Either youve lived it, or youve heard about it from friends: the endless job search, featuring hundreds of applications sent. Maybe one or two companies reply . . . that end up being bots. It can feel like your résumé has been sucked into a black hole.
And in a way, it has.
Its perhaps been consumed by a ghost joba job listing that looks legitimate, with a full description for a role, maybe even a starting date and a LinkedIn link.
Theres a twist, though. The job isnt real. Its either an essentially fake listing for a job that doesnt really exist, or the role isnt really open. And they make up roughly 40% of job listings, according to a 2024 Resume Builder survey.
There may be no hiring manager on the back end, or it’s not really a position that exists, says Brandi Britton, an executive director at recruiting company Robert Half. Theyre becoming more common, and companies do this for a variety of reasons. But in a job market as miserable as this one, they can feel like a cruel trick on job applicantswhich is exactly how the recruiters Fast Company interviewed for this story describe them.
A lot of companies see this as a harmless strategy, says Michael Baynes, cofounder and CEO of financial consulting firm Clarify Capital. His company led a 2025 survey that asked 1,000 U.S. employers why they werent actively trying to fill current open job positions. Answers included: their company is always open to new people (37%), to have an active pool of applications in case of turnover (22%), and in case irresistible candidates apply (16%). But frustrated job seekers feel misled.
Why would companies bother to post jobs theyre not hiring for? And how can you spot them? Fast Company talked to several hiring professionalswho point-blank call the increasingly common practice toxic.
Read on where we’ll cover:
How to spot ghost jobs a mile away
Which types of jobs tend to be magnets for ghost jobs
Why recruiters think it’s a failing strategy for both applicants and employers, but why it persists
Whos posting ghost jobs and why?
Recruiters who spoke with Fast Company for this story say posting ghost jobs might even damage companies reputations with job seekers who come to find them unreliable. But thats not stopping companies of all stripes from posting notices for ghost jobs.
Tech, education, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail are posting the most, in that order, per Clarify Capitals survey. But recruiters who spoke with Fast Company say its about equally prevalent across industries.
Ghost jobs are usually for roles that are more entry level, more junior, that have multiple head count, or for companies that know they’re going to be hiring tens of hundreds that year, especially with bigger companies, says Lamar Nava, vice president of customer services at Betts Recruiting. Shes seen a lot of employers post them, particularly when hiring took a big dip in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns. They were either posting for roles they assumed would open back up in the future, or trying to look more like they were thriving while they were struggling.
But pipelining for roles that arent openaka building a talent pool to potentially tap for future roles when its not time to actually hireis a request Navas employer clients have been making for the past decade. Its one of the most typical reasons recruiters see companies posting ghost jobs. Sometimes, Navas clients will fill a role and then ask her to continue sending through candidates for that pipeline, just in case they find someone really good.
I have always been very against that. Not only is it a huge waste of time, Nava says, but it’s a horrible candidate experience.
Bill Sofio, an Express Employment Professionals and Specialized Recruiting Group franchise owner, says companies create pipelines for specific roles via ghost jobs because those companies have already filled roles with overqualified candidates who they fear will leave once the job market improves. The biggest problem with this pipelining technique, says Robert Halfs Britton, is that most companies never end up going back to that pool of candidates. Either their priorities change, or they simply dont have the bandwidth.
Then theres company reputation.
Posting lots of job openings can indicate a companys success, either for the sake of potential candidates, or for investors. But Nava thinks it can have the opposite effect: When a role is open for so long, it can make people suspect of the company and ultimately hurt its brand. Thats despite companies posting ghost jobs to signal growth.
They want to show the market exists [for that role], and there is a need, says Gillian Robles, vice president of accounts and growth at Maven Recruiting, even though they dont necessarily have the budget or head count to hire.
Ghost job postings may also serve to test out the overall candidate pool.
A couple of years ago, in the tech space, Nava says, people would post to test out potential salaries for specific areas . . . just see what their talent pool would look like. Now, she adds, theres so much technology that can do that for companieslike websites that offer salary benchmarking toolsthat ascertaining possible ranges through job postings ranks among the least efficient ways to get that information.
Still, some hiring managers, particularly newer ones at smaller companies with fewer resources, may post jobs to simply scope out the candidate scene.
