Questions, so many questions. Like, is pandemic hiring in “equity-focused” organizations even less honest an honest proposition when they demand potentials have access to a private room with a door that closes and ergonomically-designed chairs? Does no one respect the amazing concentration of the single parent who can write columns from the comfort of her living room with multiple toddlers running around? Or the new immigrant working so precisely in a shared space so tiny that a separate room with a door that closes seems an unobtainable dream? Or the new graduate coding away with room-mates who never, ever leave the house either?

Researchers have slightly different questions. Questions like: “how can remote workers best manage work-home conflict?”

Timothy D. Golden, a professor in the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute looked at 20 years of research to identity best practices to answer the question. His results were published in Organizational Dynamics.

According to Golden there are two types of remote workers known as segmentors and integrators. The first work best maintaining absolute distinction between their personal and professional lives. Integrators easily mix together the two. To work from home, both types must set boundaries by considering physical, behavioral, temporal, and communication factors to find their comfort levels.

Press release: https://www.newswise.com/articles/how-can-remote-workers-best-manage-work-home-conflict

One of my personal failings is that I have never asked or sought answers to questions about tax planning. Luckily, accountants exist to fill the void left by my incurious approach to the topic and they deserve recognition for that contribution to B2B culture. Especially during tax season. All I have to honour them with is this news.

One team of researchers in the accounting field recently found that “tax authorities should look closely at the activities of companies facing financial constraints to make sure their tax activities don’t become too aggressive.”

The study was co-authored by Nathan Goldman, assistant professor of accounting in the Poole College of Management at North Carolina State University.

“Business researchers are interested in how companies respond to sudden changes in their financial constraints,” says Goldman. “But it’s difficult to separate various confounding variables from the financial constraints that companies are facing. However, my co-authors and I realized that the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) gave us a great opportunity to examine financial constraints.”

The PPA increased pension funding requirements by almost 500% for companies with defined-benefit pension plans.

“The PPA imposed new demands on the financial resources of these ‘pension firms’ – and that means many were suddenly facing financial constraints,” Goldman says. “We found that pension firms were able to recoup 19% of their investment shortfall by modifying their tax strategies. That is a significant amount of money.”

Press release: https://www.newswise.com/articles/study-highlights-benefits-of-tax-planning-for-companies-facing-financial-constraints

While I’ve been asking questions, B2B mergers and acquisitions have been continuing. In case you were wondering Sensor Technologies Corp. has updated the terms on its proposed acquisition of EmersonGrow Technology Inc. Sensor is known for its development of non-intrusive asset health monitoring sensor systems for the oil and gas market to track the thinning of pipelines and refinery vessels. EmersonGrow specializes in Digital LED Grow Lights with Integrated IOT capabilities for the Global Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry.

The companies have agreed to amend certain terms with respect to the proposed acquisition of all of EmersonGrow’s issued and outstanding securities in its capital.

The purchase price will be reduced from $20 million to $15 million. The new purchase price will be satisfied an offering of 100,000,000 common shares $0.15 per share. The closing of the Proposed Acquisition will be conditional on the closing of a private placement for minimum aggregate proceeds of $1 million. Sensor and EmersonGrow are expected to execute a definitive agreement with respect to the Proposed Acquisition.

Press release: https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/79552/Sensor-Provides-Update

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Kate Baggott is a former Managing Editor of B2BNN. Her technology and business journalism has appeared in the Technology Review, the Globe and Mail, Canada Computes, the Vancouver Sun and the Bay Street Bull. She is the author of the short story collections Love from Planet Wine Cooler and Dry Stories. Find links to recent articles by following her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-baggott-9a0306/

• B2B News for Wednesday, April 7, 2021: Questions about Home Office Productivity, Tax Planning & Oil and Gas meet Vertical Grow Ops in Proposed Acquisition – April 6, 2021
• B2B News for Friday, April 2, 2021: a B2B Testing Solution Acquisition, a COVID Relief Partnership for SMEs and Low Bandwidth Meetings – April 1, 2021
• B2B News for Wednesday, March 31, 2021: Colocation Sell-Offs, Procurement Platform Partnerships and a New Rosie the Riveter for the She-cession – March 30, 2021