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☆ Mental-health apps have a dark secret — and it raises important questions about the future of online therapy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Hallam Bullock | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In a video posted by Vice, Clarke addressed Clearlink's return-to-office mandate and said that many of his remote workers didn't open their laptops for a month. Online therapy fills a critical need — but it has a dark side. The data Loris used to create its "empathetic" software was generated from text conversations with people in distress, sourced from Loris' parent company, Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit suicide-prevention hotline. That is, however, according to Musk, who told Tucker Carlson that the two tech billionaires disagreed on safety and regulation. The real reason bosses are freaked out by remote work: they think it's for "sissies."

☆ Apple continues to quietly build on its fintech ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In payments, specifically, its made progress via Apple Pay, the Apple Wallet, and the Apple Card. On Monday, Apple took another step deeper into financial services, announcing the launch of a high-yield savings account (4.15%) via its Apple Card. And now, as Goldman tries to salvage what's left of its consumer dreams, Apple continues to roll on. What's not clear, though, is what type of terms Goldman gets for serving as the back-end partner partner. Click here to read more about the top eight executives shaking up payments, including a key leader at Apple Pay.

☆ How Larry Page's flying-car company of the future turned into a stunning failure
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Although I'm currently pretty homesick and jet lagged, I'm blessed with "the life-changing magic of working from home." One worker told my colleague Rebecca Knight how remote work transformed her life and how returning to the office has killed company morale. The stunning failure of Google founder Larry Page's flying-car company. In April 2022, company morale plummeted when it axed one of its most promising projects, those former insiders say. The company put together a thorough document to help managers navigate pay-related conversations with employees, and Insider got a look.

☆ Bosses hate work from home because 'home' is for women
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

And the old way was clear: The office is for work, and the home is for — well, for whatever unpaid stuff it is that women do while their men are at work. Skeptical that work — real work — could be done at home, bosses quietly penalized the women who opted for flexible schedules by sticking them with boring assignments and denying them promotions. Embracing remote work is a good start, but it comes with risks of its own. Since the pandemic hit, I've heard a few CEOs liken remote work to opening Pandora's box. Women working from home are no longer the aberration — tradition-bound executives are.

☆ An employee reportedly asked to go remote. Her CEO says he outsourced her job to India instead and saved 40% on labor costs.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

CEO Johnny Taylor Jr. told WSJ he outsourced an employee's job after she requested it be remote. Hiring someone in India saved the company around 40% in labor costs, he told the Journal. Since the pandemic, some tech companies have hired remote workers overseas, sometimes amid layoffs. Some tech companies have already turned to overseas labor, including in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, Insider's Aki Ito reported. The year before, 17% of job postings offered remote work.

☆ Amazon, Meta, and other tech giants are cutting middle management to be more efficient. It's a risky move that could backfire.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Big Tech's latest cost cutting move is "flattening," or removing middle management from the org chart. This is likely to work in the short term, but removing middle management has long-term consequences. The move comes as the Big Tech companies reel from the consequences of overhiring, as the pandemic turned into an unexpected boon to their businesses. While that all sounds good, experts warn removing middle management roles have other consequences that Big Tech will have to deal with. Middle managers set the tone and cultureAdditionally, middle managers have more influence on shaping a company's culture and can affect whether or not employees feel engaged in their jobs, as Insider's Aki Ito reported.

☆ Gen Z, Millennials Are Now As Sick and Tired of Their Jobs As Boomers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Young workers may not possess the experience or wisdom of their older colleagues. When Gartner asked people what was preventing them from going into the office, Gen Zers were more likely than other generations to cite social anxiety. Pollak, the consultant, told me about a client who complained that their Gen Z employees were "abusing" the company's vacation policy. But these are the very people who can help young workers feel more seen and motivated in their jobs. My suggestions are targeted to shore up engagement among young workers, but they'd actually be good for everyone.

☆ Companies Are Laying Off Middle Managers, That's a Huge Mistake
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

But in recent weeks, as companies brace for tougher times ahead, the assault on middle managers has picked up new steam. At Meta, Mark Zuckerberg is eliminating layers of middle management, demoting many supervisors to the ranks of the supervised. Zuckerberg offered a telling explanation for his decision: He doesn't want to have "managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work." In the UKG survey, 42% of middle managers said they were often or always stressed — a higher share than either frontline workers or C-suite executives. The businesses most likely to weather the current economic turmoil, Harter says, are those that unlock the hidden value of middle managers.

☆ Tech’s meltdown has also erased the dream job for Gen Z.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

While maybe I should dream bigger, keeping expectations low could also be a good thing — people shouldn't dream of labor. And that's a wake up call for many Gen Z workers who once aspired to work in Big Tech. Gen Z says goodbye to dream tech jobs. Several top-ranked engineering schools told my colleague Aki Ito that Big Tech companies have been noticeably absent at career fairs since September. Aki breaks down the crumbling Gen Z dream-job and what that means for the tech industry.

