start Street View until 2007. 

Amazon employees were encouraged to use "primal screams" as therapeutic release during the high-tension holiday season.

Amazon hires seasonal workers, but the holiday season is still extremely stressful for the logistics teams.

In the early 2000s, Jeff Wilke, Amazon's operations manager, would let any person or team who accomplished a significant goal close their eyes, lean back, and yell into the phone at him at the top of their lungs. Wilke told Brad Stone that some of the primal screams nearly blew out his speakers. 

Amazon's fulfillment centers have had issues with their working conditions since the beginning, and many unhappy workers have found ways to rebel.

Once, an employee who was preparing to quit hopped onto the fulfillment center's conveyor belt and rode it merrily through the entire facility. 

One of the wildest stories, however, may be from 2006 and it involves a temporary employee at a Kansas fulfillment center:

"He would show up at the start of his shift and leave at the end of it, but he never logged any hours in between. It took at least a week for anyone to discover what was going on: He had tunneled out a den inside a huge pile of empty wooden pallets. Completely out of view, he had used Amazon products to make a bed, ripped pictures from Amazon books to line his make-shift walls, and stolen Amazon food to snack on. When he was discovered, he was (unsurprisingly) fired." 

"Fiona" was the original code-name for Amazon's Kindle.

The Kindle got its original name from a book called "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. 

It was a novel set in the future about an engineer who steals a rare interactive textbook to give to his knowledge-hungry daughter, Fiona. The team that worked on Kindle prototypes thought of that fictitious textbook as the template for the device that they were working on. 

The team eventually begged Bezos to keep the name Fiona, but he decided on another suggestion, Kindle, because it evoked the idea of starting a fire.

Jeff Bezos was a demanding boss and could explode at employees. Rumor has it, he hired a leadership coach to help him tone it down.

Bezos was known for his explosive or sarcastic responses to employees if he wasn't happy with what they reported to him. It was said that he had hired a leadership coach to try to keep his harsh evaluations in check. 

Here's an excerpt from Brad Stone's book:

"During one memorable meeting, Bezos reprimanded [Diane] Lye and her colleagues in his customarily devastating way, telling them they were stupid and saying they should 'come back in a week when you figure out what you're doing.' Then he walked a few steps, froze in mid-stride as if something had suddenly occurred to him, wheeled around, and added, 'But great work everyone.'"

• An American student studying in Italy found her classes cut short as the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation.
• The situation progressed startlingly quickly, she said.
• She said many wished to remain abroad over fears for their safety and their lack of health insurance in the US.
• She just got back to the US on Friday and isn't sure if she'll have to go into quarantine.
• She said several of her friends weren't tested when they returned from Italy.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, one American student studying in Italy — whose identity was confirmed by Business Insider — found herself in a country second to only China in number of infections. Italy's death toll is now over 631, and it has reported 10,000 infections, out of global totals of more than 6,500 and 169,000, respectively. 

The student was supposed to stay in Italy for the full academic year. And she's far from alone — in 2016, Italy was the second most popular destination for Americans studying abroad. She and her peers found themselves scrambling to leave the country — but not necessarily looking forward to their uncertain future upon returning to the US. She got home on Friday.

She described to Business Insider her experience in Italy during the pandemic and provided pictures she took after the lockdown began.

SEE ALSO: QUARANTINE DIARY: I was forced to stay home for 14 days with my fiancé. At first we had steak dinners and did yoga — but by the end we were ready to crack.

At first, as friends were getting sent home, she decided to stay.

She at first chose to stay, she said, because the outbreak "started out as, the schools were just going to close for a week" or so. Some of her friends considered using the week off to travel, but then it became clear that life was not going to resume as normal anytime soon.

As the week stretched into a month without class, the student said she and her colleagues "had nothing to do." And then it became clear that nobody was "really too sure" whether or how the outbreak was going to stop. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, she said.

"All of the Chinese restaurants started closing, and then stores started closing, churches and then cinemas, theaters, gyms, schools, universities — any sort of place where a lot of people gather, they just started closing. And then eventually ... the shops, even the touristy shops, which usually remain open during holidays, were closing," she said.

She first heard about the coronavirus in January.

"There were a couple people wearing masks, and then in February, that's when you started noticing that the tourists were disappearing. More people started wearing masks, and then maybe every other store was closed," she said.

The coronavirus first started to make a minimal appearance in January — and then things progressed quickly.

The only stores open in Italy are pharmacies and grocery stores.

As street life began to shut down in Italy, the student said, it felt like everyone was wearing masks and gloves, with people having to line up outside — shoppers can go in only one at a time as people leave. And, she added, everyone stays "a respectful one meter away from each other.

This was "super surprising" and "really striking" to the student, who had gotten used to Italy, where "personal space bubble is way smaller" than in the US or in Britain, where people "already stay like one meter away from each other." 

Inside grocery stores, she said, people are also generally wearing gloves and masks. When you go to get groceries rung up, you must wait behind a red line until an employee comes to meet you and bring your items to be scanned.

She's not sure if she'll have to go into quarantine upon returning to the US — and she said several of her friends weren't tested when they returned from Italy. But many are choosing to self-quarantine.

"I do have a couple of friends that are like, 'Oh my parents are really old, or my children are really young, so I'm going to rent an Airbnb for two weeks and stay there.' And I'm not sure what I'll do, or what other low-income students will do because there's nothing we can do. We just have to go home and try not to get our family sick," she said.

She added that students from her cohort in different countries echoed the same sentiment — they felt more comfortable where they were than in the US.

"They don't feel safe going back to America because they either don't have medical insurance or their families are ... they're vulnerable. And I myself have medical insurance, but it's only because I'm on my parents' medical insurance," she said.

If she didn't have that insurance coverage, she added, she also wouldn't have wanted to come back.

"This whole ordeal has been really tiring for me. So I'm just like, 'I'm done. I want to go home,'" she said.

According to the student, not everyone who received the email telling them to evacuate shared her sentiments.

"The other students in my program, and in the other American programs, they were absolutely heartbroken. People were crying," she said.

She said some students were upset about the circumstances they had to leave under — and didn't want to head back right away.

"When we got the emails, they didn't want to go home. Because for some people, this is a once in a lifetime — to live overseas before we hit the regular 9-to-5 ... it was a dream come true for them to live in Italy," she said.

She said she was ready to head back to the US — but the departure was still difficult.

"I didn't want to go home like this," she added. "It doesn't feel like it's on my own terms."

Even taking photographs to commemorate the experience was difficult.

"When I was walking throughout the city, I was trying to take as many pictures as I could to sort of remember ... But it, like, taints the memory because in all my pictures, the streets are empty, and there it's just like, I don't know, it feels like it's history in the making."

• Facebook went public with an all-male board, but nearly achieved gender parity last week when it added two women directors.
• The announcement came as companies face growing pressure from employees, customers, investors, and lawmakers to increase diversity within their ranks, especially among upper leadership.
• While the tech industry has moved slow so far, companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Airbnb, and HP are at least making some progress in the boardroom.
• Here are 13 tech companies that have added diverse directors since the beginning of 2019.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook announced last week that it was adding a former McKinsey executive and Estée Lauder's CFO to its board, meaning 40% of the company's directors are now women. That's a significant change from 2012 when the social networking giant went public with an all-male board.

Thanks to a variety of factors, including the #MeToo movement, employee walkouts, and calls to action from the investor community, there's been a growing awareness about the lack of diversity across all industries, and especially within tech.

While many major tech companies, including Facebook, started releasing annual workforce diversity stats several years ago, those efforts alone have not yet led to substantial gains for underrepresented groups — particularly among upper leadership levels and within corporate boardrooms.

That may finally be changing, however. Last year, a California law went into effect requiring public companies based in the state to have at least one woman on their board by the end of 2019 (and more by the end of 2021 for boards with at least five people) — leading 126 companies to recruit 138 women to their boards.

By the end of 2019, only 4% of California-based companies still had all-male boards, down from 29% in July 2018, according to KPMG.

"I think we've reached a tipping point," said Shannon Gordon, CEO of theBoardlist, a company that helps connect women with public and private board opportunities, but she caveated that businesses still have a long way to go.

"There's certainly a strong pipeline out there, it's just a matter of companies being intentional about finding that talent," Gordon said.

Here are some of the companies within the tech industry that have found that talent — and added women to their boards in recent months:

SEE ALSO: The top US companies putting women on their boards, promoting minorities, and proving their diversity efforts aren't all just talk

Facebook

Facebook added McKinsey executive Nancy Killefer and Estée Lauder CFO Tracey T. Travis to its board in March, meaning four of its 10 directors are now women. Facebook also brought on PayPal's executive vice president of sales, Peggy Alford, as the board's first African-American woman last April.