They post a ghost job to potentially see: What is out there? How do I look for this? What should I price this at? Robles says. They want to see whats out there before engaging with candidates.
Sometimes, companies list ghost jobs as a signal for current employeesparticularly underperforming ones. They throw the job posting out there while the underperforming employee is on a performance improvement plan, Sofio says. While he interprets that as companies hedging their bets, others see it as an explicit threat to employeesas in, you’d better shape up because youre replaceable.
Lastly, certain companies or scenarios necessitate posting jobs that a companys already hired for. For example, says Britton, some government entities are required to post to make sure they consider all applicants and to show theyre recruiting from a diverse pool, even if theyre not. In situations where companies want to hire someone specific from abroad, who would join with an H-1B visa, theyre obligated to post that role to the job market in the U.S. to prove that its specialized enough to necessitate hiring from abroad.
How do you spot a ghost job?
Fortunately for job seekers, there are a few tells that a post for an open position isnt real.
Look out for long-running job postings with no updates, or postings that appear and disappear all the time, Sofio says. That may seem obvious, but Robles cautions that a job thats bee up for six months could mean two things. It could be an evergreen posting, or its a stale job, she says. If its evergreen, it doesnt mean its not a ghost. It could represent wishful thinkingthe company wants to always be hiring for that position, so they leave up the posting even when hiring has come to a standstill.
Vague job descriptions, says Britton, can also mean a posting is fake, as can ones with start dates from a few months before the time youre seeing it. (An August start date listed on a post thats up in October constitutes a red flag.)
Some signs point to real jobs. On LinkedIn, for example, you can see if a job has been promoted, meaning a company spent extra money to get that post in front of more candidates. You wouldn’t necessarily do that if this is a ghost job, Robles says.
She adds that clear next steps in a job posting is a positive sign. Is there a specific hiring manager tied to the job posting? she says. If theres no contact information, to me, thats a red sign.
Lingering specters
That said, some ghost jobs even lead candidates to interviews. Even if there are no plans to hire, they could sometimes just take advantage of the growing candidate pools they create.
In that case, candidates should ask their employer contacts why the position is open, how long theyve been looking to fill it, and what theyre not seeing, but would like to see, in the candidates who have applied. Questions that drill down on these specifics, says Robles, can help reveal to candidates whether companies have a real need or if theyre being wishy-washy.
Overwhelmingly, recruiters who spoke with Fast Company felt that posting ghost jobs was bad corporate practice.
You’re not only frustrating a whole bunch of people, says Sofio, but those people talk to the people you’re trying to attract.
Nava calls it cruel to job seekers, who are in a vulnerable position. Despite job seekers voicing frustrations over nonresponsive job postings, some signs point to the practice letting up.
New Jersey, Kentucky, and California have all introduced legislation that would require companies to remove inactive job postings or disclose if a posting is for a future opening. Plus, Clarify Capital saw the rate of employers who kept job postings active for more than 30 days go from 68% in 2022 to just about 33% in 2025.
Robles advises optimism. With companies using more tech like AI to search through candidates résumés, they might have an easier time returning to those pipelines their ghost job postings filled that they previously didnt have the bandwidth to meaningfully explore. In other words, ending up in a ghost job-fueled talent pipeline may not be as hopeless as it once was.
Technology tools can pull your application again to the surface when needed, she says of the increasing use of AI in hiring.
Perhaps, then, unlike a ghost job that was never really realyour very real application comes back from the dead.
If you encounter a ghost job,” notes Robles, “maybe it comes back around.”
In July, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at expanding access to alternative investments like private equity and cryptocurrency in retirement accounts. The move reflects a broader shift in how Americans think about wealth building and financial freedom, and it is a signal to employers that the future of employee benefits is going to look very different.
While crypto may have once seemed fringe or speculative, digital assets have steadily moved into the mainstream. From Fortune 100 companies to institutional investors, the appetite for diversification beyond traditional asset classes is growing. According to a survey by NYDIG, 36% of employees ages 30 and under would be interested in putting a portion of their salary toward Bitcoin; nearly a third of respondents would choose an employer that offers that kind of benefit over one that does not.
Today, the question for HR leaders is no longer if crypto should be on the table, it is how to responsibly offer it as part of a modern benefits package. Whether you are crypto-curious or already exploring alternative benefits, 2026 presents a pivotal moment to reevaluate your retirement offerings and meet your workforce where they are.
