The Electric Car Transition Unravels Slowly, Then All at Once

The global transition to electric vehicles is beginning to unravel the way major changeovers often do: slowly at first, then all at once.

This week brought a cascade of signals that the EV era is entering a more uncertain, more contested phase. The European Commission backed away from what had been the world’s most aggressive timeline for phasing out internal-combustion engines, granting manufacturers and consumers more time to move off gasoline. A day earlier, Ford (F) Motor Co. announced $19.5 billion in charges tied to the retreat from an electric strategy it vowed to go all in on eight years ago. READ MORE

Your employees are ‘polyworking.’ Why that’s bad for your business

A new survey has found that 47% of U.S. workers now hold more than one job, suggesting the “polyworking” trend is growing as workers continue to face mounting financial pressures and broader economic uncertainty.

According to Monster’s 2025 Polyworking Survey, which tapped into the views of about 800 U.S. workers, polyworking is far from a “side hustle” for many. Just under half hold a full-time job alongside part-time roles; 12% even have more than one full-time job. READ MORE

Lack of Coaching Is Killing the Performance of Performance Management

Effective performance management — true to its name — requires intentional, well-executed management. The driving force? Impactful guidance and development — fueled by managers.

But here’s the problem: Most managers aren’t delivering. Only 1 in 5Open in a new tab provide effective coaching and feedback to the employees working under them, according to recent research from consulting firm WTW — with significant challenges in individual goal-setting and helping keep goals on track and relevant year-round. READ MORE

Pebble’s founder introduces a $75 AI smart ring for recording brief notes with a press of a button

After rebooting the Pebble smartwatch brand, founder Eric Migicovsky is expanding his company’s device lineup with a new smart wearable: an AI-powered smart ring known as Index 01. Named for the finger where the ring is meant to be worn, the new $75 ring is not meant to be a competitor to always-on, always-listening AI devices, like the AI pendant Friend, but instead offers a way to record quick notes and reminders with a press of a button on the ring’s side.

AI only comes into play via the open source, speech-to-text, and AI models that run locally on your smartphone through the Pebble mobile app. That is, if the ring’s button is not being pressed, it’s not recording. (And this is a press-and-hold gesture, too, which means you can’t start the ring’s recording and then let go to surreptitiously record a conversation.) READ MORE

AI Saves Workers Less Than an Hour Each Day

OpenAI's 2025 'The State of Enterprise AI' report provides an in-depth look at how businesses are using AI tools within real companies. Drawing on anonymized usage data from more than 1 million business customers, along with a survey of 9,000 workers at nearly 100 organizations, the report presents a picture of increased AI adoption and integration in the workplace. 

"Across surveyed enterprises, 75% of workers report that using AI at work has improved either the speed or quality of their output," the report states. Also, the report says that "75% of users report being able to complete new tasks they previously could not perform."  READ MORE

Job openings rebound — but hiring doesn’t — in low-hire, low-fire U.S. economy

Job openings in the U.S. rose sharply in the fall and layoffs remained low as businesses geared up for the holiday season, but the number of people actually being hired was still down in the dumps.

Those were the findings from the latest government survey of job openings, in a report delayed by the federal shutdown.

In short, the U.S. still has what economists call a low-hire, low-fire job market. Not good by any stretch, but not awful, either. READ MORE

AI inequity: Roles such as clerks, bookkeepers most likely to be automated, study finds

Job roles dominated by women are at the highest risk of being automated, according to a study by Credera.

The same jobs are also 20% less likely to use GenAI, the data showed, with jobs for administrative assistants, office clerks, bookkeepers and cashiers in the most jeopardy of being replaced.

“We stand at the precipice of the greatest economic revolution in generations,” said Brian Peret, director of the software engineering service company, CodeBoxx Academy. READ MORE

Will 2026 be the year of work from ‘an office,’ not ‘the office’?

While a number of high-profile organizations have called workers back to the office full-time in recent months, leaders largely recognize that employees are craving flexibility, according to new research.

The survey from International Workplace Group reinforces “what we are seeing play out on a global scale: Long, costly, daily treks to faraway offices no longer make sense in today’s tech-enabled world,” says Mark Dixon, IWG’s founder and CEO. As a result, he adds, many organizations are empowering employees to work closer to where they live and want to be. READ MORE

Scientists discover 'magical' material that's stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum — and its potential is dizzying

Galvorn is stronger than steel, lighter than aluminum, and has the conductivity of copper, according to an article on LinkedIn. While the jury is still out on whether it's faster than a speeding bullet, experts at Houston-based DexMat suggest their product can revolutionize the green tech landscape.