Airbnb

Airbnb recruited former Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts to its board last May.

Alphabet

Google parent company Alphabet brought on former Gilead Sciences executive Robin Washington last April and, in his first big move as CEO, Sundar Pichai appointed Nobel-winning scientist Frances Arnold.

Amazon

Last February, Amazon named Starbucks chief operating officer Rosalind Brewer to its board as well as former Pepsi chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi.

Dropbox

Dropbox appointed Autodesk chief marketing officer Lisa Campbell and Intercom chief operating officer Karen Peacock to its board last August.

HP

HP named former Google and Apple executive Yoky Matsuoka to its board last January. It has one of the most diverse boards of all publicly trade companies in the US, according to Refinitiv's diversity and inclusion index.

Netgear

Netgear appointed venture capitalist and tech executive Janice Roberts to its board in February 2019 as well as former Polycom executive Laura Durr in January of this year, making four of the company's nine directors women.

PayPal

PayPal announced last January that Deborah Messemer, a former managing director at KPMG, had joined its board.

ServiceNow

ServiceNow appointed Deloitte's top San Francisco executive, Teresa Briggs, and Slack's chief product officer, Tamar Yehoshua, to its board last March.

Slack

Slack added Sheila Jordan, now chief digital technology officer at Honeywell, to its board in September.

Square

Square appointed the National Basketball Association's chief innovation officer, Amy Brooks, to its board last October.

TiVo

When California's law passed, TiVo was one of the companies with an all-male board. But last April, TiVo brought on Laura Durr (the same former Polycom executive who joined Netgear's board this year) as well as Loria Yeadon, CEO of YMCA Seattle and a longtime intellectual property expert.

Upwork

Upwork announced last July that SurveyMonkey chief marketing officer Leela Srinivasan was joining its board.

Meet the 2019 class of Wall Street's rising stars.

From starting a hedge fund before age 30 to running their own alternative-data shops and helping lead $27 billion investments, this group of young finance leaders is in a league of its own.

It was harder than ever this year to select just 25 people. Our selection criteria: We asked that nominees be 35 or under, based in the US, and stand out from their peers. Editors made the final decisions.

Here's our list of the next crop of Wall Street leaders.

Additional reporting by Alex Morell, Bradley Saacks, and Dakin Campbell.

Click here to read the full list.

Adam Parker, 34, Center Lake Capital

Adam Parker has been focused on running his own hedge fund as long as he can remember – and he's already running $350 million before the age of 35 with his fund, Center Lake Capital. 

Parker started investing in college after he sold a GrubHub-like company he and a couple friends started. From there, he interned at the Lehman Brothers real-estate group in summer 2007 and was choosing between returning for a full-time position or joining the now shuttered Force Capital. He chose Force. 

After working as an analyst, he eventually interviewed with billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, and worked for Duquesne Capital until Druckenmiller closed the fund. He then went to PointState Capital, which was started by Duquesne veterans, and became a portfolio manager after just a year, running $150 million to start out.

Center Lake launched in 2014 with multiyear commitments from a few critical investors, Parker said. Now he believes the firm has differentiated itself because of the concentrated investments and specific focus within the tech world. 

Click here to read the full list.

Evan Feinberg, 32, Tiger Global

Feinberg started at the University of Pennsylvania with plans to be a lawyer and had no idea what investment banking even was. It took only a year for him to transfer into the Wharton business program, and the rest is history.

Feinberg worked at Morgan Stanley during the summer of the financial crisis and joined Silver Lake Capital, a private-equity firm in New York, after he graduated. He joined Tiger Global six years ago as the hedge fund run by the billionaire Chase Coleman decided to expand more into the private markets. 

In that time, Feinberg estimates he has been a part of 40 to 50 different investments Tiger Global's private-investing team has made, including co-leading the firm's investments in the Brazilian financial-technology unicorn Nubank and the buzzy workout company Peloton. Both the investments were made earlier on in the companies' histories — series B for Nubank and series A for Peloton — a fact Feinberg is proud of.

Feinberg is looking for founders that are inspirational but also grounded, so they don't let their vision get the best of them, while also being able to get employees and investors to buy into the potential of the company. 

Click here to read the full list.

Want to meet the rest of Wall Street's rising stars?

BI Prime publishes dozens of exclusive stories like this every day that feature in-depth industry and market analysis. 

>> Get started by reading the full list

• Startup founders are bracing themselves to survive the turmoil created by the coronavirus pandemic, sending employees home and threatening to dry up funding. 
• As startup founders prepare to adapt to a fast-changing environment, a 2011 blog post by Ben Horowitz, one of the founding partners of Silicon Valley's Andreessen Horowitz, has resurfaced. 
• The post describes fundamental differences between a CEO best-suited to steer the company during times of peace and times of war. 
• Business Insider listed 10 ways in which these differences can form a playbook for startup leaders looking to survive a possible recession.
• You can read the full post here. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Silicon Valley is bracing itself for a reckoning, as the coronavirus pandemic has thrown markets into turmoil, forced companies to go remote, and threatens to dry up VC funding.

And as startup founders prepare themselves for a period of existential threat, a 9-year-old blog post titled "Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO" by Ben Horowitz, one of the founders of Silicon Valley's Andreessen Horowitz, is suddenly everywhere.

Andreessen Horowitz partner Andrew Chen tweeted that he overheard someone say "Now everyone's a wartime ceo. You have no choice." But he wasn't alone - several startup founders and investors shared the post, commenting that it was more relevant than ever. 

Horowitz didn't write the post during a time of economic crisis — it was written in 2011, back when Eric Schmidt had stepped down as Google's CEO and Larry Page took over. Horowitz argued that the news represented a profound change for Google, one that would take it from peacetime to war as Larry Page prepared to revitalize the company and take on Facebook. 

But the post painted a broader management philosophy. Horowitz laid out the characteristics of two types of CEOs - there's the "peacetime" CEO, best poised to expand an already-dominant company's business and guide it during times where it faces little challenge. Google's expansion under the tenure of Eric Schmidt, as the "clear market leader" in search was the perfect example of a peacetime CEO, Horowitz said. 

And then there's the "wartime" CEO, who steers the company when it is fending off an existential threat, be it competition, market change, or a "dramatic macro economic change," much like the coronavirus pandemic threatens to force. Think Steve Jobs, when he returned to Apple and rescued it from the brink of bankruptcy in the 1990s, Horowitz said. 

It's difficult, though possible, to master the skillsets of both CEOs, according to Horowitz. "Mastering both wartime and peacetime skill sets means understanding the many rules of management and knowing when to follow them and when to violate them," he wrote. 

In fact, Horowitz himself said he spent nine months as a peacetime CEO and was a wartime CEO for the next seven years. But he argued that his skillset was much more tailored for being a wartime CEO, writing, "One could easily argue that I failed as a peacetime CEO, but succeeded as a wartime one." 

That being said, some of the differences that Horowitz highlighted can lay out a playbook for a CEO preparing to adapt their management strategy for war. Business Insider picked out 10 differences that may have the most impact. 

You can read the full post here. 

1. A wartime CEO isn't worried breaking the rules:
   Horowitz seems to describe a "move fast break things" ethos typically associated with Facebook, as he writes, "Peacetime CEO knows that proper protocol leads to winning. Wartime CEO violates protocol in order to win." 

2. A wartime CEO micromanages.
   Steve Jobs famously had an obsessive attention to detail, pouring over every little aspect of Apple's product designs. Horowitz attributes that level of attention to the wartime CEO, someone who is concerned with everything happening at their company. "Peacetime CEO focuses on the big picture and empowers her people to make detailed decisions. Wartime CEO cares about a speck of dust on a gnat's ass if it interferes with the prime directive," Horowitz wrote. 

3. A wartime CEO is prepared to hire and fire workers with equal ease. 
   A wartime CEO can't afford to be carrying an oversized workforce when the company is fighting to survive. Horowitz writes, "peacetime CEO builds scalable, high volume recruiting machines. Wartime CEO does that, but also builds HR organizations that can execute layoffs."

4. A wartime CEO doesn't spend time defining the company's culture
   Horowitz writes that the existential threat driving the CEO's management should also drive the company: "Peacetime CEO spends time defining the culture. Wartime CEO lets the war define the culture."

5. A wartime CEO is never satisfied. 
   Earlier in the post, Horowitz discusses former Intel CEO Andy Grove as one of the classic wartime CEOs. This particular difference appears to be inspired by Grove's highly popular management book, "Only the Paranoid Survive," as Horowitz writes, "peacetime CEO knows what to do with a big advantage. Wartime CEO is paranoid." 

