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☆ The C.E.O.s Who Just Won’t Quit
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even so, there are few scenarios in which a middle-aged corporate executive can be treated like an aging rock star by thousands of fawning employees. Around the time Ballmer announced his plans to go, the company’s stock price was lower than when he started the job. The media was bemoaning Microsoft’s “lost decade.” While its tech rivals had seized on new markets, Microsoft had changed fairly little. Apple dominated smartphones, Google prevailed in search and giants like Facebook — which didn’t even exist when Ballmer took the reins — stood atop a whole new sector of the economy. With the arrival of Ballmer’s successor, Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s stock price soared.

Persons: Ballmer, ”, I’ve, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s “, —, Satya Nadella Organizations: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook

☆ Hospitals Must Get Written Patient Consent for Pelvic Exams, H.H.S. Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Emma Goldberg | More About Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday that hospitals must obtain written informed consent from patients before they undergo sensitive examinations — like pelvis and prostate exams — especially if the patients will be under anesthesia. A New York Times investigation in 2020 found that hospitals, doctors and doctors in training sometimes conducted pelvic exams on women who were under anesthesia, even when those exams were not medically necessary and when the patient had not authorized them. Sometimes these exams were done only for the educational benefit of medical trainees. “The Department is aware of media reports as well as medical and scientific literature highlighting instances where, as part of medical students’ courses of study and training, patients have been subjected to sensitive and intimate examinations,” the letter said. “It is critically important that hospitals set clear guidelines to ensure providers and trainees performing these examinations first obtain and document informed consent.”

Persons: ” Organizations: of Health, Human Services, New York Times, Health, department’s Centers, Medicare, Services, Civil Rights

☆ First He Came For Cancel Culture. Now He Wants to Cancel Smartphones
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

in 2013, he sent reading recommendations to his staff, including “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Lean In” by Sheryl Sandberg and “The Righteous Mind” by a professor at New York University’s business school, Jonathan Haidt. Stumbling on that last book, a 2012 best seller, felt, Mr. Comey recalled, as if he were consulting a how-to guide on leading a stuck-in-its-ways Washington bureau. The book’s core lesson is simple: Humans make moral decisions based on emotional intuition, not just reason. And his work has drawn acolytes who would like to think so, too — including some of the very people in big tech whose work Mr. Haidt seems to hold responsible for the rising generation’s social ills.

Persons: James Comey, Martin Luther King Jr, “, Sheryl Sandberg, Jonathan Haidt, Comey, you’re, Haidt Locations: Birmingham, New York, Washington

44% Share of fully remote and hybrid workers 29% 17% 9% High school or less Some college Bachelor’s degree Graduate degree 44% Share of fully remote and hybrid workers 29% 17% 9% High school or less Some college Bachelor’s degree Graduate degreeWho Still Works From Home? A graphic shows a grid of squares representing 143 million workers between 18 and 64. Roughly 80 percent of those work fully in person. Remote work also breaks down along gender lines — though it does not lend itself to a simple narrative. But those gains come primarily from fully remote work, not the hybrid model that has come to dominate some industries.

Persons: ’, it’s, “, ” Organizations: Gallup, College, Workers, Economic, Group, Employers Locations: United States, American

☆ The ZIP Code Shift: Why Many Americans No Longer Live Where They Work
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In 2020, Virginia Martin lived two and a half miles from her office. Ms. Martin, 37, used to live in Durham, N.C., and drove about 10 minutes to her job as a librarian at Duke. After the onset of remote work, Ms. Martin got her boss’s blessing to return to her hometown, Richmond, Va., in March 2022, so she could raise her two young children with help from family. As an ’80s-born “child of AIM,” Ms. Martin said of AOL instant messaging, it hadn’t been hard for her to maintain co-worker friendships online. Ms. Martin is part of today’s growing ZIP code shift: She is one of the millions of Americans who, thanks to remote and hybrid work, no longer lives close to where she works.