Galvorn can be an alternative to rare and expensive copper — a crucial metal in electronics, according to a report from GreenBiz. What's more, the inventors plan to displace dirty materials, contribute to cleaner air, and advance green tech as their "magical" material is rolled out. READ MORE

Startup makes major breakthrough in pursuit of limitless energy source: 'Has been demonstrated'

A Japanese company finished testing a superconducting magnet that could help make fusion energy work on a commercial scale, reported Interesting Engineering.

Helical Fusion tested a coil that kept electricity flowing steadily while exposed to the intense magnetic forces present in a working fusion reactor. This marks the first time a commercial-scale coil has operated successfully under such conditions. READ MORE

‘Quiet firing’ and layoffs have workers ’emotionally drained and stressed’ heading into 2026

From Verizon to Amazon and beyond, large-scale layoffs are redefining the current job market—but another tactic may be just as destabilizing to the American workforce: quiet firing.

Zety’s Layoff Lifeline Report finds that a majority of workers surveyed report having experienced “quiet firing” tactics: when employers try to push employees out without actually formally showing them the door. The report was compiled from three Zety surveys conducted throughout 2025, including one of 1,000 U.S. employees and two surveys of nearly 1,000 employees who had been laid off within the past two years. READ MORE

Private payroll losses accelerated in the past four weeks

The U.S. labor market is showing further signs of weakening as the pace of layoffs has picked up over the past four weeks, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Tuesday.

Private companies lost an average of 13,500 jobs a week over the past four weeks, ADP said as part of a running update it has been providing. That’s an acceleration from the 2,500 jobs a week lost in the last update a week ago. READ MORE

Unused PTO: a red flag that employees are about to bolt?

As workforces wind down the year in the coming weeks, many HR and benefits professionals will face a key question: Why are so many employees leaving unused PTO on the table?

Research from FlexJobs highlights the scope of the issue: Almost a quarter of employees the organization surveyed didn’t take a day off in 2024, while more than 20% took fewer than five days. This is despite the vast majority—more than 80%—having access to paid time off. READ MORE

The Most Joyless Tech Revolution Ever: AI Is Making Us Rich and Unhappy

Artificial intelligence might be the most transformative technology in generations. It is also the most joyless.

While Wall Street greets AI with open arms, ordinary Americans respond with ambivalence, anxiety, even dread.

This isn’t like the dot-com era. A survey in 1995 found 72% of respondents comfortable with new technology such as computers and the internet. Just 24% were not. READ MORE

ChatGPT’s Hallucination Problem: Study Finds More Than Half Of AI’s References Are Fabricated Or Contain Errors

Mental health researchers relying on ChatGPT to speed up their work should take note of an unsettling finding from Australian researchers. The AI chatbot gets citations wrong or invents them outright more than half the time.

When scientists at Deakin University tasked GPT-4o with writing six literature reviews on mental health topics, they discovered that nearly 20% (19.9%) of the 176 citations the AI generated were completely fabricated. Among the 141 real citations, 45.4% contained errors such as wrong publication dates, incorrect page numbers, or invalid digital object identifiers. READ MORE

Is Alex Karp of Palantir the world’s scariest CEO?

In a recent interview, Alex Karp said that his company Palantir was “the most important software company in America and therefore in the world”. He may well be right. To some, Palantir is also the scariest company in the world, what with its involvement in the Trump administration’s authoritarian agenda. The potential end point of Palantir’s tech is an all-powerful government system amalgamating citizens’ tax records, biometric data and other personal information – the ultimate state surveillance tool. No wonder Palantir has been likened to George Orwell’s Big Brother, or Skynet from the Terminator movies. READ MORE

Are executive benefits back?

After a long decline in the number of organizations investing in executive benefits, new research suggests a turnaround.

A recent report from Goldman Sachs Ayco found that nearly a quarter of the almost 300 compensation and benefits professionals surveyed have enhanced their executive benefits offerings in the last two years. This is significantly more than the 20-year average of 8%. READ MORE

RTO or resignation? Why Paramount, JPMorgan Chase and others are taking a hard line on in-office work

Despite being nearly six years past the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the debate over return-to-office wages on, colliding with ongoing efforts to cut costs, drive efficiencies with AI and navigate an uncertain economy.

The RTO push took on new momentum at the start of 2025, as the Trump administration gave thousands of federal employees an ultimatum: Return to the office or resign, with some experts predicting private employers would follow suit. As predicted, the year is now closing out with a wave of similar headlines. READ MORE