6. A wartime CEO is constantly on the alert to fight off competition
   "Peacetime CEO thinks of the competition as other ships in a big ocean that may never engage. Wartime CEO thinks the competition is sneaking into her house and trying to kidnap her children," Horowitz writes. His statement refers to the different worlds in which a peacetime and wartime CEO operate - a place of competitive advantage and a growing market, versus a place where a company is fighting to survive.

7. A wartime CEO has a "winner-take-all" mindset
   In times of peace, a company is already dominant - all it needs to go is keep growing. But a wartime CEO is leading the company's fight to get ahead of competitors and grow its share of the market. Horowitz alludes to that fundamental difference, writing, "Peacetime CEO aims to expand the market. Wartime CEO aims to win the market."  

8. A wartime CEO requires everything to be followed exactly according to plan 
   Not only does a wartime CEO have an obsessive attention to detail but they also are not understanding of deviations from the plan, according to Horowitz.
   "Peacetime CEO strives to tolerate deviations from the plan when coupled with effort and creativity. Wartime CEO is completely intolerant," he wrote. 

9. A wartime CEO isn't thinking about management strategy
   As Horowitz earlier points out, management strategy books are often written in times of peace rather than times of crisis, leaving a distorted picture of leadership strategies available to company leaders fighting to survive. In a snide aside to these books, Horowitz writes, "peacetime CEO sets big, hairy audacious goals. Wartime CEO is too busy fighting the enemy to read management books written by consultants who have never managed a fruit stand." 

10. A wartime CEO is concerned with training employees for battle, not career development
    A company fighting an existential threat doesn't have time handhold employees, according to Horowitz. 
    "Peacetime CEO trains her employees to ensure satisfaction and career development. Wartime CEO trains her employees so they don't get their ass shot off in the battle," he wrote.  

SEE ALSO: Meet the 21 startups cofounded by women that reached unicorn status in 2019, hitting a valuation of $1 billion or more

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• Charter Communications is giving households with K-12 and college students free Spectrum Wi-Fi for the next 60 days.
• Schools across the country are shutting down and moving online in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Charter is also giving families who do not yet have Spectrum free installation of the service, and those who qualify as low-income will still be eligible for high-speed broadband.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

School districts and colleges around the nation are shutting down and moving to online instruction during the coronavirus pandemic, including New York City's public schools, the largest public school system in the country.

That's why Charter Communications is now offering households with K-12 students or college students free Spectrum Wi-Fi for 60 days as education becomes increasingly dependent on digital alternatives, according to a press release Friday.

"Americans rely on high-speed broadband in nearly every aspect of their lives and Charter is committed to ensuring our customers maintain reliable access to the online resources and information they want and need," the company said in the announcement.

Families who do not yet have the service will also receive free installation of the service, and those who qualify as low-income will still be eligible for high-speed broadband.

In order to be sure households are aware of the service, Charter plans to team up with local school districts across the country. Charter will also expand Wi-Fi hotspots to the public in areas covered in Charter's available regions.

Charter's decision follows after other services like Comcast, which gave low-income families free service, and AT&T, which held off on charging overage fees and removed internet data caps for home broadband internet.

To enroll your household in this Spectrum offer call 1-844-488-8395.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's new coronavirus map lets you track the number of COVID-19 cases in countries around the world, and every state in the US The interactive map gives up-to-date info about the number of

READ MORE: The coronavirus is turning some couples' weddings into disasters, leaving them heartbroken and broke

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Silicon Valley-based entrepreneurs Armaan Ali and Baris Akis built Human Capital, a talent agency for engineers, after they realized that their peers weren't fully taking advantage of all the job opportunities available in Silicon Valley.
• Human Capital says it landed engineers early roles at 12 startups that have gone on to be worth over a billion dollars, thanks to the relationships that they've developed with prominent VCs. 
• The agency also has a $75 million fund dedicated to investing in any engineers looking to kickstart their own startup. 
• "We see ourselves as a partner for an engineer's entire career," Ali explained, saying that the pair had looked to Hollywood's talent agencies as inspiration. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

For many engineers looking to kickstart their careers, the dream is to work at a startup that is only just beginning to change the world — and then, ideally, cash out in an IPO or in a big sale to a tech giant.

But startup life is risky, and the founders and early employees are more likely to end up with nothing — particular amid the current state of market tumult — than with a big payday. That makes it very important for would-be startup workers, fresh out of school, to stake their bets on the right company. 

That's how Armaan Ali and Baris Akis first came up with the idea for their company, Human Capital. As their peers at Stanford prepared to graduate, the pair found themselves wondering why so many were taking up jobs at Facebook or Google when the opportunity to create a greater impact at a younger company existed.  

"They had this conception of startups being too risky," Akis explained. "But there was a full spectrum of options that they had not explored. So I asked them if they would be interested in exploring those options, and having a partner who can assist them." 

The founders see Human Capital as akin to a Hollywood talent agency: they want to match promising tech talent to the right company in the same manner as a Hollywood talent agent matches movie stars to the latest Marvel superhero movie.

So far, the 25-year olds boast of their success in placing engineers onto the early teams of high-growth startups like Anduril, Brex, and Robinhood — thanks to the relationships that they've developed with prominent tech investors and their portfolio companies.

Ali told Business Insider that 12 of the startups that they connected engineers with had gone on to be worth over a billion dollars. 

"We've placed engineers that had been within the first 50 employees, at 12 companies that have gone to be worth over a billion dollars. Imagine how life changing that is when like you didn't even know you should consider a startup." Ali said. 

Growing the network

About 5,000 engineers are part of the agency's network at the moment, according to the cofounders. Human Capital has a campus presence in around 20 universities and also has an open application on its website for interested engineers looking to join. 

Ali and Akis said they developed relationships with Silicon Valley venture capitalists like Hemant Taneja at General Catalyst and Brian Singerman at Founders Fund, to find out which startups that they were most excited about. They then pitched those portfolio companies the opportunity to connect with young, smart college graduates, ready to get to work. 

"The way that companies find people and people find companies is still pretty archaic," Ali said, adding that LinkedIn and resumes simply didn't say enough. "We actually have people go and speak to engineers and find out what they're passionate about, to make those matches. You can't discover those without actually probing and asking questions." 

Landing jobs at hot startups

Orion Despo, who went to college with Ali and Akis, said he worked with Human Capital to land a job at Brex, just one month before the buzzy fintech came out of stealth mode and revealed itself to the world. Despo was one of the first 20 employees at the startup, which is now valued at over $1 billion. 

"I didn't want a normal job," Despo said, explaining the criteria he'd given Human Capital when he was out job-hunting. "I was looking for the most unique opportunity that I could find." 

Doug Qian, who interned at Google the summer before graduating, said he attended Human Capital events and met with various startup founders during that time because he already had a sense that he wanted to shift gears and join a high-energy startup. Qian ended up with a job at the cloud services startup Clumio through the agency. 

"I knew deep down that the startup scene would be right for me," Qian explained. "Human Capital gave me advice on what I was looking for - the kind of size, leadership, and engineering culture." 

Going Hollywood

But Human Capital aims to go beyond job placement, and help support engineers through their entire career — wherever it takes them.

"The reason that the talent agency is actually an interesting analogy, is because we see ourselves as a partner for an engineer's entire career," Ali explained. The agency wants the engineers to reach out when they're ready to embark on their next career move — be it landing another startup gig or kickstarting their own startup. 

Human Capital has recruited advisors outside the realm of the tech to help guide that process. Michael Ovitz, the cofounder of the famed talent agency CAA, is both an advisor and investor in the agency. 

"We don't like to think super transactionally in this business," Ali explained, describing the agency's focus on relationship-building. "We like to think long return."  

And Human Capital has the means to to be able to do so. The agency, which was the first to invest in Brex alongside startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2017, raised $75 million at the end of last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. In total, Ali says the agency has raised $200 million to invest in the engineers in their network. 

Join the conversation about this story »

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The novel coronavirus pandemic has affected the way people operate. With almost all US states declaring states of emergency, a national emergency, and more than 4,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 92 deaths in the United States, social distancing and remote work has become a new norm. And there are more precautions to take to mitigate the virus' spread.

Leadership can implement certain strategies, like remote work and heightened office cleanliness, to ensure worker safety in the time of COVID-19. One such way is an emergency contingency plan: a comprehensive set of procedures businesses put in place in case they experience an event that could impact operations or employee well-being.

A contingency plan geared toward this pandemic could include revisiting sick leave policies and enforcing travel restrictions. Here's a guide to making a plan that will work for your team, according to people with experience devising them.

