Axios PM

February 12, 2024
Good afternoon. Today's newsletter, edited by Sam Baker, is 388 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.
1 big thing: The new rules for sick days
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Employees, parents and students are trying to figure out the new norms for taking a sick day, Axios' April Rubin writes.
Why it matters: Fully remote work raised the bar for how sick you should be to take time off. Because employees were already at home, they often kept working through mild symptoms.
- But now some workers are still trying to push through, even though they're back in an office, The Wall Street Journal reported — creating tension between employees who are worried about taking sick days and co-workers who don't want to get sick.
📚 Students were told for a long time not to come to class if they thought they might be sick. But as schools struggle to overcome pandemic-era learning loss, those rules are changing, too.
🤒 The bottom line: "If we care about our employees and we care about our students and their health, then they shouldn't be showing up sick," Kathleen Quinn Votaw, a recruiting and retention expert, told Axios.
- "And we, as either business leaders or academic leaders, need to find a way to close that gap when someone has to decide for their health and others to stay home."
2. Netanyahu protests new U.S. sanctions power

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this weekend pushed back against President Biden's recent executive order regarding sanctions against settlers in the West Bank, Axios' Barak Ravid scoops.
- Netanyahu's initial response to the executive order was mild. But he took a harder line Sunday during a phone call with Biden.
Details: Biden's executive order allows the U.S. to impose new sanctions on Israeli settlers — and potentially Israeli politicians and government officials — involved in violent attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
- Netanyahu's intensifying criticism of the order suggests he believes it could have unprecedented implications for the entire settlements enterprise in the West Bank.
3. Catch me up

- The child who was critically injured in a shooting at a Texas megachurch yesterday is the son of the suspected shooter, authorities said. The latest ... More on Joel Osteen.
- Bob Edwards, the longtime host of NPR's "Morning Edition," died at 76. NPR's obituary.
- A judge ordered Elon Musk to testify in the SEC's investigation into his takeover of Twitter. Go deeper.
4. ⚜️Mardi Gras begins

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