Remote work is killing big offices. Cities must change to survive

I was born in Manhattan and lived much of my life in the Big Apple. I went to school on the Bowery and worked in office complexes that sat adjacent to storied destinations like Wall Street, Times Square, and Madison Square Park. I met sources for lunch and attended concerts and conferences that moved my career forward. But like many knowledge workers, in the wake of the pandemic, I’ve moved away from the concrete jungle and relocated to a small, rural town a few hours north of NYC. READ MORE

The stock market could soon see a massive change to how it functions

The agency that oversees Wall Street is weighing major changes to the way millions of everyday investors buy and sell stocks. That could be bad news for so-called free-trading apps like Robinhood as well as the lesser known firms that underpin their business models.

Today, when you buy or sell a stock on an app, the trade appears to be instantaneous. But beneath that simple buy/sell action is a complex web of Wall Street players exploiting tiny differences in price to rake in huge amounts of cash. READ MORE

The CEO who fired 900 people over Zoom is accused of misleading investors

Vishal Garg, the Better.com CEO who fired 900 employees over Zoom just before Christmas, has been sued by a former executive for allegedly misleading investors.

The SoftBank-backed online mortgage company agreed to a $7.7 billion merger with a blank-check firm to take the company public just over a year ago, but the so-called SPAC deal has yet to close. Since then, Garg's public controversy — and surging mortgage rates — have hurt the company's image and business. READ MORE

CEO of ZipRecruiter, on the radical job market shift

During the COVID-19 pandemic, CEO Ian Siegel of ZipRecruiter witnessed incredible shifts in the American employment market, both for employers and for job seekers.

In a recent interview with FOX Business, Siegel, who founded the employment marketplace, opened up about remote work, his best advice for job hunters, the recruiting landscape and the overall labor market as the U.S. economy sees solid job growth in 2022. READ MORE

Gen Z should be feeling great about the job market right now

Young workers who entered the US job market in the throes of the pandemic in 2020 faced an uphill battle. Hiring on LinkedIn dropped off dramatically, and widespread layoffs hit Gen Z more severely than most other groups.

Fast forward two years, and the picture looks much brighter for Gen Z and younger millennials joining the workforce today. Despite recent headwinds like inflationary pressures and geopolitical tensions driving economic uncertainty, opportunities still abound for entry-level roles in the US. READ MORE

What Leaders Need to Know Before Trying a 4-Day Work Week

Despite the gains workers have made through the Covid pandemic in increasing flexibility in where they work, bigger workloads have meant that there is little slack in the system for people to take time out and recover. The effects are obvious. In 2020, 62% of people reported that they had experienced burnout “often” or “extremely often” in the previous three months, and in 2021, 67% of workers reported that stress and burnout had increased since the pandemic. Perhaps it is no surprise then that initiatives such as the four-day workweek, remote and hybrid working, unlimited paid time off, and right-to-disconnect have been gaining in popularity in an attempt to tackle these high-workload, always-on cultures. READ MORE

Elon Musk is ending remote work. Will other employers join him?

Elon Musk this week ordered his employees to return to the office full-time, asserting remote work is no longer acceptable—an ultimatum that industry insiders warn may have serious risks.

“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” Musk wrote. “Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.” READ MORE

Elon Musk is right to bring workers back to the office, wrong to suggest remote work is lazy

Elon Musk is like that favorite high school teacher: Half taskmaster, half curiously fun. You never know which version you’ll get on a given day.

The witty Tesla founder and potential Twitter owner just announced an ultimatum to his Tesla staff Tuesday: Return to the office to work or you’ve quit. According to emails, Musk requires car-company executives to work a minimum of 40 hours per week in office and exceptions would be made only for exceptional contributors on a case-by-case basis. READ MORE

When Is It Theft? Breaking Down the Eco Versus Pebble Startup Copycat Incident

If you didn't read Eco founder Andy Bromberg's Twitter thread last week accusing Pebble's cofounding team of the plagiarism of both Eco's marketing messaging and business model, along with a blow-by-blow accounting of what he called "lying and espionage" in attempts to surface Eco's intellectual property, you'd be forgiven - because it turned into a non-story.  

What Bromberg alleges is shocking in almost every aspect, but the thread ends with a whimper, an "agree-to-disagree," with no further action to follow.  READ MORE