Subscribe here to read our feature: Here's the exact coronavirus contingency plan every leader should create to keep their teams from panicking and build trust in a time of crisis

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• If going to business school isn't an option right now, we know how you can get a prime education all on your own.
• Business Insider spoke with professors at Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and other top institutions to see what books are on their syllabi this year.
• Among the top choices are "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson, "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, "Naked Economics" by Charles Wheelan, and "Bad Blood" by John Carreyrou
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Want a sneak peak at the reading lists for MBA programs around the US? Business Insider tapped business schools nationwide — including elite programs such as Harvard Business School, Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and Indiana University's Kelley School of Business — to see what titles top professors are assigning to their fall 2019 students.     

Here are some of their favorite picks:

SEE ALSO: The ultimate guide to whether you should go to business school or not, according to successful CEOs, founders, and execs who've had to make the choice

READ MORE: Here's exactly what it takes to get accepted into Stanford Graduate School of Business, according to 6 grads and the assistant dean of admissions

Robert L. Joss, Dean Emeritus at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business

Books assigned:"Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer" by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell 

Joss assigns many articles but only one book to his class, which he has used for the past 18 years as a case study.

"It is a useful summary of a classic leadership story," Joss explains. "As a class we explore the what, how, and why of Shackleton's various moves to earn the trust and respect of his men and get them all back alive after being shipwrecked in the ice."

Joel Peterson, Robert L. Joss Adjunct Professor of Management at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business

Books assigned:"Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value" by Bill George, "True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership" by Bill George and Peter Sims, "Living Into Leadership: A Journey in Ethics" by Buzz McCoy, "Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best ... and Learn from the Worst" by Robert Sutton,"The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz 

In addition to the above reading list for his leadership class, Peterson, who is also a chairman of JetBlue and author of "The 10 Laws of Trust," also regularly recommends that his students read the following:      

• "Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life" by Spencer Johnson. In Peterson's words, this book is "a very simple yet powerful parable about responsibility and attitude in running a business."
• "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... And Others Don't" by Jim Collins. Peterson says this is "one of the best management books out there. Jim and his research team explain how and why certain companies grow and others stall out."
• "Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most" by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen. Says Peterson: "A very important read for aspiring leaders. Highly competent people fail to lead simply out of fear of having difficult conversations."

Joesph Fuller, Professor of Management at Harvard Business School

Books recommended:"George Marshall: Defender of the Republic" by David Roll, "Loonshoots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries" by Safi Bahcall, "Grace Will Bring Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness" by Jennifer Berry Hawes

In addition to being a HBS professor, Fuller co-leads the HBS initiative, Managing the Future of Work, and teaches Harvard Business School Online's Management Essentials. Fuller doesn't assign these books specifically, but highly recommends his students read them.

"The biography of Marshall is the best of those I've read (including Pogue's multi-volume official biography) in giving the reader a sense of the man," he says. "I believe he was a brilliant manager and judge of talent. I find our students often learn more from reading books about historical figures and reflecting on their attributes as managers and decision makers."

Fuller describes Bahcall's book as "a work of genius" and says it "brilliantly conveys multiple lessons about problem solving, group dynamics, and the value of thought and reflection in an immensely entertaining way." 

Hawes' book, he adds, is "a beautiful testimony to the human spirit and helps put some tragic current events in some context."

Rebecca Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard Business School

Books recommended:"Red Plenty" by Francis Spufford, "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty" by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, "The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism Before Its Triumph" by Albert Hirschman

Henderson, who has a joint appointment at HBS in the General Management and Strategy units and also teaches Sustainable Business Strategy for the HBS Online division, calls the books above "top hits from my list." She describes Spufford's book as "a beautifully written novel about why central planning cannot 'work,' told from the perspective of the young Russian idealists of the 1950s-60s who thought they could build a world without poverty using the new tools of optimization — and computers!"

She calls "Why Nations Fail""a gripping account of the difference between 'inclusive' and 'extractive' institutions, complete with hugely interesting historical accounts of how institutions change."

In summarizing Hirschman's work, Henderson says: "How did greed become socially acceptable as a motive for action? Why was the move an improvement over the feudal/honor based society it replaced? A very short and very interesting book."

Mihir Desai, Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

Books recommended upon graduation: "How Much Land Does a Man Need" by Leo Tolstoy, "O Pioneers!" by Willa Cather, "Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help" by Larissa MacFarquhar

Desai says that along with the words "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," he recommends Tolstoy's short parable to stay grounded, Cather's 1913 novel to stay humble, and MacFarquhar's book to stay generous.  

Philip Cochran, Professor of Management at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business

Books recommended:"Factfulness: 10 Reasons We're Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" by Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Hans Rosling, and Ola Rosling

Cochran, also a Thomas W. Binford Chair of Corporate Citizenship, is recommending "Factfulness" as a relatively new read this semester for his MBA students. "In this book, Rosling and his co-authors argue that most people have an overly pessimistic view of the world," he explains. "Markets in developing countries are actually becoming richer and more sophisticated at an astonishing pace. Students and business executives who recognize the world for what it is will in the long run be significantly more successful than those who don't."

Cochran also recommends to his students the 2011 blockbuster, "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. 

"The central focus of Kahneman's book is the proposition that humans have two modes of thinking," says Cochran. "'System 1' is fast, intuitive, and emotional. 'System 2' is our ability to reflect, reason, and reach considered judgments, which makes humans unique. The point of having MBA students read this book is to encourage them to learn when they have to engage System 2: When they have to pause, think, and calculate."

Julie Hennessy, Clinical Professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Books assigned:"Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World" by The Marketing Faculty of The Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Hennessy teaches this book in her Core Marketing Management class. "I selected this because both the concepts and the examples in this book are absolutely up-to-date, new, and relevant to students," she says. "Also, reading the articles in this book provides an introduction for my students to other faculty in the Marketing Department, with which they can take higher level elective courses."

Tim Calkins, Clinical Professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Books assigned:"How to Wash a Chicken — Mastering the Business Presentation" by Tim Calkins 

"Creating effective presentations is critical for business leaders," says Calkins, who uses his book "How to Wash a Chicken" in his introductory marketing class at Kellogg. "This book has a step-by-step process for laying out a story. Sometimes I think we do a better job teaching students how to develop a strategy than how to communicate one. This book has practical advice to help students create persuasive recommendations and sell their ideas."

Nicholas Pearce, Clinical Associate Professor of Management & Organizations at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Books assigned:"The Purpose Path: A Guide to Pursuing Your Authentic Life's Work" by Nicholas Pearce

"My students are one of the primary reasons why I wrote 'The Purpose Path,'" shares Pearce about the book he wrote and now teaches in his Leadership in Organizations course. "Many students are trying to figure out why they're on the planet, what they should do about it, and how to pursue their authentic life's work — 'The Purpose Path' is a guide to help them along that journey."

Harry Kraemer, Clinical Professor of Leadership at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Books assigned:"From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership" by Harry Kraemer, "Becoming the Best: Build a World-Class Organization Through Values-Based Leadership" by Harry Kraemer

Kraemer, like Pearce and Calkins, wrote his own literature to help his students, which he leans on in his Leading a Global Company course. "I select 'From Values to Action' because it focuses on what each student and executive needs to do to become a values-based leader," says Kraemer. "I also assign students 'Becoming the Best' since it focuses on what students and executives need to do to develop a values-based organization."

Vassilis Dalakas, Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Department of Marketing at California State University San Marcos and Visiting Professor of Sports Marketing at San Diego State University Sports MBA

Books assigned:"Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert Cialdini, "The Choice Factory: 25 Behavioural Biases That Influence What We Buy" by Richard Shotton, "Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business" by Jon Steel

Dalakas has been assigning "Yes!" and "The Choice Factory" to his marketing classes since last spring semester. "Both of these books do an excellent job of summarizing all the important research in consumer psychology and social psychology in a succinct and interesting manner," he says. "More importantly, they offer practical, actionable takeaways that enable the students to connect the knowledge to real-world issues."

Dalakas describes "Perfect Pitch" as "a fantastic book that reframes how presentations should be given and helps students get past the traditional (typically uninspiring) information-giving PowerPoint presentations and become engaging storytellers."

Subimal Chatterjee, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Teaching and Professor of Marketing at Binghamton University School of Management, State University of New York

Books recommended:"Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are" by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

According to Chatterjee, "The book illustrates how we can apply big data to uncover private and uncomfortable consumer sentiments that are typically not picked up by traditional market research, and use the trends as leading indicators of unanticipated disruptions that typically catch us unaware and unprepared."

