Tiktok’s hypersexuality problems

Roselie Arritola, who goes by Jenny Popach on TikTok, is one of the platform’s most controversial teen stars, with 7m followers. Her popularity stems in part from hypersexual posts — what she describes as “shock-value content”— in which she twerks in string bikinis, body rolls in hot pants or drops innuendo in captions (“When men can go to jail for being with you”). For TikTok’s trust and safety team, whose job is to moderate the platform’s content, protect its users and defend the company’s reputation, Arritola is a problem child. TikTok wants popular creators like Arritola on its platform, but she’s posting content so risqué that the trust and safety team doesn’t seem to know what to do with her. Hypersexual teen content proliferates across all social media platforms. But TikTok’s algorithm rewards controversial posts that capture viewers’ attention, promoting them on its For You landing page. While TikTok’s formula has helped it be No. 1 with a young audience, it could also pose the biggest risk to its business.

(Adapted from “TikTok’s Problem Child Has 7 Million Followers and One Proud Mom,” by Olivia Carville, published on December 12, 2022, by Bloomberg)

Your co-worker makes how much?

Years ago, our salary number was a secret. Now, as open-pay laws ripple across, younger workers pipe up on TikTok, and employee groups crowdsource salary data, many people are learning how their pay stacks up. Sometimes it feels like a heart attack. “I nearly fell off the couch,” Lisa Dwyer says about the day she scrolled through fellow marketing professionals’ self-reported salaries, bonuses and equity awards in an anonymised spreadsheet started by an industry organisation she had joined. She stared at the document, stacked with compensation packages far higher than hers, and thought, “OK, my pay is clearly wrong.” What should you do if you learn you make less than your peers. “The more you know, the stronger your negotiating position is,” says Kathryn Valentine, the founder of Worthmore Strategies, an Atlanta-based consulting firm focused on boosting women’s negotiation skills. To get a sense of how your pay compares, she recommends asking former colleagues, mentors and industry peers what they think you are worth.

(Adapted from “The Class Where Future Bosses Learn How to Deliver Bad News,” by Lindsay Ellis, published on November 28, 2022, by The Wall Street Journal)

Learning how to fire people

As MBA programmes train the next generation of bosses, lessons in improving interpersonal skills have become core parts of the curriculum. Few, though, have focused so squarely on how to deliver difficult feedback or navigate a work clash. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business introduced its “Difficult Conversations: Conflict Lab” course this fall with 30 enrollees and a waitlist. It is a timely offering as some company leaders take heat for their delivery of bad news — from Elon Musk’s ultimatums at Twitter to Better.com’s mass firings over Zoom last year. Over the term, students have practised navigating office politics between warring managers, responding to a harsh review from a boss and saying no to unwanted workplace assignments. Many students described themselves as conflict-avoidant and said they took the class to overcome their discomfort.

(Adapted from “You Found Out Your Co-Worker Makes More. Can You Ask for a Raise?” by Rachel Feintzeig, published on December 5, 2022, by The Wall Street Journal)

Digging up zombie viruses

Last month, scientists announced they’d taken a sample of tundra from Siberia, extracted a virus that had been frozen for 50,000 years, and showed it was still capable of infecting its normal host — amoebas. The fact that it can cause infections after being frozen since the stone age should be a little scary. That’s not because this specific virus will adapt itself to infect humans but because it means other viruses that might be more dangerous to us could also be lurking down there. The research leader responsible for digging out the zombie virus, Jean Michele Claverie, is concerned that something more dangerous could emerge as people dig kilometre-deep holes in thawing permafrost for mining operations. As the Earth warms and permafrost thaws, it not only opens up new areas for oil exploration and mining, but might also open a Pandora’s box of pathogens.

(Adapted from “Let’s Leave The Oil — And The ‘Zombie Viruses’ — Under The Permafrost,” by Faye Flam, published on December 6, 2022, by Bloomberg)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, December 19th, 2022