Persons: Virginia Martin, Martin, Ms, hadn’t Organizations: Duke, AIM, AOL Locations: Durham, N.C, Richmond, Va

☆ Capital One to Acquire Discover, Creating a Consumer Lending Colossus
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Capital One announced on Monday that it would acquire Discover Financial Services in an all-stock transaction valued at $35.3 billion, a deal that would merge two of the largest credit card companies in the United States. “A space that is already dominated by a relatively small number of megaplayers is about to get a little smaller,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree. Capital One, with $479 billion in assets, is one of the nation’s largest banks, and it issues credit cards on networks run by Visa and Mastercard. Acquiring Discover will give it access to a credit card network of 305 million cardholders, adding to its base of more than 100 million customers. The country’s four major networks are American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Discover, which has far fewer cardholders than its competitors.

Persons: ”, Matt Schulz, Jesse Van Tol Organizations: Discover Financial Services, LendingTree, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, National Community Reinvestment Coalition Locations: United States

☆ He Grew Up in the Shadow of the ‘Wolf of Wall Street.’ Then He Got Into Debt Settlement.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( Stacy Cowley | Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the early 1980s, 19-year-old Jordan Belfort — who would go on to become known as the Wolf of Wall Street, a title he bestowed on himself in a tell-all memoir — had a fortuitous encounter on Jones Beach, on Long Island, with another teenager selling ice cream named Stephen Drescher. The two became friends. Prosecutors would later note their shared hustling spirit, a drive for entrepreneurialism that curdled into a drive for grift. Within a few years, Mr. Belfort started building a pump-and-dump stock-scam empire. Mr. Drescher went down not long after, convicted of securities fraud and sent to federal prison for nearly four years.

Persons: Jordan Belfort —, —, Stephen Drescher, Belfort, Drescher, Martin, Mr Organizations: Prosecutors Locations: Jones, Long, Martin Scorsese’s

☆ Navigating Israel’s War When One Spouse Is Jewish, and One Is Not.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Marc Tracy | Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Ava Friedmann and Michael Henein were married, they used a tablecloth from Ms. Friedmann’s grandmother as a huppah, or ritual canopy held above the couple in a Jewish wedding. That same braiding of their cultural traditions has steered them over the last three months, as they have talked about the Israel-Hamas war. They decided to read identical news sources about the war to help make sure they stayed on the same page. Many American Jews have reconsidered how they feel about Israel and even their own Jewish identity since the Oct. 7 attack, in which Israeli officials say Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people. Israel’s reprisal, a bombing campaign and invasion, has killed more than 26,000 people, Palestinian officials say.

Persons: Ava Friedmann, Michael Henein, Friedmann’s, Henein’s, Henein, ” Ms, Friedmann Locations: Egypt, Israel, Gaza

Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicThe era of hybrid work has spawned a new kind of office culture — one that has left many workers less connected and less happy than they have ever been. Emma Goldberg, a business reporter covering workplace culture for The Times, explains how mixing remote and office work has created a malaise, as workers confront new challenges and navigate uncertainty, and employers engage in a wave of experiments.

Persons: Emma Goldberg Organizations: Spotify, The Times

☆ Facing Backlash, Some Corporate Leaders Go ‘Under the Radar’ With D.E.I.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Emma Goldberg | More About Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Bhabha began working with dozens of Fortune 500 companies to evaluate their diversity programs and ensure that they were on solid legal ground if they were sued. Proponents of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, commonly called D.E.I., argue that they are important to hiring and retaining people of color. Critics now argue that some such programs can exclude white and Asian people unfairly from hiring processes. In recent months, hundreds of companies have been re-examining those initiatives after a series of challenges to diversity programs: the threat of litigation in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision striking down race-conscious college admissions, criticism of D.E.I. initiatives from some high-profile business leaders, and a wave of layoffs in the tech industry that heavily affected D.E.I.

Persons: Ishan Bhabha, Jenner, Block, Bhabha, Critics Organizations: Harvard, Fortune

Inside the “blueberry muffin” conference room, the walls are, naturally, painted blue. Nearby is the “fruity” conference room, with “razzle dazzle” red walls and vintage chairs upholstered in yellow pineapple printed cloth. Down the hallway is “maple waffle,” the room where the company holds its more serious meetings with investors. This is the office of the cereal brand Magic Spoon, which was introduced in 2019 and, starting last year, called its roughly 50 employees back to in-person work, at least two days a week. “One of our core company values is, ‘Be a Froot Loop in a world of Cheerios,’” said Greg Sewitz, a Magic Spoon co-founder.