Surinder Kahai, Associate Professor at Binghamton University School of Management

Books assigned:"The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains: An Introduction to Cryptocurrencies and the Technology that Powers Them" by Antony Lewis 

Lewis' book is one Kahai assigns in his course on e-business at Binghamton. "I normally don't use a textbook for this course and use press articles to cover my material," says Kahai. "But I decided to increase the level of coverage of blockchain technology to about 40% this semester and felt the need to go beyond popular press articles." Kahai says he increased blockchain coverage "to respond to greater demand for blockchain knowledge and skills in the business world."

Charlene Walters, Vice Provost for the Digital Entrepreneurship MBA program at Strayer University

Books assigned:"Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't" by Simon Sinek, "Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science" by Charles Wheelan, "Unscaled: How AI and a New Generation of Upstarts Are Creating the Economy of the Future" by Hemant Taneja with Kevin Maney, "Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals" by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, "Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds" by Carmine Gallo

Walters explains that she picked "Leaders Eat Last" as required reading because it's "an essential book on leadership for entrepreneurs and business professionals." In it, she notes that "Sinek discusses the value of servant leadership and creating an environment of trust and inspiration in order to propel your business and your team forward."

On "Naked Economics," she says: "This book was selected because it's a straightforward, entertaining, and easy-to-digest book regarding basic economic principles with real-world applications that students can grasp and enjoy."

Walters loves "Unscaled" because, as she puts it, "it gives a tremendous amount of insight regarding the future outlook of specific industries and the entrepreneurial opportunities that will present themselves as a result."

"Storytelling with Data," says Walters, "was selected because it is so critical for business pros to be able to present data in a way that is digestible and entertaining in order to persuade/inform customers and other stakeholders."

And she assigns "Talk Like TED" because "this book is one of our favorites simply for the importance of mastering communication and persuasion as an entrepreneur and the wonderful examples and tips it provides." 

David Townsend, Union Junior Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship at Virginia Tech

Books assigned:"The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business" by Clayton Christensen, "Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers" by Geoffrey Moore, "Smart Business: What Alibaba's Success Reveals about the Future of Strategy" by Ming Zeng

Townsend's goal behind assigning these three choices — two classics and one new book — for his course on Leadership in Technology-Based Organizations is to explore "the implications of automation and artificial intelligence for technology and innovation strategy." 

Christoph Winkler, Hynes Endowed Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Founding Program Director of the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Iona College

Books assigned:"Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers" by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, "Where to Play: 3 Steps for Discovering Your Most Valuable Market Opportunities" by Marc Gruber and Sharon Tal 

Winkler describes "Business Model Generation"— which is a requirement in all entrepreneurship classes at the school — as "the go-to book for any entrepreneur or business leader as they develop or re-envision their business models." 

He calls "Where to Play," which is a new addition to the curriculum, "a wonderful extension to the 'Business Model Generation' book. It allows entrepreneurs to examine market opportunities as they develop business models for their ideas and entrepreneurial ventures."

Rashmi Menon, lecturer and entrepreneur in residence at the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan

Books assigned:"Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" by John Carreyrou 

For her Introduction to Entrepreneurship course, Menon is assigning her students to read the eye-opening 2018 bestseller about the multibillion-dollar rise and collapse of the biotech startup, Theranos, which she assigned for the first time last fall and is repeating this semester.

"I have my students read this book before class and we cover it at several points throughout the semester because it covers so many major aspects of entrepreneurship, like how to construct teams, the culture you want to set as the CEO, how you market your product, competitive differentiation, and customer need," says Menon. "I thought this was an interesting story because up until very late in the Theranos story, it looks like a success. But because of the way things develop, my students can ask themselves what questions they would need to ask if they were a funder and what questions weren't asked in this case; it brings up really good discussion points on that front. It's also a book that leads to very good discussions about corporate responsibility and the things you should care about when you're running a company."

This article was originally published on Business Insider August 29, 2019.

• The nationwide spread of the novel coronavirus has caused some school districts to close and move to teaching classes remotely.
• New York City public schools have closed and will start online teaching on March 23.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides data on wages and employment in local-government-owned public elementary and high schools.
• Public schools employ a wide variety of workers, and salaries range from well below the median wage to very high-paying.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As the number of novel coronavirus cases continues to increase nationwide, several schools and school districts have shut down to help stem the spread of the illness.

According to US News, schools have closed for over half of US children, with closures in at least 33 states.

New York State has the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the US — more than 950 cases in the state and 463 in New York City. New York City public schools are closed and will hold online classes starting March 23 to help students and school employees stay safe during the outbreak. 

School closings and online learning are likely affect public school workers. Public schools employ a wide variety of workers, and salaries range from well below the median wage to very high-paying.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics program offers data on employment and wages across different occupations and industries.

According to that report, there were about 7.6 million Americans employed by public schools owned by local governments in May 2018, the most recent year for which data is available.

Public school jobs tend to be higher-paying than average. The median annual wage across all occupations in the sector was $47,120, well above the overall median wage of $38,640.

Here are all the occupations with at least 25,000 employees in the local-government-owned school sector ranked from lowest to highest wage, along with their median annual pay and the number of people in that job:

SEE ALSO: From baggage handlers to pilots, here's how much everyone who works in air travel makes

35. Combined food preparation and serving workers earn a median of $23,610 a year and 144,170 are employed by public schools.

34. Institutional and cafeteria cooks earn a median of $24,680 a year and 114,520 are employed by public schools.

33. Childcare workers earn a median of $25,780 a year and 101,110 are employed by public schools.

32. Protective service workers, all other, earn a median of $27,350 a year and 48,510 are employed by public schools.

This is a catch-all category used by the BLS to designate protective service occupations that are not included in other occupational groups. 

31. Coaches and scouts earn a median of $27,580 a year and 40,690 are employed by public schools.

30. Teacher assistants earn a median of $27,700 and 981,630 are employed by public schools.

29. Substitute teachers earn a median of $28,790 a year and 485,430 are employed by public schools.

28. Janitors and cleaners earn a median of $30,350 a year and 299,440 are employed by public schools.

27. Bus drivers earn a median of $31,360 and 205,870 are employed by public schools.

26. Office clerks earn a median of $31,650 a year and 104,140 are employed by public schools.

25. First-line supervisors of food prep and serving workers earn a median of $33,590 a ear and 33,690 are employed by public schools.

24. Security guards earn a median of $33,900 and 26,760 are employed by public schools.

23. Education, training, and library workers, all other, earn a median of $35,140 a year and 36,790 are employed by public schools.

This is a catch-all category used by the BLS to designate educational occupations that are not included in other occupational groups. 

22. Secretaries and administrative assistants earn a median of $36,950 a year and 214,400 are employed by public schools.

21. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks earn a median of $39,940 a year and 30,520 are employed by public schools.

20. Maintenance and repair workers earn a median of $41,720 a year and 51,990 are employed by public schools.

19. Teachers and instructors, all other, earn a median of $42,860 a year and 87,060 are employed by public schools.

This is a catch-all category used by the BLS to designate class-room occupations that are not included in other occupational groups. 

18. Computer user support specialists earn a median of $46,030 a year and 31,630 are employed by public schools.

17. Preschool teachers earn a median of $52,140 a year and 50,610 are employed by public schools.

16. Registered nurses earn a median of $56,750 a year and 48,250 are employed by public schools.

15. Kindergarten teachers earn a median of $57,270 a year and 111,000 are employed by public schools.

14. Elementary school teachers earn a median of $59,420 and 1,252,340 are employed by public schools.

13. Child, family, and school social workers earn a median of $59,430 a year and 37,710 are employed by public schools.

12. Middle school teachers earn a median of $59,570 a year and 538,420 are employed by public schools.

11. High school career and technical education teachers earn a median of $59,970 and 71,650 are employed by public schools.

10. Kindergarten and elementary school special education teachers earn a median of $59,990 and 167,150 are employed by public schools.

9. Middle school special education teachers earn a median of $60,610 and 82,130 are employed by public schools.

8. Librarians earn a median of $61,020 and 39,770 are employed by public schools.

7. High school teachers earn a median of $61,040 a year and 916,190 are employed by public schools.

6. High school special education teachers earn a median of $61,330 and 125,240 are employed by public schools.

5. Educational, guidance, school, and vocational counselors earn a median of $64,190 a year and 125,260 are employed by public schools.

4. Speech-language pathologists earn a median of $67,920 a year and 55,260 are employed by public schools.

3. Instructional coordinators earn a median of $70,400 a year and 68,390 are employed by public schools.

2. Clinical, counseling, and school psychologists earn a median of $75,620 and 40,400 are employed by public schools.

1. Education administrators, such as principals and superintendent, earn a median of $96,760 and 217,970 are employed by public schools.

