Operating in a broken world

When we see social injustices in the news, it can impact how we show up at work. How can we make it through the workday when our minds are cluttered with anxiety, sadness, or grief? First, be patient with the healing process. Whatever you’re feeling, it’s important to acknowledge your emotions. If you continue to feel overwhelmed, give yourself space to decompress by going for a short walk outside to clear your head. 2) Connect with the community both within and outside your organisation. 3) Disclose strategically to your manager and peers. Consider the corporate culture in which you’re embedded before disclosing your feelings to your boss or coworkers. If your company is unlikely to respond to your heartbreak with a level of understanding, it may be best to commit to seeking counsel outside of work. If you feel safe speaking up and believe that doing so may help facilitate your healing, it’s probably okay to move forward.

(Adapted from “How to Focus at Work When the World Is Falling Apart,” by Evelyn Nam, published by HBR Ascend)

The superhero bubble

The superhero movie bubble could be bursting. With movies like ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania’ not performing on par with other superhero films, maybe we are entering a new age of cinema. Interestingly, a company with no superhero IP, Apple Inc., plans to spend $1bn a year to produce movies that will be released in theatres as part of an ambitious effort to raise its profile in Hollywood and lure subscribers to its streaming service. Apple has approached movie studios about partnering to release a few titles in theatres this year and a slate of more films in the future, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. The list of potential releases includes Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio; the spy thriller Argylle, from director Matthew Vaughn; and Napoleon, Ridley Scott’s drama about the French conqueror.

(Adapted from “Apple to Spend $1 Billion a Year on Films to Break Into Cinemas,” by Thomas Buckley and Lucas Shaw, published on March 23, 2023, by Bloomberg)

Diminishing remote work

Working remotely is becoming increasingly rare a few years after the pandemic caused millions of Americans to decamp from worksites to their basements and bedrooms. Some 72.5pc of business establishments said their employees teleworked rarely or not at all last year, according to a Labor Department report released this week. That figure climbed from 60.1pc in 2021. The survey showed about 21m more workers on-site, full time in 2022 compared with the prior year. Employers recently have begun pushing harder to get staff to work on-site more often, as recession fears prompt an increased emphasis on worker productivity. Disney now pushes for four days a week on-site. Starbucks has asked the office staff to come in more.

(Adapted from “Work-From-Home Era Ends for Millions of Americans,” by Gwynn Guilford, published on March 25, 2023, by The Wall Street Journal)

The threat of AI

Accountants are among the professionals whose careers are most exposed to the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence, according to a new study. The researchers found that at least half of accounting tasks could be completed much faster with the technology. The same was true for mathematicians, interpreters, writers and nearly 20pc of the US workforce, according to the study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT. Such AI tools have provoked excitement and anxiety in companies, schools, governments and the general public for their ability to process massive amounts of information and generate sophisticated though not necessarily accurate or unbiased — content in response to prompts from users. Most jobs will be changed in some form by GPTs, with 80pc of workers in jobs where at least one task can be performed more quickly by generative AI.

(Adapted from “The Jobs Most Exposed to ChatGPT,” by By Lauren Weber and Lindsay Ellis, published on March 28, 2023, by The Wall Street Journal)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, April 3rd, 2023