☆ The tech meltdown comes for Gen Z
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The tech industry was teetering, and she wondered whether the future she had banked on would survive. On Handshake, a leading jobs board for college students, entry-level software positions in the tech industry slumped 14% last year. "I'm finding that students are pivoting to organizations that have IT functions but are not in the tech industry," says Laura Garcia, director of career education at Georgia Tech. Given the seismic downturn in tech, some students are rethinking their dreams of working for the Amazons and Googles and Metas of the world. Suddenly, in the eyes of Gen Z, tech seems to be just as ruthless and unreliable of an employer as banking did to millennials who came of age in the Great Recession.

☆ Goldman Sachs partners are pissed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Matt Turner | Dave Smith | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

On the agenda today:But first: Lara O'Reilly, our senior correspondent covering the advertising industry, looks ahead to the Super Bowl. Insider's Aki Ito breaks down why grandiose job titles like "senior executive vice president" are suddenly all the rage. According to a new study, early-career job titles have changed drastically in the past few years. While it's not clear how widespread this discontent is — Goldman has some 400 partners — some partners are already talking about who might replace CEO David Solomon if it comes to that. Inside the drama at Goldman SachsRead more:Tyler Le/InsiderGoogle's search engine is about to change.

☆ Should Champagne Be Sipped From Coupes or Flutes? A Design Lover Weighs In
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Ajiri Aki | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ONE CHILLY Parisian Friday evening five years ago, our French neighbors invited us downstairs for an apéro. As an American expat whose grasp of the language was embarrassingly subpar, I remember dreading this hangout. When my husband and I walked in, there was the expected bottle of Champagne on a low marble table ready for service next to unexpected glassware: Champagne coupes. I had always understood that Champagne should be poured into flutes to maintain the bubbles, and here was my neighbor, a French person who should know, setting out coupes. I’d thought they would be used for cocktails, wine, even desserts.

☆ How Gen Z and the Great Resignation created a wave of overinflated job titles
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Way back in 1993, the Financial Times ran a column bemoaning the grandiose job titles that were popping up in the US and the UK. Compared with enticements like higher pay and better benefits, tacking an extra "senior" onto somebody's job title is free. Some are mashing together a bunch of old words, resulting in monstrosities like "senior executive vice president" — not to be confused with senior vice presidents and executive vice presidents. Still, despite the downsides of title inflation, I think there are some redeeming qualities to the state of things today. It goes to show how our job titles aren't just a summary of our day-to-day responsibilities or an indicator of our place in the org chart.

☆ Gen Z workers have fueled job title inflation. It was perfectly timed with the Great Resignation.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

I'm a Gen Z worker, and to some extent, I understand why millennial bosses find us daunting (here's Insider's guide to dealing with Gen Z workers, btw). That power fuels a lot of Gen Z stereotypes: doing things our own way, valuing work-life balance, and not having job loyalty. Burton/Getty images; Robyn Phelps/InsiderGen Z + Great Resignation = overinflated job titles. Here's what to know:My brilliant colleague Aki Ito breaks down how some job titles have become overinflated, like "senior executive vice president." Title inflation also appeases Gen Z.

☆ Offices across the US are at least half full for the first time since before the pandemic, new data shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A new study found offices were over half full for the week of January 19-25. The 50.4% average occupancy rate recorded by Kastle is the highest since before the pandemic. Three years after the pandemic drove workers across America to home offices and Zoom meetings, employees are increasingly returning to in-person work settings. Unsurprisingly, the data found offices have varying rates of occupancy throughout the week, as many workers still come into offices less than five days a week. Friday was the least common day for working in offices, with an average of just 34.9%, per Kastle's findings.

☆ Gen Z still can't make up its mind about working in the office
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Amanda Goh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Gen Z is divided on the question of remote work, according to a new Dell Technologies study. In a survey, 29% of respondents said remote work is important, but another 29% said they favor office-based roles. As Insider's Aki Ito wrote in June, the preference for remote work is largely split by generation, with the oldest workers expressing the strongest preference for permanent remote work and the youngest workers — Gen Z — expressing the least preference. Many companies have been changing their remote work policies as the world continues to adjust after the pandemic. Meanwhile, JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon is famously against remote work, and the company has been tracking staff office attendance using employee ID swipes.