The Shift in Retirement Planning
For decades, 401(k)s and employer-sponsored retirement accounts have focused almost exclusively on stocks, bonds, and mutual funds and were the gold standard for most company benefits packages. These traditional assets remain foundational, but they are no longer the full picture. The recent executive order removes some regulatory barriers that have made it difficult for plan administrators to offer alternative investments like crypto.
This is particularly relevant for younger, tech-savvy employees. A growing share of Gen Z and Millennial workers are seeking out portfolios that reflect both their values and their appetite for innovation. A recent YouGov study found 42% of Gen Z investors own crypto, which is nearly four times higher than the share (11%) who have a retirement account. For these employees, diversification is not just about returns. It is about autonomy and flexibility and moving away from traditional norms.
Why Crypto Deserves a Seat at the Benefits Table
Cryptocurrency is continuing to mature, and over the last decade, Bitcoin has delivered a total return of more than 43,000%, compared to roughly 200% for the S&P 500. While volatility remains a key characteristic, digital assets have demonstrated long-term potential as hedges against inflation, vehicles for international wealth transfer, and tools for financial inclusion. Major institutions now offer crypto products and ETFs tied to Bitcoin are increasingly accessible through traditional brokerages.
From a benefits perspective, offering crypto access is not about replacing existing options. It is about adding choice. In the same way some employees opt for ESG-aligned investments or Roth versus traditional accounts, digital assets offer a new flavor of personalization in retirement planning that caters to younger demographics. Importantly, this aligns with broader trends. Employees are demanding more modern, self-directed benefits that reflect how they live, spend, and save in the digital age.
Acknowledging the Risks and Addressing Them
Of course, crypto is not without risks and I always recommend that individuals do their research before opting in. The solution is not to avoid the topic; it is to empower employees with tools and education.
Employers exploring crypto-based benefits can take a measured approach. They can consider offering it as an optional investment, not a default. Id also suggest working with vetted providers who prioritize security, compliance, and clear communication. Pairing any offering with robust educational resources, FAQs, and access to financial advisors who can demystify digital assets, is also a great way to boost comfortability.
The key is to treat crypto the same way you would any emerging benefit, with transparency, optionality and a commitment to employee well-being.
Practical Steps for HR Leaders in 2026
For HR leaders ready to explore crypto benefits, the first step is understanding your workforcedemographics and culture matter. A fintech startup with a younger, more digitally native employee base might see strong engagement with crypto offerings, while a more traditional organization may need to start with education before adoption. Surveying employees to assess their interest in digital assets can be a simple but powerful way to temperature check.
The next step is choosing the right partners. Not all crypto providers are equipped to support retirement accounts, so it is critical to work with platforms that prioritize regulatory compliance, custodial protections, and seamless integration with existing 401(k) systems. Some platforms now offer hybrid investment options that allow employees to allocate a portion of their paycheck into select digital assets without leaving the benefits ecosystem they are already using.
Transparency is important. Its best to avoid automatically enrolling employees in crypto offerings. Instead, HR teams should provide opt-in structures that come with clear, plain-language explanations of both the opportunities and the risks. Educational webinars, explainer videos, and live Q&A sessions with financial experts can go a long way toward demystifying the space. If your company already hosts financial wellness sessions, this could be a natural extension of that programming.
Pilot programs can also be an effective way to start small. For example, a small to medium-size tech company might roll out crypto access to new hires first or limit participation to a single office location. This allows HR teams to collect feedback, monitor engagement, and refine the program before scaling company wide.
Finally, do not forget governance. Any new benefit, particularly one tied to emerging financial tools, may need to be incorporated into your companys official investment policy statement and reviewed by legal and compliance teams. Document the process for evaluating and updating these benefits, and make sure employees receive up-to-date risk disclosures and support materials.
Crypto does not have to be a wholesale transformation of your retirement program. But offering a responsible, opt-in pathway to digital assets could send a strong message to employees that your company is forward-thinking, flexible, and prepared to meet the evolving financial needs of its workforce.
The Future of Financial Benefits
Offering access to crypto does not mean veering from traditional assets. It means you are acknowledging the financial lives of your employees are evolving and that your benefits should, too. An important strategy for companies looking to hire smart young talent.