Persons: ’ ”, Greg Sewitz, “, ”

☆ What’s Your Dream Office Setup?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-26 | by ( Emma Goldberg | Anna Kodé | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Take our quiz to find out what your ideal office looks like. Now, amid return-to-office efforts, office design is once again undergoing a shift. (Read More: The Envy Office: Can Instagrammable Design Lure Young Workers Back?) We identified three prominent office archetypes from recent decades, including the cubicle farm, the tech utopia and today’s Envy Office. But what if you could pick features from any era of office design to create the perfect one for you?

Locations: New York

☆ Goodbye, Feminist Blogs. Hello, Gen Z Content Creators?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Emma Goldberg | More About Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Most of us are fighting for the same things, fighting against the same things.”When Ms. Henry reads about grim news events, she finds herself turning to social media to process her thoughts — an impulse that has also built her following. Right after reading about the fall of Roe v. Wade, she made a TikTok, liked by more than 300,000 people, in which she cried while reading abortion stories aloud. “It’s sometimes easier to, well — not put pen to paper, but type out your feelings and articulate them that way,” Ms. Henry said. Even though they’ve never met you, you know they care about you.”That’s a familiar sentiment to an older generation of feminist writers, who also channeled their grief into blog posts that were funny, fervent and raw. Members of that generation also know that low points in feminist media can lead to unexpected new beginnings.

Persons: ”, Annie Wu Henry, John Fetterman’s, “, Henry, Roe, Wade, ” Ms, they’ve, Rebecca Traister Organizations: John Fetterman’s U.S, Senate, New York Magazine

☆ Does the Boss Need to Weigh In on the War in the Middle East?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Emma Goldberg | More About Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

But as an American business leader condemning Hamas’s attacks, he said, he felt surprisingly lonely. “I was disappointed that fewer leaders than I anticipated spoke out emphatically, clearly and with moral clarity on this issue,” Mr. Karp said. Some business leaders made donations to humanitarian organizations and pointed their employees to company-sponsored mental health resources. “No company does business in Gaza — as opposed to, say, in Russia, where there are 1,500 major companies doing business,” he said, comparing this war with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The dynamics in the Middle East have always been difficult and complex,” he wrote.

Persons: Brad Karp, Paul, Weiss, Roe, Wade, George Floyd, ” Mr, Karp, ’ ”, Iliya Rybchin, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Sonnenfeld, “, ”, Joelle Emerson, Andrew Ward, Gabe Zichermann, Bud Light, David Solomon, Goldman Sachs, David Zaslav, ” David Barrett, We’re, Barrett Organizations: ” Company, Hamas, Fortune, Yale School of Management, Lehigh University’s College of Business, Warner Bros, ” JPMorgan Locations: Israel, American, Gaza, Russia, Ukraine, Tel Aviv

Most Americans still have to commute every day. Jenn Ackerman for The New York TimesLike a majority of Americans, Ms. Hargreaves was unable to do her work at home. Source: American Community Survey Note: Average commute length for 2020 is not included. The average commute distance changed much less, an indication that commuters are driving faster — but also, more people are driving. “A lot of our choice riders, we're still working to influence them to re-choose transit,” Ms. Tucker said.

