To work from home (WFH) or not to work from home? Lessons learned by software engineers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This research investigates software engineering during the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the lessons learned and predictions for future software engineering work. Four themes are explored: Remote work, Team management, Work/Life balance, and Technology/Software Engineering Methods. Our research has demonstrated that software companies will derive tangible benefits from supporting their employees during this uncertain time through ergonomic home offices, listening to their concerns, as well as encouraging breaks and hard stops to boost long term well-being and productivity. It shows that communication and collaboration tools, critical to project success, have been utilised. The hiring of new talent has been reimagined, with managers playing a vital role in the process. The insights gained are significant as they will assuage some pre-existing concerns regarding remote work, creating a new understanding of its role in the future. Looking to a post-COVID-19 future, we envision the rise of hybrid software development working arrangements, with a focus on the Working-From-Home to Not-Working-From-Home ratio - WFH: NWFH - perhaps colloquialised as Home: Not Home (HNH). For many this ratio will be neither 100:0 or 0:100, the former would lead to team breakdowns, developer isolation, difficulties onboarding and too many communication gaps, the latter would lead to disaffected employees. We identify plausible future software engineering working arrangements, noting that there are challenging times ahead for employers and employees as they navigate this HNH future, but there are benefits for both parties in getting the balance right

Anatomical characteristics of fossil wood collected from the Manchar Formation (Miocene), Thano Bula Khan, Sindh, Pakistan

The characterization of petrified wood provides valuable information about paleoclimatology and geological history and helps to reconstruct the past forest flora of different parts of the earth. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the anatomical characteristics of fossil wood of the Miocene age collected from the Manchar Formation exposed at Thano Bula Khan, Sindh, Pakistan. In order to carry out a detailed anatomical investigation, three-dimensional sections were prepared using a petrotome. The microscopic analysis allowed us to study vessel size and arrangement, wood parenchyma, fibers, and xylem rays. Based on the comparison between recent and fossil wood, we concluded that the investigated characters are comparable with those of the genus Atalantia Corrêa of the Rutaceae family. Therefore, it was named as Atalantioxylon thanobolensis sp. nov. with reference to the location of Thano Bula Khan from which the fossil wood was collected