• The Trump administration has pushed for payroll tax cuts as part of an economic relief package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. 
• Payroll tax cuts could put more money in the pockets of people with higher salaries who are still getting paid through the crisis. 
• But, tax cuts would do nothing for people who lost their jobs because of the pandemic and no longer have a paycheck with taxes to cut.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

What is a payroll tax?

Payroll taxes include: 

• Social Security, which takes out 6.2% of your income up to $132,900. 
• Medicare, which takes out 1.45% of your income. Married couples filing jointly who make $250,000 or more, and people who make over $200,000, pay an additional 0.9%. 

Employers also pay payroll taxes. They pay 6.2% of your income, so the government gets 12.4% of your total income, and they pay 1.45% of your income toward Medicare as well. 

How would the payroll tax work?

The Trump administration and Congress have yet to agree on a coronavirus relief package, so the details remain unclear. 

But, one of Trump's economic advisers, Stephen Moore, said that payroll taxes could be cut or suspended through the end of the year, according to a report by Politico. 

What's the purpose of the payroll tax?

A payroll tax cut could free up more cash for employees and employers. If Social Security and Medicare taxes aren't taken out of paychecks, workers and businesses would take home a little more money with each paycheck. 

The idea is that workers benefiting from the cut would spend more money, which could help curb a recession. It could give employers more money, which could reduce the need to lay off employees. 

Who will it help?

A payroll tax cut, if enacted for both employees and employers, could give workers more money to spend and businesses more cash as they face a decline in consumer spending through the crisis. 

The tax cut would disproportionately give more money to people with higher incomes, who typically have more savings to fall back on during a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. 

A payroll tax cut would also do nothing to help those who lost their jobs because of the crisis, especially lower-income people in industries like tourism, hospitality, and dining that have been especially hit hard by the pandemic and decline in demand from consumers. 

Jason Furman, a former economist in the Obama administration, told Business Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig that a tax cut would essentially be a "slow drip," rather than an immediate boost that could help curb a recession. 

What are the alternatives?

Republican Senator Mitt Romney has proposed that the federal government send each US adult a check for $1,000 to boost spending during the crisis. 

A plan from the US House of Representatives aimed to provide paid leave to workers, though it was criticized for leaving out employees from business with 500 or more workers. 

• Apple's retail stores are closed until further notice, according to the company's website.
• The move comes after Apple said it would close all stores outside of China until March 27.
• Apple is closing its stores as the coronavirus continues to spread in the United States and abroad, forcing companies to shift to remote work policies when possible.
• It's one of several steps Apple has taken to protect employees and customers from the outbreak, along with canceling the in-person version of its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple's retail stores are currently closed until further notice, according to the company's website.

The move comes after Apple previously said it would keep all retail stores outside of Greater China closed until March 27 as part of an effort to keep staff and customers safe during the coronavirus outbreak.

Apple is closing its stores as the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States and other areas of the world, with nearly 7,500 deaths and more than 189,000 infections globally.

It's one of several measure the Cupertino, California-based tech giant has made to combat the spreading coronavirus. It previously moved its global corporate workforce to remote work arrangements and implemented deep cleanings and other protocols in its retail stores before closing them. For example, Apple removed stools in stores to encourage customers and staff to remain at an arm's-length distance apart and told staff not to offer Apple Watch try-ons unless specifically requested by customers, as Business Insider previously reported.

The decision to close stores until further notice also comes after some areas in the United States have imposed restrictions on public gatherings. New York City and Los Angeles recently banned dining out in restaurants to help curb the virus' spread, and the San Francisco Bay Area has been directed to "shelter in place" until April 7. 

Apple has been particularly impacted by the coronavirus outbreak since the start because of its close ties to China, where the virus originated. Much of Apple's supply chain is in China, and the Greater China area is Apple's third-largest market. Other than closing its retail stores indefinitely and shifting to remote work, Apple has also canceled the in-person version of its Worldwide Developer's Conference, one of the company's biggest events of the year, and will instead hold it online. 

Join the conversation about this story »

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• It can feel like there are endless ways to make money from home, but being smart about the opportunities you take can make a big difference.
• Consider how much time you want to put into this job, where your skills would be most effective, and whether the jobs you're finding are legitimate. It's not uncommon for "make money from home" opportunities to be scams.
• Once you've chosen a job (or two), make sure to spread the word that you're looking for work, and have a plan for the money you make — and don't forget about taxes.
• Read more personal finance coverage »

Whether you already work a full-time job, stay home with the kids, or are in school, making some extra side money from the comfort of your own home is an easy way to pad your budget.

Before diving right into the plentiful "work from home" market, there are some important things to consider.

How to make money from home

1. Think about your time

It's nice to think you could sit down at your computer, work for an hour or two and make hundreds of dollars, but unless you're highly skilled in a very niche area, the odds of that happening are pretty slim. Most "make money from home" jobs are things that can be done quickly and easily, without much skill, so they don't tend to pay a lot.

If you're just hoping to cash in on whatever free time you have at home that you would otherwise spend trolling Instagram or binge-watching Netflix, then proceed ahead. If you'd really like to make some steady, predictable money, then an actual part-time or seasonal job might better suit your needs.

2. Narrow down your field of work

Google "work from home" and you'll get billions — seriously — of results.

Start your job search by looking through some of the options to narrow down the area in which you'd like to work. There's money to be made by answering online surveys and questions, selling your Instagram photos for marketing campaigns and even hosting dinner parties in your home.

The best way to make the most money from your home with one of these opportunities is to pick one you really think you'll enjoy (and therefore be good at) and really perfect your talent.

3. Weed out the scams

The last thing you want to do is set yourself up with a work from home job only to find out the whole thing is a hoax. Protect yourself by doing your due diligence before signing up with any company.

Signs that a job might not be legit include missing or confusing contact information, overall bad grammar or a sloppy website, high-pressure moves to get you to sign up for the job quickly or a request for personal information — like a Social Security number or bank details — up front.

A quick Google search and a check through the Better Business Bureau will also help give you a better sense of how a company is performing and whether or not it is legit.

4. Sign up for a helpful service

You don't need to navigate the waters of work-from-home jobs all by yourself. These days, there are plenty of services that can help. For example, sites like FlexJobs, ZipRecruiter and Glassdoor allow you to customize your search for work-from-home options.

5. Get the word out

Using online sites is the best way to see what's available to the general public, but getting the word out with your former coworkers, current colleagues, and friends that you're looking to make a little extra cash while working from home is a good way to hear about any other potential opportunities that might not even be listed online.

6. Set yourself up for success

Once you've narrowed down a job field and put some feelers out, make sure you have all the resources you'll need to make the most money while working from home. This could mean upgrading your computer, downloading apps on your phone, making sure you have good cell service or installing a home line. Just be sure to have a plan to at least make back whatever money you have to sink into preparing for your new side job.

7. Have a plan for that money

Once you've found a job that's making you money while you work from home, be sure to use that cash for what you originally planned to use it for. If you want to funnel any extra money directly into savings, set up a separate savings account and plan to make the move from checking to savings once or twice a month so that you aren't tempted to spend it.

If you want to use it help pay down debts, try putting the money directly towards those debts as soon as it comes in.

8. Don't forget about taxes

If the money that you are making through your work-from-home side job isn't taxed, you'll need to remember to handle that on your own. Consider setting up a separate savings account and putting a certain percentage into it from each paycheck to go towards quarterly tax payments.

An accountant can help you determine whether or not you'll actually need to make quarterly tax payments based on how much you expect to make, as well as how much you should save for taxes based on where you live and other factors.

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• I've been working from home for almost three years, ever since I moved from New York City to Toronto in July 2017.
• Working at home for extended periods of time is not easy, but it's the reality most of the world is looking at right now because of the spread of the novel coronavirus.
• Since I've done the work-from-home thing for so long, I recognize many of the pitfalls people are experiencing for the first time — and I want to offer up some advice so others don't make the same mistakes I did.
• Click here for more BI Prime content.

Given the quick spread of the coronavirus, most people around the world are being told to stay home — and work remotely, if possible.

While many of my colleagues at Business Insider are still getting accustomed to working from home, I've been doing it for about two and a half years now — it'll be three in July.

In other words, I know what a lot of people are experiencing for the first time right now.

Working from home can be a challenge both mentally and physically. It's mental because it's about keeping yourself happy and focused while trying to ignore the distractions that come with being at home, like ordinary chores: keeping the place clean, doing dishes, and making food (on top of actual work).

But it's a physical challenge too: Sitting for long periods of time can be stressful on your body, looking at screens for too long can give you headaches, and realizing that your home is now also your work office could make you feel claustrophobic sometimes.