Persons: Torie Hargreaves, Jenn Ackerman, Hargreaves, Ms, That’s, Andrea Villanueva, Villanueva, The New York Times “, ” Christopher Wiese, Dr, Wiese, “ There’s, ”, Patricia Mokhtarian, John Goodwin, Rosalind Tucker, we're, Tucker, Aimee Lee, Lee Organizations: Atlanta Washington San, Mo . Chicago Minneapolis New, Mo . Chicago Minneapolis New York City Los Angeles Philadelphia Columbus Denver, The New York Times, Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Columbus Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Kansas City Los Angeles Miami, Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Columbus Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Kansas City Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis Nashville New York, Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Columbus Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Kansas City Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis Nashville New York City Philadelphia San, Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Columbus Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Kansas City Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis Nashville New York City Philadelphia San Francisco Seattle Washington Midnight, Georgia Institute of Technology, Census, New York City –, Philadelphia –, Angeles –, Francisco –, Boston –, Seattle –, Chicago –, Denver –, Kansas City –, Miami –, Houston –, Minneapolis –, Washington –, Austin –, Dallas –, Atlanta –, Charlotte –, Columbus –, Nashville –, Detroit –, BART, area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Labor Department, Atlanta Regional Commission, Lifeline, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Regional Transit Authority, % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % Locations: Atlanta Washington San Francisco Boston Kansas City, Mo . Chicago Minneapolis, Mo . Chicago Minneapolis New York, Minneapolis, postpandemic, Atlanta, Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Columbus Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Kansas City Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis, Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Columbus Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Kansas City Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis Nashville New York City, Atlanta Austin Boston Charlotte Chicago Columbus Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Kansas City Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis Nashville New York City Philadelphia San Francisco Seattle, South Minneapolis, North Minneapolis, Boston, Chicago , Kansas City, San Francisco, Washington, New York, Francisco, area’s

Deb Perelman, the best-selling cookbook author and creator of Smitten Kitchen, tends to focus her social media posts on her work, like pasta or chocolate chip cookie recipes. Of course, many people see immense importance in posting on social media about the war. Social media feeds have focused on major news events many times before. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a uniquely thorny and divisive issue to navigate on social media, though, particularly for those not educated about the region or its history, or who are still forming their opinions. People of both faiths have asked her to post about the war on social media, she said, and sending her graphic images.

Persons: Deb Perelman, “, ”, Perelman, ” Ms, —, outpourings, Israel, Phoebe Lind, Maddie Coppola, Israel ”, Coppola, Ms, Andrey Romanov, Nazhath Faheema, Faheema, — they’re, Minaa, ’ ”, Agneez Kang, Kang, ” Yiwen Lu Organizations: Harvard, Artforum, Harper’s, Facebook, LinkedIn Locations: Israel, Gaza, Washington, New York, Singapore, ”

☆ How Automation Has Changed Work for Casino Employees in Detroit
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a chilly Wednesday evening in October, the sounds filling Ambre Romero’s home were familiar: her grandchildren unloading the dishwasher, her husband, just off work, watching television. Ms. Romero was getting ready for her shift serving cocktails at the MGM Grand Detroit, the casino where she has worked since 1999. Ms. Romero, who has long reddish-brown hair and a wry smile, enjoys the predictability of her nights. The work is unceasingly social, which is just how Ms. Romero likes it; she’s a former dancer who turned to cocktail serving because it felt like performing. But Ms. Romero, like so many millions of Americans, has seen her job remade in recent years by the arrival of new technologies automating parts of her work.

Persons: Romero, Red Bull, she’s, ChatGPT, Goldman Sachs Organizations: MGM, Detroit, Red

☆ Some Israeli Journalists Express Fear About Conveying Dissenting Views
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-21 | by ( Emma Goldberg | More About Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Other journalists say they are getting threats and being harassed on social media. In Israel, many journalists are covering the war while processing their own grief and shock over the surprise attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7. Expressing dissenting opinions has become even more fraught than in previous conflicts, said Anat Saragusti, a senior staff member for the 1,500-member Union of Journalists, an Israeli organization with 1,500 members. Journalists and media experts attributed the change to several factors: The attacks by Hamas have been especially traumatizing for Israelis. And the spread of misinformation, particularly on WhatsApp and social media platforms like Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, has intensified existing viewpoints.

Persons: ”, Anat Saragusti, ” Ms, Saragusti, Natan Sachs, Mr, Sachs, Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu, “, Tehilla Shwartz, “ It’s, Dr, Shwartz, Tal Shalev, it’s, Shalev, “ I’m Organizations: Union of Journalists, Journalists, Center for Middle East, Brookings Institution, Israel Democracy Institute Locations: Gaza, Israel, Washington

TikTok employees in the United States expressed frustration and dismay this week after the company introduced a tool for tracking office attendance and threatened disciplinary action for failing to comply with new in-person mandates, in an unusual effort to get workers back into the office with custom data-collection technology. Employees at TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, received notices this week about the new tool, an app called MyRTO. A dashboard with the data is visible to employees, their supervisors and human resource staff members. TikTok requires many of its roughly 7,000 U.S. employees to work in offices three times a week beginning in October. Employees were told that “any deliberate and consistent disregard may result in disciplinary action” and could “impact on performance reviews.”

