“A few years ago, my wife, Angie, and I made a pact,” Jason Heller writes in The Atlantic. “Every Sunday, we swore to each other, we will abstain from work. And we kept our promise: On the second day of each weekend, we start our morning and end our night by bingeing TV in bed. In the middle of the day, we binge TV on the couch, taking breaks exclusively to nap or read.” The anxiety of looming to-do lists sometimes creeps in, but “we fight to stay still,” he writes. READ MORE
‘Bare minimum Mondays’ are more than they appear to be
My relationship with TikTok is analogous to my relationship with church. I tend only to visit when invited by a third party, and while I’m not convinced its effects are ubiquitously positive, I’m glad it offers at least some participants comfort during their darker moments. READ MORE
People are over the 40-hour workweek: ‘We don’t want to waste our time’
Between 2019 and 2022, the number of hours people spent working in the U.S. fell by the equivalent of 33 fewer hours a year per person, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t just disrupt where and how we show up to our jobs: It has led people to question when and why they should be working in the first place. READ MORE
US labor market stays resilient; Q4 labor costs revised higher
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell again last week, pointing to sustained labor market strength and adding to financial market fears that the Federal Reserve could keep hiking interest rates for longer.
Those worries were further heightened by another report from the Labor Department on Thursday showing labor costs grew much faster than previously estimated in the fourth quarter. The labor market remains tight despite rising risks of a recession, contributing to keeping inflation elevated via solid wage gains. READ MORE
Work-From-Home Regulations Are Coming. Companies Aren’t Ready.
Debates over the trade-offs of remote work arrangements have tended to focus on challenges related to maintaining worker productivity, building company culture, and upholding boundaries between work and home. Now, employers are faced with an additional challenge: complying with a growing set of regulatory frameworks governing remote work. READ MORE
America's low labor participation rate 'a social and economic disaster,' experts warn
By now it's common knowledge that the U.S. saw an unprecedented drop in labor participation at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as health concerns, lockdowns and stimulus payments caused tens of millions to abandon or forfeit their jobs.
But three years later, millions still haven't returned – including many who quit in the middle of their prime working years – and some economists are sounding the alarm that so many capable, would-be earners remain out of the workforce. READ MORE
Car salespeople are replaced with AI as digital showrooms hit the metaverse
KIA and Fiat have introduced digital metaverse dealer showrooms so customers can more easily shop for cars from the comfort of their homes.
The two auto manufacturers are among the first organizations to justify the sales platform's use within their businesses. READ MORE
Big Tech's latest shady bid aims to squash its smaller rivals
Big Tech lawyers are riding high. A Delaware judge recently delivered a lengthy memo trampling the American justice system and supporting Big Tech’s longstanding efforts to crush smaller entrepreneurs.
Chief Judge Colm Connolly of the U.S. District Court of Delaware bit hook, line, and sinker on an absurd argument that the biggest and richest technology companies have been peddling for decades. READ MORE
Increasingly the Driving Force Behind Corporate Performance
In the past 45 years, intangible assets have steadily and quickly replaced physical capital as the most valuable asset class (see graphic 1). Employees are the stewards of these intangible assets as they bring the unique experience, knowledge, networks, and know-how that are voluntarily shared or withheld and codified in company culture. Indeed, the various drivers of culture, including leadership, policies, decision rights, organizational design, people development, and relevancy, determine the extent to which employees share or horde these intangible assets. And, since the decision to do so unfolds, employee-by-employee, on a continuous basis, culture’s contribution to company performance in the intangible economy has markedly grown. READ MORE
Top 10 Crooked CEOs
Bernie Madoff, who is scheduled to be sentenced June 29 for perpetrating history's biggest Ponzi scheme, is just be the latest in a long line of industry titans turned crooks READ MORE
Companies can no longer silence laid-off employees in exchange for severance
If your company lays you off, your employer might offer you severance pay — but only if you agree to adhere to a number of restrictions.
Staying quiet is often one of them. READ MORE
6 Strategies To Determine The Right Business Model For Your Startup
It's essential for the success and expansion of a company to choose the most appropriate business model. This model will effectively lay the groundwork for a company's overall strategy as well as its day-to-day operations. It will prove crucial to determining the course for how a firm generates, delivers and retains value for its customers.
Yet with so many options to pick from, it may can be difficult to identify which business model works best for your startup. Here are six strategies I recommend to help leaders choose the appropriate business model for their own company. READ MORE
Tech Layoffs Are Feeding a New Startup Surge
Henry Kirk always thought he would eventually leave his job as an engineering manager at Google and start his own company. But when he became one of the 12,000 employees let go by the tech giant in January, he decided his time had come—albeit in an earlier and unexpected fashion.
Kirk and five others laid off from Google are now working on launching their own software design and development studio. He announced his ejection from Google and the new venture in a LinkedIn post that garnered more than 15,000 reactions. Kirk says he’s received a staggering 1,000 messages since making the post from people looking to work with the new agency or simply wishing him well on his attempt to conjure opportunity from a setback. READ MORE
Diversity, equity and inclusion jobs slashed at higher rate than others in recent layoffs
Corporate roles focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) may not hold the job security they used to.
A recent study conducted by Revelio Labs shows the companies that laid off workers in 2022 slashed DEI positions at a higher rate than others, indicating those dedicated roles become lower-priority when times get tough. READ MORE
More than 60 companies tried a four-day work week and results show why 92% are keeping it
Employees at companies that adopted a four-day work week without pay cuts said they were happier and healthier, while revenues did not fall READ MORE
Bill Gates says AI poses threat to a popular search engine
Billionaire Bill Gates said on Sunday that the artificial intelligence industry will likely come to threaten Google.
The Microsoft co-founder said in an interview on the "In Good Company" podcast that the search engine's profits "will be down." READ MORE
Justices 'completely confused' during arguments in Section 230 case against Google that could reshape internet
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the first of two cases this week that explore the extent of the legal protections given to tech companies that provide a platform for third-party users to publish content.
The case in question, Gonzalez v. Google, deals with recommendations and algorithms used by sites like YouTube that go further than simply allowing users to post content, but arrange and promote the content to users in a certain way. YouTube and Google are facing litigation over allegedly recommending videos created by ISIS and used to recruit new members. READ MORE
Walmart sees weaker 2023 results, cautious on economic outlook
Walmart Inc struck a cautious note in its economic outlook for 2023 on Tuesday, as the retail bellwether forecast full-year earnings below estimates and warned that cautious spending by consumers could pressure profit margins.
Shares of the world's largest retailer fell 4.6% to $139.75 in premarket trading, as the company continued to battle price hikes from many of its product suppliers in a high-inflation environment. READ MORE
AI is starting to pick who gets laid off
Days after mass layoffs trimmed 12,000 jobs at Google, hundreds of former employees flocked to an online chatroom to commiserate about the seemingly erratic way they had suddenly been made redundant.
They swapped theories on how management had decided who got cut. Could a “mindless algorithm carefully designed not to violate any laws” have chosen who got the ax, one person wondered in a Discord post The Washington Post could not independently verify. READ MORE
ChatGPT creator Sam Altman says the world may not be 'that far away from potentially scary' AI and feels 'regulation will be critical'
Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, warned the world may not that "that far from potentially scary" artificial intelligence, and said regulating it will be "critical."
In a series of tweets on Sunday, Altman said a transition to an AI-enabled future is "mostly good" and can happen fast — like the transition from "pre-smartphone world to post-smartphone world." READ MORE