☆ Are jerks more likely to get ahead at work?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Even worse, all the cutthroat role models we're surrounded by at work make us hesitant about being nice ourselves. In the social sciences, the technical term for jerks — those who are combative, selfish, and manipulative — is "disagreeable." Call this the jerk way. All in all, being a jerk doesn't help you get ahead — but it also doesn't hurt. Sutton's no-asshole rule has become widely adopted, and businesses like Atlassian have overhauled their performance reviews in part to ensure that "brilliant jerks" can't get ahead.

☆ The bloodletting at Goldman Sachs might not be done yet as the bank looks for more ways to cut costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

If you're a Goldman Sachs' employee who made it through the company's recent layoffs, be warned: There could be more to come. Anyone hoping Goldman's fourth-quarter earnings report would represent a fresh start for the bank was sorely disappointed. Today should provide some hints at to how the bank will navigate things, as Goldman is set to inform employees on their year-end bonuses. Steve Pagliuca, the PE firm's co-chairman, is retiring, The Wall Street Journal reports. Read more on how Wall Street analysts got it so wrong.

☆ A leaked Google memo compared it to slime mold
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's like the start of a joke: What do Google and slime mold have in common? A lot, says a memo from an ex-Googler comparing the org to a "slime mold." (A key difference: Stanford grads aren't desperate to intern at a slime mold.) But with ChatGPT setting off alarm bells inside and outside the org, Google should probably move faster and with more intention than slime mold. The most memorable part of the memo compares Google's bottom-up organizational structure to a "slime mold," highlighting how both Google and a slime mold can work independently but still come together to solve complex problems.

☆ Salary Transparency Is Coming — so I Decided to Tell Everyone What I Make
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +37 min

But there's a glaring catch to my support for pay transparency: I haven't actually practiced it in my own life. To find out why, I decided to commemorate the dawning age of salary transparency by telling pretty much everyone in my life what I earn. Norway responded to pay transparency with yet another level of transparency, and that brought down the level of snooping.. Thanks to its nationwide experiment, Norway has been fertile ground for scholars trying to measure the consequences of extreme pay transparency. But I do believe that as more states implement pay-disclosure laws — and as Gen Z increasingly comes to dominate the workforce — salary transparency is going to become the new norm.

☆ One chart shows how employment has changed throughout the US economy almost 3 years after the start of the pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The US labor market has been above its pre-pandemic February 2020 employment level for a while. Some sectors are still below pre-pandemic employment almost three years since the official start of the pandemic. While leisure and hospitality isn't back at its pre-pandemic employment level, it still has been experiencing large monthly job gains as workers are needed to meet demand. Air transportation was 11.7% above its February 2020 employment level in December. It continued to expand throughout the pandemic and was 30.8% above its pre-pandemic employment as of December.

☆ It's official: Remote work is going to make it easier to buy a home
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Remote work pushed housing trends into warp speedIn some ways, the pandemic's housing shifts were a long time coming. The shift to remote work also hastened many people's desire for more space. Across the country, remote workers chose to part ways with roommates or seek out larger homes. Elon Musk asserted his authority at Twitter by putting an end to remote work. On the other hand, as my colleague Aki Ito previously argued, a recession could further ingrain remote work as employers look to cut spending on real estate.

You can get the latest on that and much more from our finance newsletter, 10 Things on Wall Street. It's a snappy weekday read with the biggest stories on the Street, plus the latest on hot-spot restaurants, industry parties, and so much more. On the agenda today:Up first: Senior real-estate correspondent Daniel Geiger is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the recent turmoil at Compass. With home sales dipping amid rising interest rates, Compass has cut workers and bled cash. In June, it laid off about 450 corporate staff, and in October, it let go of about half its 1,500-person tech team.

☆ Elon Musk Was Always a Visionary Jerk, Bad Boss at SpaceX, Tesla. but It Won't Work at Twitter.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Elon Musk has a pretty tried-and-true playbook for doing business — he's used it for years to build companies from Tesla to SpaceX. Twitter is the antithesis of an "Elon Musk company." And without a big, world-changing promise to paper over his sophomoric product ideas and erratic management, Musk's Twitter takeover is doomed. No time to wasteA Musk company is usually the first, and sometimes the only, company in a specific market. Based on his most recent quarterly calls with investors — the ones where he is supposed to talk about plans to make more money — Musk does not have one.

☆ The hidden upside of tech layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In the midst of a wave of wholesale layoffs, many tech workers are somehow bouncing back stronger than ever. Ayas and her colleagues analyzed the fate of laid-off tech workers by looking at data from Parachute and Layoffs.fyi, both of which compile information provided by out-of-work employees. Today, not only are laid-off tech workers finding jobs quickly, Revelio Labs found, but 52% are actually earning more than they were before. That's not to say that laid-off tech workers will continue to face great job prospects forever. If the layoffs continue, the economy will eventually become oversaturated with tech workers — at which point their job searches will take longer, and more will be forced to accept lower salaries.

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