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☆ Vice President Harris is wrapping up her midterm campaign push by meeting with union leaders a day before the elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday in California. Along the way, according to a White House official, she is prioritizing meeting with local labor leaders. In May, Harris — along with co-chair Marty Walsh, Biden's Secretary of Labor — welcomed union organizers from the likes of Starbucks and Amazon to the White House. The Biden administration has made clear its intentions to embrace organized labor. Harris "has been focused on reaching women, young people, and communities of color," a White House official said.

Democrats cite threats to Social Security, MedicareAs Election Day approaches, Democrats are telling voters that Social Security and Medicare may be at risk if Republicans take control of Congress. Scott has called for reauthorizing Social Security and Medicare every five years in Congress, while Johnson suggests revisiting the programs annually. Minimum wage hikes on the horizonVoters will decide this month whether to make certain raises to the minimum wage in Nebraska, Nevada and Washington, D.C. In Nebraska, the measure would ratchet up the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026, up from its current $9. The current minimum wage is $9.50 an hour or $10.50 an hour, depending on if a worker is offered health insurance.

☆ Forget about making money. Here’s what it takes to write a book
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

If you want an idea of how ridiculous the book publishing industry is, look no further than the proposed Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster merger. Penguin Random House has said it would appeal. A 2018 survey of 5,067 authors conducted by the Authors Guild found that the median income of the authors surveyed had fallen to $6,080 in 2017. Earnings from book income alone was a paltry $3,100, indicating that authors were supplementing their incomes through speaking engagements, book reviewing, or teaching. The Authors Guild report notes the explosive growth of alternative ways for consumers to spend their time (video and streaming).

☆ Americans are spending record amounts at casinos and airlines — but recent warnings from Amazon and Apple suggest the party may soon be over
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Despite inflation, Americans are still shelling out at casinos, airlines, and restaurants. In October, both American and Southwest Airlines reported record operating revenues for their respective companies in the third quarter. Following "record summer leisure travel demand," consumers continued to hit the skies in September, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said. A Deloitte survey of nearly 5,000 Americans found that Americans plan to buy 44% fewer gifts — an average of nine versus 16 last year. "Spending should slow down significantly with the holiday hangover and as savings continue to dwindle," RSM economist Tuan Nguyen told USA Today.

☆ LGBT Representation in Ads Has Grown, but Many Consumers Find It Inauthentic
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Patrick Coffee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Still, marketing to LGBT consumers can be tricky due to political tensions as well as consumer skepticism, particularly when big companies roll out Pride Month campaigns in June but are seen as not following through on standing up for LGBT rights. Many marketers still treat LGBT consumers as more of a niche group than they are, some experts said. A 2021 Nielsen survey found that, outside of Pride Month, only 1% of ads included LGBT characters or topics. Harris found that 67% of consumers think Pride Month has become too commercialized. In the Disqo survey, 46% of respondents said advertising already has enough LGBT themes and characters, and some experts think brands might mistakenly conclude that representing LGBT consumers in ads is no longer a pressing issue.

☆ Your coworkers aren't less productive because they're 'quiet quitting.' They're just new to the job.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some say "quiet quitting" is among the key reasons why. But "quiet quitting" likely isn't why. But while quiet quitting may be a real phenomenon and newly coined phrase, the practice is not a new one. "I don't think "quiet quitting" is real or affecting productivity growth," Adam Ozimek, chief economist at the policy organization Economic Innovation Group, wrote on Twitter last week. But while remote workers may be productive once they're up and running, it's possible new remote employees are less productive.

☆ Can Apple’s Screen Time Reports Actually Help Curb Your Phone Addiction?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Justin Pot | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SANDS OF DISCONTENT Knowing how much time you spend on Instagram or Twitter can leave some people stoked to cut back. Apple weekly Screen Time report says you racked up more hours than usual on your phone. Apple says it launched Screen Time in 2019 to help people forge a better relationship with their devices. Your phone tracks how much time you spend tapping away, further divided by how much time you used other specific apps and sites. And each Sunday morning, by default, you receive a push-notification pointing you to a detailed report of what you did with your phone over the last week.

☆ Most Americans don't think life will be better for today's kids
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Americans were asked if they think life will be better for the next generation, and most don't think so. How likely do you think it is that today's youth will have a better life than their parents--very likely, somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely, or very unlikely?" Just 13% said it was very likely, and 29% said it was somewhat likely. Republicans drove the drop in optimism, with just a third saying that they think the next generation will fare better. But Democrats — the majority of whom do think things will get better — still saw their optimism at its lowest-ever.

☆ The ridiculous rise of the chief purpose officer — corporate America's half-baked attempt to fix the employee burnout crisis
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Tracy Moore | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Every company on Great Place to Work's ranked list of best employers has a chief purpose officer or purpose among the company's missions and goals. Its chief purpose officer, Kwasi Mitchell, who stepped into the role in 2020, told me that establishing purpose was a powerful talent-retention tool. The same is true for chief purpose officers. And a chief purpose officer can be used as a crutch, a way for a business to say, "Of course, we care," when employees raise issues with the culture. Instead of fixing the burnout problem, these executives can allow management to turn a blind eye and assume all is well, letting workplace rot set in even deeper.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told reporters that Pyongyang has been "indiscriminately carrying out provocations", vowing to devise "watertight countermeasures". North Korea's military issued a statement via state media KCNA early on Friday saying that it took "strong military countermeasures", over artillery fire by South Korea on Thursday. The unprecedented frequency of North Korea's missile launches has raised concerns it may be preparing to resume testing of nuclear bombs for the first time since 2017. It said the South Korean air force "conducted an emergency sortie with its superior air force, including the F-35A". "The KPA sends a stern warning to the South Korean military inciting military tension in the frontline area with reckless action," its spokesman said, according to KCNA.

☆ After Biden’s announcement on cannabis and racial equity, what's next?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Beau Kilmer | Beau Kilmer Is The Mccauley Chair In Drug Policy Innovation | Co-Director Of The Drug Policy Research Center At The Nonprofit | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

President Joe Biden’s announcement about cannabis policy reform last week underscored how keeping it illegal disproportionately harms people of color. Biden’s move is an important step in changing the federal approach to cannabis. Some jurisdictions are considering how cannabis tax revenues could be used to address racial disparities. For example, Evanston, Illinois., is using some of its cannabis tax revenues to support slavery reparations. Cannabis legalization isn’t just a yes-or-no choice.

☆ Why does work feel so dysfunctional right now? A psychologist, labor expert and CEO weigh in
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

"I'm not sure that work is any more dysfunctional now for many workers than it's been in the past," she tells CNBC Make It. Work has always been dysfunctional, our tolerance for it just got lowerWorkers are still quitting in droves during the Great Resignation. The discord we're seeing, then, is vocal pushback from employees — emboldened by a tight market and, yes, social media fervor — not wanting to return to traditional models of work, Klotz says. "Everyone is making money off of their work, and they're not getting return on the investment of their labor. To call that out and say, you know what, I don't necessarily need to go above and beyond if that effort isn't going to be valued — that's not quiet quitting.

☆ How the airline industry plans to wean itself off one billion tons of carbon emissions
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Trevor Laurence Jockims | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

But Taylor has nothing on the airline industry, whose annual CO2 emission is pushing one billion metric tons. Airlines have completed test flights with sustainable aviation fuels, and the deals with sustainable aviation fuel producers have started to accumulate. American is the first airline globally to receive validation from the Science Based Targets initiative for its intermediate GHG emissions reduction targets and the only U.S. airline to report using more than 1 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel in 2021. From ethanol, Gevo then processes further into a product that is chemically identical to standard aviation fuel. Judged against the standards of its own industry, American remains a leader in carbon reduction efforts.

☆ Analysis: In Latin America, democracies shaken ahead of key elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( David Alire Garcia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Latin America's political arena has intensified with fallout from the pandemic, war in Ukraine, spiraling inflation plus fears of global recession. Those hardships have all hit voters' wallets in one of the world's most unequal regions, driving deeper political wedges ahead of key elections and in some countries threatening democracy itself. In long-dysfunctional Peru, leftist President Pedro Castillo, who took office just over a year ago, is battling a corruption probe amid plummeting approval ratings. read moreYet Bukele remains very popular, with an approval rating of 85% according to an August CID Gallup poll. "El Salvador is a dictatorship, a populist, beloved dictatorship, but it's a dictatorship," said Guatemalan-American novelist Francisco Goldman.

☆ 1 in 3 workers fear they'll catch Covid by returning to the office—here's how to keep yourself healthy
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A recent Gallup poll found that one in three U.S. workers are "very" or "moderately" concerned about Covid exposure at work. Stay up-to-date on your Covid vaccinesStaying up-to-date on your vaccines is the best way to protect yourself from Covid. That means completing your primary series and receiving the booster shots you're eligible for. You'll need to be at least two months out from your last dose of any Covid shot, the CDC says. Have completed your primary series, but are immunocompromisedHave completed your primary series and are in an area with a substantial or high level spread of Covid.

☆ Workers are getting bolder. The number of strikes tripled from last year as Americans see their wages shrink and bosses profit.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-17 | by ( Jason Lalljee | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

More workers have gone on strike in the first half of 2022 than in all of 2021. In short, more workers have gone on strike in 2022 than in 2021 — and that's still with six months of data left to track. Post-vaccine 2021 into 2022 has marked an uptick in organizing and increasing pushback from workers on the previous status quo. They reached an agreement with railroad companies, avoiding the immediate possibility of strikes that could have crippled the US economy. Workers at companies like Starbucks, Trader Joe's, and Amazon are seeing historic union wins.

Inflation was little changed in the month of August, despite efforts by the Federal Reserve to cool off the U.S. economy. Data released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that inflation landed at 8.3% last month compared to one year ago. Excluding volatile food and gas prices, inflation climbed 6.3% year-on-year — higher than the consensus estimate for 6.1% and an increase from last month's 5.9% reading. But food prices have remained stubbornly elevated, climbing 11.4% overall, compared to the same time last year. Inflation is expected to remain elevated for some time, though it should continue heading downward, according to the most recent New York Federal Reserve survey.

☆ Fall in love with a job you don't even like, in 3 steps
▼ + stars: | 2021-09-06 | by ( David G. Allan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

There are also factors connected to job happiness that we have little control over, such as your boss. But we don’t usually decide who our boss is, and they can suddenly change (for good or bad). And — in my own, less scientific, more DIY way — here are exercises I’ve been practicing to get into better work happiness shape. And the third lists things you’d like to be able to do in your job that you currently don’t — even if they have nothing to do with what you’re paid to do. Beyond whatever the job itself accomplishes, there is also meaning and purpose with what you do with your wages.

Persons: CNN —, Henry David Thoreau, ”, Amy Wrzesniewski, Jane E . Dutton, It’s, I’ve, you’re, Michael, Jamie, Collin, Fiona, Saeed, ” Wrzesniewski, “, ’ ”, “ That’s, Onboarding, You’re Organizations: CNN, Conference Board, Yale University, University of Michigan, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School

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