Target slashed prices. It paid off

US consumers, strained by years of higher prices and elevated interest rates, are changing their shopping patterns. Americans are buying more at discount chains like Target and Walmart while dialing back spending at Macy’s and Lowe’s.

Target’s sales at stores open at least one year increased 2% last quarter, and its profit boomed 36%. The company’s stock (TGT) surged 13% in premarket trading. READ MORE

Why a majority of managers are ignoring return-to-office policies

According to ResumeBuilder, a quarter of U.S. companies plan to increase the number of days employees are required to be in the office next year, and managers will likely be key in ensuring that employees adhere to those boosted return-to-office policies. But will managers comply?

The answer is likely a resounding “no” if managers’ behavior is similar to what happened this year in the U.K. According to Owl Labs, which surveyed about 500 U.K. employees and managers this year, 70% of managers noted they allowed team members to work from home despite their organization’s formal return-to-office policy. READ MORE

Get ready for nasty layoffs and say goodbye to the 4-day workweek

It's a troubling thought, to be sure, but a longer workweek is already a reality for some workers. Greece has allowed some industries to move to a 48-hour workweek to bump productivity. And South Korean companies, such as Samsung, are telling some execs to also show up on Saturday or Sunday to help boost the company's business.

Now, with economic alarm bells going off in the US, some workers pining for less time on the job may have to keep dreaming. READ MORE

Corporate DEI isn’t dead. But what will it look like in 2025?

As the nation inches closer to this fall’s pivotal presidential election, the political climate appears to grow more divisive by the day. Central to the divides are topics connected to diversity, equity and inclusion—for instance, there was an “anti-woke” theme threaded throughout the recent Republican National Convention, while the Democratic Party is poised to nominate its first-ever woman of color for president, whom some Republicans have since called a “DEI hire.” READ MORE

How the world’s tech crashed all at once

When computers and tech systems around the world went down Friday, snarling airports, closing Social Security offices and limiting jail operations, many people had one question: How on earth could this happen in 2024?

A software update from a single cybersecurity company, US-based CrowdStrike, was the root cause of the chaos, underlining the fragility of the global economy and its dependence on computer systems to which relatively few people give a passing thought. READ MORE

BIGGEST IT OUTAGE IN HISTORY MICROSOFT CRASH WREAKS HAVOC WORLD PLUNGED INTO DARK AGES

A Microsoft global outage has wreaked havoc across America, locking countless individuals out of their bank accounts, causing hospital cancelations and even grounding flights.

The notorious Blue Screen of Death is popping up everywhere, from banks to supermarkets and media outlets, causing widespread panic and confusion. All United, Delta and American Airlines flights were grounded amid the chaos. READ MORE

China Is Remaking Itself Into a Tech Behemoth

Any discussion of the Chinese economy in the past few years is likely to have touched on its property sector implosion, the catastrophic loss of life following its “Covid zero” reopening, crackdowns on the tech sector and a general failure to launch. But amid all his struggles, President Xi Jinping has been pursuing a long-term plan to turbocharge China’s new engines of economic success—with an eye toward catching and surpassing the world’s tech behemoths. READ MORE

CrowdStrike outage sparks global chaos with airline, bank and other disruptions

A wave of IT outages swept across the globe Friday morning, sending airports, airlines, banks and other institutions into a screeching halt as some Microsoft-based computers ceased to work.

CrowdStrike -- an American cybersecurity technology firm that provides cloud workload protection, threat intelligence and cyberattack response services -- said the outage, which sparked chaos for many, was not a cyberattack. Instead, there was an issue with software and a fix had been deployed. READ MORE

John Deere backs away from diversity and inclusion efforts after a conservative backlash

John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, becoming the latest major US company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash.

In a statement posted Tuesday to social media platform X, the farm equipment maker also said it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws. It did not specify what those messages would include. READ MORE

Can we please stop talking about replacing employees with AI?

An online retailer recently underwent an AI transformation after it realized it no longer needed to employ an expensive local workforce to provide customer support. They split their customer support between AI bots serving as the first tier of support and an offshore team to which AI could escalate calls, functioning as a second tier of support. Its operational costs dropped precipitously, but so did the quality of service and sales.

This is just one example of the trendiest conversation in every boardroom, event and trade conference. More than anything, executives want to know when they can finally replace employees who require benefits, vacations, mental health programs, promotions and professional development and replace them with an army of AI bots. And we need to talk about this. READ MORE

Hot career trend ‘hushed hybrid' has managers choosing the employees who have flex work arrangements

With thousands of American businesses mandating back-to-office protocols, some rogue managers are apparently stretching their authority and going against company policy. 

These rebellious managers are allowing staff to split their time between working from home and reporting to their workplace — even though their companies are now requiring in-person work.  READ MORE

For better employee retention, why hybrid work may offer the most value

In the post-pandemic world of work, employee and employer expectations for where work gets done continue to evolve. In an effort to provide clarity around the business value of in-office versus hybrid work arrangements, Stanford University professor and work-from-home expert Nick Bloom led a research project at one company that yielded insightful results—particularly around the impact of hybrid work on employee retention. READ MORE