As the regulatory landscape continues to shift, employers have a rare opportunity to lead withinnovation. Crypto-based benefits are not a gimmick or a passing trend, they are a signal that your company is preparing for the future of work and the future of wealth.
As a leader, make sure you empower your team with the options they need to build a more diversified, resilient financial future.
When teachers rely on commonly used artificial intelligence chatbots to devise lesson plans, it does not result in more engaging, immersive, or effective learning experiences compared with existing techniques, we found in our recent study. The AI-generated civics lesson plans we analyzed also left out opportunities for students to explore the stories and experiences of traditionally marginalized people.
The allure of generative AI as a teaching aid has caught the attention of educators. A Gallup survey from September 2025 found that 60% of K-12 teachers are already using AI in their work, with the most common reported use being teaching preparation and lesson planning.
Without the assistance of AI, teachers might spend hours every week crafting lessons for their students. With AI, time-stretched teachers can generate detailed lesson plans featuring learning objectives, materials, activities, assessments, extension activities, and homework tasks in a matter of seconds.
However, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot were not originally built with educators in mind. Instead, these tools were trained on huge amounts of text and media drawn largely from across the internet and then launched as general-purpose chatbots.
As we started using these tools in our practice as educators, we noticed they often produced instructional materials and lessons that echoed the recite and recall model of traditional schooling. This model can be effective for memorizing basic facts, but it often fails to engage students in the active learning required to become informed citizens. We wondered whether teachers should be using these general-purpose chatbots to prepare for class.
For our research, we began collecting and analyzing AI-generated lesson plans to get a sense of what kinds of instructional plans and materials these tools provide to teachers. We decided to focus on AI-generated lesson plans for civics education because it is essential for students to learn productive ways to participate in the U.S. political system and engage with their communities.
To collect data for this study, in August 2024 we prompted three GenAI chatbotsthe GPT-4o model of ChatGPT, Googles Gemini 1.5 Flash model and Microfts latest Copilot modelto generate two sets of lesson plans for eighth grade civics classes based on Massachusetts state standards. One was a standard lesson plan and the other a highly interactive lesson plan.
We garnered a dataset of 311 AI-generated lesson plans, featuring a total of 2,230 activities for civic education. We analyzed the dataset using two frameworks designed to assess educational material: Blooms taxonomy and Banks four levels of integration of multicultural content.
Blooms taxonomy is a widely used educational framework that distinguishes between lower-order thinking skills, including remembering, understanding and applying, and higher-order thinking skillsanalyzing, evaluating and creating. Using this framework to analyze the data, we found 90% of the activities promoted only a basic level of thinking for students. Students were encouraged to learn civics through memorizing, reciting, summarizing and applying information, rather than through analyzing and evaluating information, investigating civic issues or engaging in civic action projects.
When examining the lesson plans using Banks four levels of integration of multicultural content model, which was developed in the 1990s, we found that the AI-generated civics lessons featured a rather narrow view of history often leaving out the experiences of women, Black Americans, Latinos and Latinas, Asian and Pacific Islanders, disabled individuals and other groups that have long been overlooked. Only 6% of the lessons included multicultural content. These lessons also tended to focus on heroes and holidays rather than deeper explorations of understanding civics through multiple perspectives.
Overall, we found the AI-generated lesson plans to be decidedly boring, traditional, and uninspiring. If civics teachers used these AI-generated lesson plans as is, students would miss out on active, engaged learning opportunities to build their understanding of democracy and what it means to be a citizen.
Why it matters
Teachers can try to customize lesson plans to their situation through prompts, but ultimately generative AI tools do not consider any actual students or real classroom settings the way a teacher can.
Although designed to seem as if they understand users and be in dialogue with them, from a technical perspective chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot are machines that predict the next word in a sequence based on massive amounts of ingested text.
When teachers choose to use these tools while preparing to teach, they risk relying on technology not designed to enhance, aid or improve teaching and learning. Instead, we see these tools producing step-by-step, one-size-fits-all solutions, when whats needed in education is the opposite flexibility, personalization and student-centered learning.