Persons: ” Organizations: Employees, The New York Times Locations: United States, TikTok

☆ A Workers’ Refrain: #ActYourWage
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Workers began using the slogan — a corrective, of sorts, to #QuietQuitting — to argue that they weren’t underperforming; they were doing exactly what they were paid to do. The hashtag picked up in 2022, and posts using it have since racked up millions of views. The unusually hot job market of the past few years emboldened more than 40 million people to quit their jobs in 2021 and some 50 million in 2022.

Persons: —

At an office in SoHo, rows of desks sit empty, while a shaggy dog — shadowing an owner nostalgic for work-from-home comforts — wanders the conference rooms. On the subway, commuters delight in a once-unimaginable indulgence: bag-spreading across two seats. About a year and a half after Mayor Eric Adams chided workers — “You can’t stay home in your pajamas all day!” — New York’s offices in late August were under 41 percent of their prepandemic occupancy. Just 9 percent of the city’s office workers were going in five days a week at the start of the year, according to the Partnership for New York City, a business group. Remote-work levels crisscrossing the country are more mixed, with just under one-third of America’s workdays now done from home.

Persons: —, “, Eric Adams, America’s workdays Organizations: Orange, Partnership, New Locations: SoHo, New York City, New York

☆ We’re Having a Cowboy Moment
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Emma Goldberg | More About Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Navied Mahdavian, a cartoonist, and his wife, Emelie, a filmmaker, moved from San Francisco to Mackay, Idaho (population 473), they fixated on their new hometown’s theater. Or, rather, the ghost of a theater. Before the big reopening, one longtime town resident seemed less than enthusiastic about the plan, Mr. Mahdavian recalled, accusing the theater boosters of trying to import an “artsy-fartsy, social-justice-warrior” sensibility to the Idaho mountains. “We’re actually showing a western,” Mr. Mahdavian said. To which the resident replied: “John Wayne?”Instead, the Mahdavians chose “Damsel,” a new-age western from 2018 featuring a heroine played by Mia Wasikowska, a wimpy male character and a masturbation scene.

Persons: Navied, Mahdavian, We’re, Mr, “ John Wayne, Mia Wasikowska Organizations: Mackay Main Theater Locations: San Francisco, Mackay , Idaho, Idaho

☆ Move or Quit: Grindr Dictates New Office Rules Amid Union Drive
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Emma Goldberg | More About Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Grindr said that the plan had been in the works for months, and that the employees had been warned earlier in the summer that their remote work arrangements would end. election petition,” a company spokesperson said. Many companies have started to issue office attendance rules, with some indicating that they will monitor badge swipes or incorporate compliance into performance reviews. For employees at Grindr, the difficulty of the N.L.R.B. “What Grindr will say is that it reached this completely independent of any actions by the employees to organize,” Mr. Bodie said.

Persons: Grindr, ”, Matt Bodie, Mr, Bodie, “ Organizations: University of Minnesota Law School Locations: Grindr

☆ Even Zoom Is Making People Return to the Office
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Emma Goldberg | More About Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“We believe that a structured hybrid approach — meaning employees that live near an office need to be on site two days a week to interact with their teams — is most effective for Zoom,” a company spokesperson said. In 2020, participants in daily Zoom meetings leaped to over 300 million, from 10 million the year before, as it became the most downloaded free iPhone app of the year. In February, amid a wave of layoffs across the tech industry, Zoom cut 15 percent of its staff, or about 1,300 people. The company’s work force had grown more than 275 percent between July 2019 and October 2022. Zoom, like many other tech companies, is still holding on to some flexibility, requiring its employees to come in only on a part-time basis.

Persons: “ We’ll, Eric Yuan, Yuan, ”

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