I'm here to tell you that you can overcome these challenges — and you can be just as productive at home as you are at an office with all your coworkers around you. In some ways, the freedom of working from home can do wonders for your productivity.

But it's also important to avoid the pitfalls of working from home. This can include some incredibly basic things that a lot of people manage to simply neglect when they make the transition from a physical office to a life at home.

SEE ALSO: 8 tips for crushing your job while working from home, from 6 leaders who have worked remotely for years

Tip No. 1: Don't forget to eat.

You might laugh, but this is easily the most important item on the list.

When you have an office, you might have a carved-out lunchtime, which is when most people go and get food. Maybe you bring your lunch, or maybe you buy it.

You're on some form of routine there, whether you realize it or not.

When you're working from home, it's different. It's not like a day off, when you can eat any time you feel like it. You have responsibilities during the normal workweek, which means you may not be able to eat at any random time. Maybe you have virtual meetings to attend, phone calls to make, or something else that requires your attention at a moment's notice.

My best advice here: Set time aside to put work away so you can eat. It's totally fine to carve out five to 10 minutes to eat a meal or a snack — it really doesn't take long.

Don't do what I did: For my first several months of working from home, I didn't eat enough, and I ultimately suffered for it. I lost weight and began experiencing random body aches and pains. It took months for me to get my body back into equilibrium. Now I eat regular meals and force myself to eat if I haven't in a few hours.

Tip No. 2: Overcommunicate.

I moved from New York City to Toronto in July 2017. It was a huge change for me in more ways than one. I was suddenly living in a country away from the rest of my family. I also now had free healthcare (woo-hoo!). But the biggest change was easily adapting to my new life working from home.

When I was living in New York, I immersed myself in my career, and I was a pretty social person. Most of the people I hung out with after hours were work friends from past and present. I talked at the desk a lot — just ask my colleagues.

Moving to another country changed everything: I was suddenly cut off from my main source of physical interaction and forced to spend most of my days in an apartment by myself. I love being with people, so this was a big adjustment.

After years of doing this, my biggest recommendation is to overcommunicate. It has two benefits:

1. It lets your coworkers and your bosses know that you're not just goofing off at home. ("Working remote" had pretty negative connotations in the workplace before this whole coronavirus thing.)
2. Communicating helps you feel more connected with others, which can make you feel happier. For work reasons, or even not work reasons, just asking a coworker how they're doing.

It might feel like you're overcommunicating, but you have to remember that you're probably communicating way less at home than you would at a physical office. You don't get those random interactions when you bump into someone near your desk or in the kitchen. Leaning on those work-centric communication tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Hangouts can help you feel less isolated.

Tip No. 3: Find reasons to move your body.

You won't realize you're sitting too much until it's too late and you're physically uncomfortable.

To get ahead of that discomfort, and the body issues that come with sitting for too long, you need to remember to stand up and move.

If you own an Apple Watch, it'll automatically remind you to stand up every hour or so. If you don't have any similar type of fitness band or smartwatch, I highly recommend you use your phone to set reminders to get up at various periods throughout the day.

If you feel like working out, there are plenty of ways to do that in your home — even if it's a small space. But you don't need to get super sweaty to keep your body happy. Just get up every so often and stretch. Try to touch your toes without bending your knees. Stretch your arms out, up to the sky and across your body. Walk around the perimeter of your apartment a few times so your legs don't stiffen up. Jump up and down. Do some push-ups. Play some music and start dancing — who cares if your window's open? Just enjoy living.

Keeping your body moving works wonders for your long-term mental and physical health. The hardest part is remembering to do it at home and setting time aside for it.

Tip No. 4: Know how and when to use distractions.

Notice I didn't say "eliminate all distractions." That would be bad.

Distractions can be good. They can make time feel like it passes more quickly. More importantly, they can help your mind when you feel stressed out.

You may want to limit distractions when you're at the office and trying to work, but you're now working at home. You need to be able to balance your work needs with your home and life needs to be truly effective as an employee.

So here's how I approach the issue of distractions:

• When you need to hunker down and focus on the task at hand, try to eliminate all distractions. Turn off the TV, turn off music, and do what you need to do. Write that report, make that phone call, and do your thing.
• When you're working generally, not on a specific task or deadline, keep a passive distraction going in the background — think music instead of a TV show or movie.

I don't like movies or TV shows during the workday because they can trick your brain into following along, and suddenly you've forgotten to do work, and you miss an important email or message. Having music on in the background doesn't have the same effect.

I also like streaming Twitch channels on my Apple TV because they don't require my attention and usually feature human voices, so I feel less alone. It's also kind of a beautiful synchronicity because people on Twitch are technically working from home as well, so you're both doing that together.

When you're on break or setting work aside to eat, give yourself a distraction as a reward for working remotely. But when it comes time to do work, remember to shut it all out.

Tip No. 5: Pamper yourself, and don't forget to take breaks.

You have to remember that the point of working from home is "working." But as long as you're doing your work, and your managers and coworkers are happy with your production, you should remember to pamper yourself and let yourself be human.

Take breaks. Make yourself a coffee — no, do one better, a hot chocolate. Put on your favorite fuzzy slippers. Wear that perfume your coworkers can't stand. (Not too much though, you don't want to go to the hospital at this time.)

Working at home can be hard, take it from me. It is not a race; it's a marathon. At the end of every day, you should make sure your work is in order but also that you are personally OK.

Staying calm, balanced, focused, and happy will boost your immune system, while being stressed out and worried will weaken your immune system. So it is of the utmost importance that you put yourself first. That doesn't mean deprioritizing your work. That simply means put your needs first — and that might mean taking a five-minute break. Just know that it's OK to do those things; the world will keep spinning.

Working from home is a marathon, not a race.

Avoiding the pitfalls I listed above can be tougher than it sounds — but take it from me, not heeding this advice can do a serious number on you.

For the first several months after my move to Canada, I tried to be tough and make work my singular focus while at home; in the process, I forgot to take care of myself. I forgot to eat regular meals and snacks. I forgot to take breaks. I forgot to keep my body moving. And I paid the price: I experienced depression, anxiety, and loneliness. I experienced body pains that took months to go away, simply because I wasn't eating enough food. It wasn't good.

Thankfully, I have a wife, family, and friends who care about me, and I sought out therapy and mindfulness techniques, which were huge in helping me achieve personal balance again. But a lot of people won't have that luxury right now — not during this very uncertain time, when it's probably not wise to even step foot outside your home, depending on where you live.

You'll probably handle working from home better than I did initially. I cared far too much more about the perception of me working from home than I did about myself. As long as you realize that you're human, and you have very human needs — like food, movement, and human contact — you'll be able to plan around those needs. Just remember that you have a new routine at home, and you need to fit those all-important items into your schedule, like communication and break times for your body and mind. You won't just survive the work-from-home environment, you'll thrive in it.

• About 27% of millennials didn't understand the terms and policies when signing up for their student loans, according to a Business Insider Intelligence survey.
• The power of compound interest often comes as a surprise: Some borrowers don't realize they'll end up owing much more than the initial loan amount they borrowed.
• The average student-loan borrower owes $33,654 but will end up paying $41,913 between interest and principal payments over 10 years, based on federal loan interest rates.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Signing up for a student loan is easy — knowing what you're signing up for isn't.

Just ask the quarter of student-loan-indebted millennials who said in a recent Business Insider Intelligence survey that they didn't understand the terms and policies of their student loan when they first took it out. The online survey polled 2,007 American millennials born between 1982 and 2000, fielded to a third-party sample between November 22 and November 27, 2019.

Of this group, 11% said they didn't understand the terms and policies of their loans at all well, while about 18% said they didn't understand them so well. An additional 26% said they understood the terms somewhat well, and the remaining 46% said they understood them very or extremely well. (These percentages don't add up to 100% because of rounding.)

It can be difficult to envision what repayment will look like when it seems so far away, especially if you're self-taught when it comes to personal finance — the case for 37% of millennials in the survey.

That lack of clarity on terms and policies leaves some students feeling blindsided come graduation time. Daniela Capparelli, age 35, previously told Business Insider that as a first-generation student, she didn't have any guidance on her loans. She graduated from a private college with $150,000 in debt and will have paid $309,000, including interest, over the loans' life.

"If I knew I would pay back more than double, I may have chosen a different school," she said. "The compound-interest factor and the actual payback was a huge surprise."

How student-loan interest works

There's no denying the power interest rates have on overall repayment. Interest rates are the amount you pay to take out the loan, according to Student Loan Hero.

The way interest adds up depends on the type of loan you take out. Unsubsidized loans start accruing interest the day the loan is dispersed to your bank account. Meanwhile, you don't have to pay interest on subsidized direct loans until you graduate — the interest still accrues while you're in school, but the government pays for it.