Whats next
While our study revealed that AI-generated lesson plans are lacking in many areas, this does not mean that teachers should not use these tools to prepare for class. A teacher could use generative AI technologies to advance their thinking. In the AI-generated lesson plans we analyzed, there were occasional interesting activities and stimulating ideas, especially within the homework suggestions. We would recommend that teachers use these tools to augment their lesson-planning process rather than automate it.
By understanding AI tools cannot think or understand context, teachers can change the way they interact with these tools. Rather than writing simple, short requests Design a lesson plan for the Constitutional Convention they could write detailed prompts that include contextual information, along with proven frameworks, models and teaching methods. A better prompt would be: Design a lesson plan for the Constitutional Convention for 8th grade students in Massachusetts that features at least three activities at the evaluate or create level of Blooms Taxonomy. Make sure to incorporate hidden histories and untold stories as well as civic engagement activities at the social action level of Banks four levels of integration of multicultural content model.
Our study emphasizes the need for teachers to be critical users, rather than quick adopters, of AI-generated lessons. AI is not an all-in-one solution designed to address the needs of teachers and students. Ultimately, more research and teacher professional development opportunities are needed toexplore whether or how AI might improve teaching and learning.
Torrey Trust is a professor of learning technology at UMass Amherst.
Robert Maloy is a senior lecturer of education at the University of Massachusetts.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Melinda French Gates has been very busy since her divorce and subsequent departure from the Gates Foundation. For example, she launched her own venture, with $12.5 billion to put toward advancing causes she cares about, specifically those related to women and families. She has even gotten involved in politics, endorsing a candidate for the first time ever.
French Gates isnt new to leading an organization, or to leading people. She has spent the past few decades leaving her imprint on what is arguably the most influential charitable organization in the world. Still, I imagine it can all get a little overwhelming at times. The key to managing it all isnt to work constantly, according to French Gates. As counterintuitive as it might seem, one of the most important things is getting enough sleep.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, French Gates says she believes in the importance of getting seven or eight hours of sleep a night. She also had a few choice words for those who claim they dont need to sleep more than a few hours a night, something she says is so dumb.
You can probably imagine the type. At some point, it became a weird sort of flex to suggest that you didnt need sleep. It was as though sleeping was considered some kind of weakness. Instead, there is a type of leader who seems to think working all the time is a strength.
Elon Musk, for example, has claimed that working long hours was necessary to run his companies. While Musk now says he tries to get at least six hours of sleep, there are a number of instances where he talked about working more than 120 hours a week and sleeping on the factory floor for a few hours at a time. The same goes for Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of Pepsi, who has said she only needs four hours of sleep.
I guess you could argue that if you arent sleeping, you could be using that time to be productive. The problem is, thats almost never how it works.
Working excessive hours is not a virtue. It might feel like a badge of honor, but it rarely amounts to better outcomes. Sleeping less doesnt make you stronger or more productive; it just makes you more tired. And tired people almost never perform as well as they could with a good nights sleep.
Look, I am definitely a morning person. I prefer to get up pretty early because its when Im most productive, but that doesnt mean I dont need any sleep. It means I need to plan accordingly and go to bed early enough to get seven hours of sleep.
In fact, Ive argued on a number of occasions that the single best thing you can do to be more productive is to get enough sleep. It turns out, science agrees with me, and with French Gates.
The Centers for Disease Control has said that most adults need at least seven hours of sleep. In fact, some scientific studies have suggested that sleeping for only four hours a night is just as bad for your body and your mind as not sleeping at all.
The consequences for not sleeping arent just that youre ready to doze off by the fourth meeting of the day. Lack of sleep can contribute to real health issues like stress, anxiety, heart disease, and diabetes.
The CDC also says that almost 40 percent of adults dont get enough sleep, defined as fewer than six hours. Thats a lot of tired, stressed-out people not performing at their best.
The lesson here seems really simple: You should make it a priority to get enough sleep. Youll be far more productive when you show up to work rested and energized. If you lead an organization or a team, you owe it to your people to be at your best. If you think you can be at your best by working constantly without taking time to rest andmore specificallyto sleep, well, French Gates has a few words for you.
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Jason Aten
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
Lots of work situations require some creativity. A client needs a nonstandard solution to a problem. A colleague is stuck in a dispute with their supervisor. Youre writing an article and you need to find a third good example of the concept youre describing (see what I did there?).
