The Quiet Phasing Out Of Fridays At Work

The traditional five-day workweek focusing on being "in the office" is undergoing a significant shift, and we’re yet to see what system of work for knowledge workers will prevail. But one work pattern that is emerging is the idea of a “gentle Friday.” This gentle Friday is an unspoken agreement among colleagues to just…not expect too much from a Friday.

Bruce Daisley, a Sunday Times bestselling author, host of the award-winning podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat, and expert on workplace trends, discusses Friday’s new identity and what combination of factors might have led us there. READ MORE

Identifying future leaders: How to unlock hidden and marginalized talent

HR leaders are having a hard time identifying future leaders who meet their company’s needs. From skill gaps making it difficult to replace retiring senior leaders to increasing global complexity making top positions that much more demanding, the task of identifying the “right” person for the job gets harder every year.

The pipeline of talent ready to step into key leadership positions is decreasing despite labor markets showing greater stability. Turnover rates are as high as ever, employees are feeling increasingly disengaged in their roles, jobs are taking longer to fill and productivity rates are sitting below years past. READ MORE

Why Dating Services Should Be An Employee Benefit

In the landscape of employee benefits, companies are continuously seeking innovative ways to enhance their workplace culture and support their employees’ well-being.

A study by Match published this year found that over 33% of U.S. adults surveyed are single, which translates to roughly 77 million people. Applying a similar proportion globally, this would suggest more than 2 billion single adults worldwide. READ MORE

Zombies: Ranks of world’s most debt-hobbled companies are soaring, and not all will survive

They are called zombies, companies so laden with debt that they are just stumbling by on the brink of survival, barely able to pay even the interest on their loans and often just a bad business hit away from dying off for good.

An Associated Press analysis found their numbers have soared to nearly 7,000 publicly traded companies around the world — 2,000 in the United States alone — whiplashed by years of piling up cheap debt followed by stubborn inflation that has pushed borrowing costs to decade highs. READ MORE

Why mandated RTO could lead to massive executive departures

A third of executives say they would leave their organization if it requires employees to return to the office, compounding HR’s challenge of retaining a strong leadership team, according to a recent Gartner report.

The flight risk is concerning because, according to a 2023 Gartner survey of 520 HR leaders across a number of industries and regions, 80% of CHROs do not think they have a deep list of possible replacements for senior roles. READ MORE

US states with the best economies in 2024 – and the worst

The United States has the largest economy in the world, and each of its states and territories play a part in keeping its massive engine running. The states with the largest populations also contribute the most to gross domestic product, but a new study from WalletHub looked under the hood to gauge additional indicators of performance and strength.

The analysis released Monday compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on their economic activity, economic health, and innovation potential using 28 metrics, including change in GDP, unemployment rate and fiscal health, to determine which ones are pulling the most weight when it comes to moving the U.S. economy forward.

Here are the states with the best economies in the nation right now, according to WalletHub: READ MORE

3 red flags that you’re doing performance management wrong

Most senior leaders are where they are because they understand that enabling their staff to perform at their best matters much more than anything they can accomplish alone.

While all managers engage in performance management, McKinsey’s recent report on CEO excellence found that tenured CEOs are particularly likely to find creating effective ecosystems a key personal strength. However, even the most experienced leaders find it incredibly difficult to manage performance effectively.  READ MORE

Musk Accused of $7.5 Billion of Insider Trades in Investor Suit

Elon Musk had inside knowledge of a miss on production and delivery numbers that Tesla Inc. was facing when he sold more than $7.5 billion in stock in 2022, a shareholder in the electric vehicle maker claimed in a lawsuit.

Tesla’s chief executive officer had nonpublic information that Tesla would miss the fourth-quarter targets that year when he sold the shares, Tesla investor Michael Perry alleged in the suit, filed Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court. READ MORE

The college job market offers a warning sign to the US labor market

It’s almost laughable at this point when Bryn Savidge gets a job rejection email.

“It’s like they’re all using the same AI algorithm to say, ‘Write this person a rejection letter.’” said Savidge, who graduated from Kenyon College, a small liberal arts college 50 miles from Columbus, Ohio, with a major in environmental science. A classic refrain is “We can tell you really want to change the world, but we’ve gone for more qualified candidates,” she said. “They always add an environmental quip.” READ MORE

Most job seekers lie or cheat during the hiring process

From little white lies to outright whoppers or sneaking answers for assessments, most recent job seekers admit they have used dishonest tactics before in order to land a gig. And some say they use such methods every time.

That's according to a new study from ResumeTemplates.com, which found seven out of ten people who applied for jobs within the past two years acknowledged either lying or cheating in some way during a hiring process. READ MORE

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says attitude 'makes a big difference' at work

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said a good attitude and willingness to learn are important attributes for professionals looking to succeed in their careers.

"I think an embarrassing amount of how well you do, particularly in your 20s, has to do with attitude," Jassy told LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky in a video interview published last week. "Do you work hard? Are you more can do than naysaying? Do you do what you said you were gonna do? Can you work on a team?" READ MORE

This is how we finally end the 40-hour, 5-day workweek

For many people, the biggest problem with work isn’t anything about the job itself; it’s how the timing constantly conflicts with everything else in life. We take for granted the “standard” five-day, 40-hour workweek, but the truth is, this structure was created less than 100 years ago to suit a much different reality.

In recent years, there has been a louder drum beat of support around reimagining the workweek to be four days instead of five. And as the four-day workweek has gained attention, some companies have found it to be a powerful recruitment and retention tool. READ MORE

Worried about losing your job to AI? Expert points to the actual threat

The widespread use of artificial intelligence tools has many workers concerned that the rapidly-evolving technology will eventually result in them losing their job, and one expert says that is a real concern — but not in the way some might expect.

The 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report recently released by Microsoft and LinkedIn found that 45% of knowledge workers worldwide say they are worried that AI will replace them, but Laurence Liew, director for AI Innovation at AI Singapore, says there is a more immediate threat. READ MORE

What we lose when we cut D and E from DEI

I am not a woke capitalist. I don’t believe that being good for good’s sake has an awful lot of value when speaking with investors, and that’s also true when talking about the lack of diversity in venture capital. 

However, I coauthored a book on diversity, equity, and inclusion in tech and VC. I care deeply about it and believe that despite all the pledges after #metoo and Black Lives Matter, the ecosystem has not done nearly enough. The numbers are flat or even down. That’s shameful and, bluntly, stupid.  READ MORE

Why we need fewer performance reviews—and more check-ins

Performance management, if you’re not familiar with the term, is the slightly Orwellian name given to the process involving goal-setting, annual or semiannual reviews and feedback, and performance ratings, and in its traditional form, it represents a kind of all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of our worst and most erroneous ideas about human performance. Goals must be set for people, because they are extrinsically motivated and otherwise probably won’t do much work. Performance reviews and ratings are needed because if people aren’t told where they stand and how to improve, they’ll never get any better—certainly not of their own volition. READ MORE

The four-day work week is here to stay at UK companies that tried it

One year after the conclusion of the world’s biggest trial of a four-day work week, a large majority of companies that took part were still allowing their employees to work a shorter week and more than half had made the change permanent.

For six months between June and December 2022, workers at 61 organizations in the United Kingdom worked 80% of their usual hours — for the same pay — in exchange for promising to deliver 100% of their usual work. READ MORE