Once you start making payments, your money will be put towards the interest first and towards the principal amount (the balance due without the interest) second. As the interest paid declines during the loan's life, you'll start to pay off the principal faster.

To see interest in action, consider the average student-loan borrower. They owe $33,654, according to loan-comparison site Credible, citing the US Department of Education data from December 2018.

Current federal interest rates for students taking out loans through June 2020 are 4.53%. That means the average student-loan borrower will end up paying $41,913 in principal loan payments and interest over a 120-month, or 10-year, repayment period. That breaks down to monthly payments of $349.

But you can save money on interest by increasing your monthly payment. Following the scenario above, if you pay an extra $100 every month, that will bring your total payment down by $2,282 to $39,631.

If you have multiple student loans, you can also consider refinancing them, which combines them into one. But tackling student loans ultimately boils down to your personal situation. Always take a careful assessment of your current student-loan plan and overall budget before creating a pay-off strategy.

SEE ALSO: Millennials know what they'd do if they didn't have to pay their student loans: Pay off everything else

DON'T MISS: 11 mind-blowing facts that show just how dire the student-loan crisis in America is

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Netflix has more than 400 current job openings on its careers site.
• Business Insider previously spoke with former Netflix employees, and the company's top recruiting executive, about what it takes to land a job there.
• Their top tips include researching the business, crafting your online persona, preparing for an extensive interview process, asking a lot of questions, and staying in touch even if you get rejected.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Netflix has more than 400 job listings up on its careers site. 

While some parts of the streaming company's business are grinding to a halt amid coronavirus concerns, others still appear to staffing up as usual. Netflix posted more than two dozen openings on LinkedIn in the past 24 hours. 

Business Insider previously spoke with former Netflix employees, and the company's top recruiting executive, about what it takes to land a job there. 

These were some of their best tips for getting noticed by Netflix recruiters, nailing the interview, and following up.

How to get an interview

One of the first big steps to getting hired at Netflix is getting on the radar of one of its in-house recruiters.

Netflix insiders recommend crafting your online persona to catch the eye of Netflix recruiters, asking Netflix employees for advice on what skillsets to build for the job you want and for referrals, and attending events hosted or attended by Netflix when possible.

Read our full story on how to catch a recruiter's attention:

How to get noticed by Netflix job recruiters who can help you get hired, according to company insiders

The single best thing candidates can do to prepare for a job interview at Netflix is read the company's culture memo, which made waves in tech and recruiting circles when it was first released publicly more than 10 years ago. 

Read our full break down of Netflix's groundbreaking culture deck:

The top 10 slides from Netflix's groundbreaking first culture deck that experts say had the most impact

Employee referrals can also help prospective candidates land a phone interview with the streaming-video company. Netflix doesn't offer employees bonuses or other perks for referrals, so prospective candidates will have to prove they're worth it by doing their homework before asking for a recommendation.

Read our full story on the dos and don'ts of getting a Netflix referral:

How to get a job interview at Netflix with the help of employee referrals — and what to avoid doing, according to company insiders

Netflix prides itself on hiring "stunning" employees who are at the top in their fields. So there are usually few opportunities for people fresh out of college or those who have little work experience. Entry-level candidates should focus on internships, assistant, and coordinator positions.

Read our full story on opportunities for job seekers early in their careers: 

The best Netflix teams and roles for entry-level job seekers, according to former employees and current listings

No matter the job you're applying for, do your homework. Research the company's latest focus, content slate, and the specific team you're applying for. 

"Get to know the business," Valarie Toda, Netflix's vice president of talent acquisition, said. "Have a good sense of what content we're working on. There's lots of articles out there about what we're trying to accomplish."

View our interactive chart of Netflix's top executives: 

We identified the 54 most powerful people at Netflix. Here's our exclusive chart of its top executives and their roles.

Nailing the job interview

Nailing a job interview at Netflix can come down to showing you're a fit for the streaming company's clearly defined culture. Some common interview questions, which span roles, test whether prospective candidates exemplify Netflix values like "curiosity,""courage," and "judgment."

Read our full story on the toughest, common questions from Netflix job interviews: 

Netflix's 5 toughest job-interview questions, according to company insiders

Recruiters at Netflix usually tell candidates to dress "business casual." Toda also recommended dressing in a way that makes applicants "feel confident."

Read our full story on how to dress for the interview: 

What to wear to a job interview at Netflix, according to the company's head recruiter

Netflix says it pays its employees at the top each worker's "personal market," estimated based on their role and qualifications. So, know your worth when you're negotiating your salary with Netflix.

Read our full story on what Netflix pays for certain roles, based on salary data: 

Netflix salary data reveals how much it paid for more than 30 roles across teams like marketing, product, and finance last year

What to do if you get rejected

Toda, the Netflix vice president, said job candidates shouldn't get discouraged if they don't get hired the first time around, or even the second.

Some candidates may not have the skills that hiring managers are looking for at the moment. In other cases, they may be applying for managerial roles and don't yet have enough experience. A year or two of additional experience can make a big difference. Let Netflix recruiters know how your career is developing. 

Read our full story on what to do if you don't get hired: 

What to do if Netflix rejects you for a job the first time around, according to its head of hiring

For more tips, read our ultimate guide to getting hired at Netflix at BI Prime: 

Join the conversation about this story »

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• "Ask A Manager" is a blog run by Alison Green, a workplace advice columnist and the author of Ask a Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work.
• She recently offered advice to employees whose companies aren't reacting appropriately — whether by offering inadequate solutions or none at all — to the global pandemic and surrounding panic.
• Green recommends that employees band together to make their concerns known to upper management, speak with their HR representative, and advocate for fellow colleagues. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

I am getting a lot of mail about the coronavirus, and one common theme is employers who aren't acting with any urgency at all — not having people work from home where they can, not canceling travel or events, etc. Here's some advice if you're in that situation.

SEE ALSO: Read the letter one of Belgium's top virologists sent his children with exact steps on how to keep their families safe during a pandemic

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1. One of the most effective things you can do is to band together with other coworkers and push back as a group

It is much harder to ignore a group of employees than one person.

2. Try peer pressure

Cite the many large companies — Facebook, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and more — that have instructed employees to work from home. Point out that it's not only socially responsible but also smart for business, and companies are making it work. Share the CDC guide for employers.

3. Talk about your company's obligations to its workers, many of whom will be in higher-risk groups or live with people who are, but also, appeal to their own self-interest

If they let the virus spread in their workforce, far more employees are going to be sick and unable to work than if they take precautions now. Point out that it's better to figure out arrangements now than to be in a mad scramble when things change in your area overnight.

4. If your company has said it encourages people to work from home but your own manager isn't backing that up, talk to HR

While approving remote work might normally be up to individual managers, there's a good chance that in this situation your company doesn't want individual managers undermining its virus prevention efforts.

5. If your company hasn't approved remote work for people whose jobs can be done from home and you are in a higher-risk group, say you need an exception

Talk to your manager or HR and say, "I am in a higher-risk group for coronavirus and will need to work from home until the government is no longer advising that higher-risk people distance themselves from groups." Note that language — "will need." You're telling them, not asking. (In reality, they can still say no — but framing it as of course they'll agree to let you follow public health recommendations will help.)

Use the same approach if you live with someone in a higher risk group.

6. If you can work from home and you're choosing not to, please reconsider

There are many people who can't work from home, and you're putting them at higher risk by adding to the number of people they're forced to come in contact with.

7. "Stay home if you feel sick" is not a good enough policy

The symptoms of coronavirus take four to five days to show up. Someone who comes to work looking and feeling well can transmit the virus. By the time someone feels sick, it's too late; they will have already been infecting people.

8. If you're job searching and are invited to interview in-person, it's completely reasonable right now to ask to do it by phone or video chat

If a company isn't open to that in these circumstances, that's a serious red flag about them in general.

9. Be an ally to others

Insist your company take action even if you personally don't feel at risk. If a coworker's not getting something they need, add your voice to theirs. Advocate for paid sick time for anyone in your company who doesn't get it. Push your employer to lift limits on sick leave, provide extra PTO, and generally make it as easy as possible for people to stay home. Ask about what your vendors are doing for their people. Tell your members of Congress you want more aid to affected workers, including people who can't work from home, and people who won't be able to pay their rent and mortgages because of income loss. And don't make people feel they're overreacting when they take precautions.

This column originally appeared on the Ask A Manager blog by Alison Green. It has been reprinted here with permission. 

Alison Green was once the chief of staff for a successful nonprofit, where she was responsible for the hiring, firing, promoting, and managing of employees. She is the author of Ask a Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work.