Flexibility gives way to workday "dead zone"
CBSN
It's common for employees' productivity to ebb and flow over the course of a workday. These days, when their energy wanes, workers are shifting gears to take care of personal chores during standard business hours.
"It's kind of a holdover from the height of the pandemic era. You think about the flexibility many of us enjoyed when we were working in fully remote environments — you'd step away maybe to get started on dinner, or you'd get in your workout, maybe pick up your kids," Wall Street Journal reporter Callum Borchers told CBS News.
Remote and hybrid work models give workers flexibility that full-time, in-office work doesn't allow. Workers are clinging to the freedom and added control they gained over their schedules at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In some cases, though, their workdays now extend past dinnertime.

As the Trump administration continues to prepare military options for strikes in Iran, U.S. allies in the Mideast, including Turkey, Oman and Qatar, are attempting to head off that possibility by brokering diplomatic talks, multiple regional officials told CBS News. Camilla Schick and Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.

Another winter storm may be headed toward the East Coast of the United States this weekend, on the heels of a powerful and deadly system that blanketed huge swaths of the country in snow and ice. The effects of that original storm have lingered for many areas in its path, and will likely remain as repeated bouts of Arctic air plunge downward from Canada and drive temperatures below freezing. Nikki Nolan contributed to this report. In:











