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☆ Elon Musk's tirade about remote work being 'morally wrong' has tech workers up in arms, with some calling him a hypocrite
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Hundreds of tech workers on Blind debated Elon Musk's stance against remote work. Some tech workers called Musk a hypocrite and poked fun at his comments about the "laptop classes." The billionaire said on Tuesday that remote work is "morally wrong." Some tech workers aren't happy about Elon Musk's recent tirade on remote work and the so-called "laptop classes." Following his comments, many tech workers took to Blind to call Musk a hypocrite and poke fun at his billionaire status.

☆ Blue-collar workers could save the US from recession as the tech industry withers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Andy Kiersz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

After a pandemic-era tech jobs boom — and now bust — more and more Americans are returning to blue-collar work for better pay and more security. As AI stands poised to potentially remake white-collar work, blue-collar work may emerge even more resilient. The Biden administration has been devoted to turning that around, pouring billions into projects devoted to bringing manufacturing jobs back stateside. And another key to the puzzle is treating blue-collar work with respect, like any other work — including high-paying tech jobs. Are you thinking of taking the plunge into blue-collar work, or have you already?

☆ US Declining Population, Worker Shortage Will Cause Economic Crisis Without a Fix
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Gadel Valle | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

That means that unless people start having a lot more kids, the US population could eventually start to shrink — just like China's population has. While the US population has managed to avoid an outright drop, population growth reached an unprecedented low of 0.12% in 2021. One way the US could encourage more immigration is by focusing on temporary visas for specific industries that need workers. And the treatment of workers in the country on temporary visas has been a problem for decades. After all, the US is running out of options, and soon its growing people shortage is going to spell economic disaster.

☆ A CEO is spending more than $2,000 a month on ChatGPT Plus accounts for all of his employees, and he says it's saving 'hours' of time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Akash Nigam, the founder of Genies, purchased ChatGPT Plus accounts for all of his 120 employees. A CEO is spending thousands each month buying ChatGPT Plus accounts for every single employee at his company — and he says he's already seeing gains. While it has only been a month since Genies' employees have had their accounts, Nigam said he has "already seen many tasks get accelerated." The employees that are "using AI effectively" will be up for a promotion and raise, he said. Even Microsoft is letting employees use ChatGPT — as long as they don't share confidential information with the tool.

☆ 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.

☆ Nearly half of American workers don't take all of their PTO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

46% of American workers take less paid time off than they are offered, per the Pew Research Center. Respondents worry taking time off will slow down their career advancement, among other concerns. They found that nearly46% of American workers aren't taking all of their allotted paid time off. Lower-income workers said they were "more likely" to worry about losing their jobs for taking all of their time off than "middle and upper-income workers." Workers "want to know they can take time off when they need it," she said, "but this new data shows us that many workers don't. "

☆ Remote job options are dwindling
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The following chart shows select industries and which ones among them have the highest share of establishments where people teleworked all the time. BLS data shows the information sector had a relatively high share of establishments where workers worked remotely all the time, at 42.2%. While remote options may seem to be dwindling, some experts Insider talked to say that remote work is going to continue to be prevalent. "Remote work has been a huge and permanent change to how people work and live," Adam Ozimek, chief economist at the Economic Innovation Group, told Insider. Have you had to choose between returning to the office or losing your job?

While remote workers are hitting the green on weekday afternoons, productivity isn't dropping. That's good news for leisure businesses and shows remote work has changed people's work structures. While some companies have called employees back to the office, Bloom doesn't think remote work is going anywhere. All those remote workers hitting the green doesn't necessarily mean people are working less. This will raise 'Golf productivity' — the number of golf courses played (and revenue raised) per course."

☆ Billionaire tech CEO says Meta and Google over-hired so much they didn't have enough work for employees: 'They really were doing nothing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Grace Kay | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

C3.ai's CEO said Google and Meta over-hired employees and didn't have enough work for them to do. Thomas Siebel joked that if you want to work remote "in your pajamas," you should work at Facebook. "If you want to work from home, like four days of work in your pajamas, go to work for Facebook." Siebel is far from the first executive to express concern that tech workers aren't doing enough work. Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned that remote work has spurred "productivity paranoia" among managers.

☆ I took an office-personality quiz, and it turns out that as a remote worker, I'm a caged butterfly
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Turns out, I'm a "break-room butterfly" who thrives on teams and doing in-person work. It's hard to let your inner break-room butterfly soar when the only break room in sight doubles as your kitchen. After all, what does an "office personality" even mean nowadays? My gregarious editor is a fellow break-room butterfly, our tight-ship boss is a cubicle cat, and another free-spirited, somewhat reclusive colleague is a couch koala. By extension, the very notion of an "office personality" is becoming outdated.

☆ American workers aren't returning to the office like their international counterparts—here's why
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Workers around the world throughout Europe and Asia are going back to the office while U.S. employees are still working from home. Meanwhile, office attendance has returned to 70% to 90% in Europe and the Middle East, and around 80% to 110% in some Asian cities, meaning some workers are spending more time in the office now than pre-Covid. In particular, several global cities steadily reached at least 75% office occupancy throughout 2021 and 2022, according to JLL data, including Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Paris and Stockholm. Average office attendance in 10 major U.S. metros only recently reached 50% for the first time since the pandemic hit, based on data from Kastle Systems. Here are three big reasons why American workers aren't returning to the office while their global counterparts are:

☆ 'Quiet' is the workplace word of 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Bare Minimum Monday, another workplace buzzword of 2023, also relates to quiet quitting. Experts think those "quiet" trends and more are set to continue throughout 2023 and beyond. "Quiet hiring" is one of the "biggest workplace buzzwords" of 2023 per Insider's reporting. Emily Rose McRae of Gartner's HR Practice said per reporting from GMA that quiet hiring is a workplace trend in 2023 in part because of a shortage in talent. Other buzzwords of the year from Insider's reporting relate to quiet quitting even if they don't use the word quiet.

☆ From 'relief' to 'not too devastated': Why some laid-off workers aren't rushing to find new jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

That's how some recently laid-off workers view losing their jobs, despite the era of loud layoffs and ever-constant recession fears. She figured she'd be let go from her social media job at Attentive, an e-commerce startup, once her visa expired in April. Calista Tee, 28, plans to use her post-layoff time to build her social media marketing brand on TikTok and beyond. It's since taken off, and in 2022 she matched 80% of her full-time income. Without the security of full-time income, Tee plans to make small tweaks to her spending habits.

☆ A proptech startup used this pitch deck to raise $5.1 million to build a LinkedIn for construction workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Contractors are challenged in hiring skilled workers. Skillit, founded in 2021, offers a platform specifically for recruiting skilled labor. The company's CEO walked Insider through a pitch deck used to raise $5.1 million in seed funding. What's more, many skilled workers are getting ready to retire. The company's first product focuses on recruiting craft workers, or construction workers who hone their skills in trade schools and apprenticeships.

☆ Salesforce engineers are about to be hit with new performance metrics, while some salespeople are being pressured to quit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Ellen Thomas | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Some Salesforce employees have been offered a "Prompt Exit Package" instead of a layoff, with less severance. Employees say the company is ratcheting up performance expectations as activist investors invade. "The company is pushing hard for productivity tracking and metrics on all facets," one employee told Insider. Salesforce cut a few hundred salespeople in November, a person familiar with the matter told Insider, and the company told Insider the cuts were made for "accountability," implying that performance was a consideration. In some cases, the company has presented employees with PEP offers in the same week it has executed mass layoffs, employees told Insider.

☆ Instead of paying adults more, some states might let companies hire kids as young as 14 to fill the labor shortage
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Republicans in some states are proposing exceptions to child labor regulations. Lawmakers in Iowa and Minnesota have introduced legislation in the last month proposing exceptions to child labor regulations in their respective states, due to the persisting labor shortage hitting them particularly hard. "A lot of the child labor jobs are menial jobs and those skills aren't transferrable," she said. The proposed laws skirt around the child labor requirements outlined by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Research shows that these workers aren't averse to meatpacking work entirely — they're just not willing to do it for the current wage standard.

☆ Report says Americans are half as likely to be on vacation now as they were in the 80s, but why?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Washington Post analyzed vacation data over decades to find out why Americans take vacation less often than they used to. Many workers have PTO, personal days, and sick days lumped into the same pool of time. Blue-collar workers, such as construction workers, are the least likely to be on paid vacation, while teachers are the most likely to take time off. Older and more educated workers also are more likely to be on vacation, according to the Post. Also, workers' paid time off plans increasingly lump vacation, sick, and personal days into one category, the Post reported.

Below, they weigh in on today's tipping culture, who gets a gratuity and how much. Dr. Peters adds that tipped employees may also include most front-of-house restaurant employees, bellhops, parking attendants, airport service workers and food delivery workers. most restaurants), consider using the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card. Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card Learn More Information about the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card has been collected independently by Select and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of the card prior to publication. And when it comes to using delivery services, consider a card that gives cardholders money they can use to tip delivery workers.

☆ The millennial boss' guide to managing Gen Z, based on 5 stereotypes of the younger generation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Millennial bosses might be daunted by their new reports, but there's a lot they can learn from Gen Z. That may be why some millennial managers think of Gen Z as, erm, high maintenance. Insider spoke with management experts, career coaches, and members of Gen Z itself to reframe the narrative around how Gen Z is changing the workplace. Gen Z has no job loyaltyThe rap on Gen Z is that they're all a bunch of job-hoppers with no loyalty. Both millennials and Gen Z have done "a lot more" to destigmatize mental health challenges and normalize counseling and therapy.

☆ Workers at Facebook, Snap fear second round of layoffs is on the way
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Recent comments by CEOs at Meta and Snap have workers bracing for yet another round of cuts. For tech workers who in 2022 saw tens of thousands of colleagues lose their jobs amid a wave of layoffs, this year has brought little besides déjà vu. Fear is spreading among many tech employees that even more layoffs will happen in the coming weeks. Performance reviews are more severe. Snap is another company where employees are starting to suspect another round of layoffs is being considered, if not already on the way.

☆ Dealing with a layoff? There's a TikTok community for that
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

It's kind of like more unfiltered (and sometimes messier) version of the LinkedIn layoff post that gained steam throughout the last year. And it's a sharp turn from viewing a layoff as something to be embarrassed about and keep private. Young workers aren't staying quiet. Many young workers are using the platform to process their feelings, especially when they receive the news at while working from home and don't have colleagues or friends nearby to vent with. If not for connection, viewers may flock to these layoff reaction TikToks hoping to calm their own anxieties about layoffs.

☆ A Dutch executive chides Americans for not taking more vacation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Some US workers aren't provided much vacation, while others are leaving unused days on the table. Including paid holidays as well as vacation days, the average American took over 20 days off between 1978 and 2000, but this has fallen to roughly 17 days in recent years. The fact that many vacation days are left unused is even more notable when one considers how few vacation days most Americans have to begin with when compared to the rest of the world. The US is the only country in the OECD, a group of 38 of the world's most developed nations, that does not require businesses to offer any paid vacation or paid holidays. For these people — many of whom are among the lowest-wage workers — choosing to not use all of their vacation days isn't even an option.

☆ Google's most cutting-edge moonshot lab is refocusing on actually making money
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm Matt Weinberger, deputy editor of Insider's tech analysis team, filling in for my colleague Diamond Naga Siu for the next few days. It's yet another sign that the tech industry is very different than it was even a year ago. A moonshot in the foot for Google: Insider's Hugh Langley reports that Google's X Development is scaling back from its pioneering, famously envelope-pushing roots as a tech research lab. Instead, it'll focus on initiatives that actually make money for Google and its parent company Alphabet. Read Insider's in-depth review of the newest model of the iPad Pro, released in late 2022.

☆ Meet 3 remote workers who negotiated for better pay, workplace flexibility, or the right to quiet quit — and won
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Remote work has become increasingly popular, and make-or-break for many Americans when choosing jobs. Workers are using their current bargaining power to ask for better pay, flexibility, and work-life balance. Insider talked to three remote workers about how they did so. That's because remote work has changed his life for the better, he said. "Work was definitely a thorn in my side that really affected my entire life," she told Insider.

Student loan debt has become such an issue that the Biden Administration has been attempting to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt per eligible borrower and has continually extended the student loan repayment pause. Ways employers are currently assisting with student debt management"Employers are increasingly offering student loan contribution plans as a direct way to help borrowers pay down student loan debt," Scruggs says. How other employers can help employees manage student loan debtOne of the simplest and most affordable ways employers can help employees is to share information on what employees need to know about their student loans. "There are many ways to help employees manage and pay down student loan debt. However, note that if you refinance federal student loans you'll lose federal protections, like the current student loan payment freeze and potential student loan forgiveness.

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