You may have the occasional brilliant insight, but then look on in dismay at all of the mediocre ideas you come up with in times of need. Is there something you can do to come up with better ideas?
The answer is, sort of.
Quantity over quality
First off, dont fret if you feel like most of the ideas you generate when trying to solve a new problem are bad. Research on creativity consistently demonstrates that the people who come up with the best ideas are the ones who come up with the most ideas. That is, you cant really know as youre thinking of a new idea whether it will be a brilliant stroke or another dud. But, if you keep generating ideas, youll eventually land on a gem.
That means your focus should be on finding ways to keep generating ideas. Dont get discouraged and give up when your first few thoughts arent amazing. Stick with it for longer than you think you need to.
When the well seems to have run dry, dont give up right away. Refocus yourself on the problem statement and think about whether there is another way to characterize the central problem. Consider giving the problem a title that encapsulates the central dilemma or try describing the problem to a colleague who knows nothing about it. (Computer programmers often keep a rubber duck on their desk to describe coding problems to, because they find it helps them find solutions to tough problems.)
Dont be afraid to incubate
A creative flash may strike you when you set about trying to generate an idea, but sometimes you generate many thoughts and no gems. No matter how much pressure you may be feeling to come up with a great concept, try giving it a rest.
There are several benefits to letting the problem sit for a while (a process called incubation). First, your initial thoughts about the problem may stick in your mind crowding out other potential solutions. Putting the problem aside may allow those persistent thoughts to fade into the background, allowing other ideas to emerge.
Second, you may actually continue noodling on the problem in the background even when youre not focusing on the problem explicitly. As a result, you may find yourself suddenly hit with an insight.
Third, your memory for the problem description will change in subtle ways over time. You are likely to focus less on the details and more on the gist of the problem. This natural change over time (particularly if you sleep on the problem for a day or two) may provide an alternative method for redescribing the problem that has the benefits I discussed in the previous section.
Learn to turn a B- into an A
Another thing to know about great creative problem solvers is that they are often masterful editors. That is, they dont just spin out golden thoughts at the drop of a hat. As I mentioned, most of the things they think of at first are more likely to be straw.
But, they are good at spinning straw into gold. By continuing to think through the ideas they generate, they may find that a flimsy initial concept becomes stronger by addressing its weaknesses. So, rather than kicking every mediocre concept to the curb, hold onto the list of ideas you generate. Then, explore those ideas in more detail. Ask yourself why they wont work. When you state the objection to the idea, you may find yourself thinking of elegant ways to adapt the initially bland concept into something that shines. That is, lurking within a B- idea that you have generated may be the roots of the A+ you really desire.
In some cities, as Amazon delivery vans make the rounds with your latest order, theyre also delivering something differentfree food to people who rely on food banks.
In a program that quietly started during the pandemic, the company has used its logistics infrastructure to deliver enough groceries for 60 million meals to families facing food insecurity. Today, Amazon announced that its extending the program with its food bank partners through 2028.
The Community Delivery program began early in the pandemic as the companys disaster relief team saw long lines at food banks and looked for ways to help people stuck at home.
We started talking to our operational teams here at Amazon and said, were doing this for our customerswere delivering food to their doorstep, says Bettina Stix, director of Amazon Community Impact. What if we did that same delivery, but instead of coming from our Amazon grocery fulfillment, it would come from the food bank?
[Photo: Amazon]
As pandemic restrictions ended, they realized that there was still a clear need for delivery. In a study with Feeding America last year, they found that 46% of visitors to food pantries had skipped visits because of transportation challenges. (Unsurprisingly, that number jumps to 60% for people without a car.) Others might work multiple jobs and simply not have enough time. Some recipients who use the delivery program said that theyd never been able to access free food from a pantry in the past.
There are many people who, because of disability or transportation or schedule constraints, can’t get to a pantry, or stand in line at a pantry, or transport a 25-pound bag of groceries home, says Seth Harris, associate director of home-delivered groceries at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, one of more than 40 food banks that now works with Amazon. Picking up groceries from a food pantry might involve two hours of travel and trying to navigate a bus with a heavy package.
Some food banks already offered limited home delivery, but it’s resource-intensive and typically relies on volunteers, making it difficult to scale. “At some point, you end up in a world where you have more deliveries than can be done by a single route,” says Josh Hirschland, principal product manager for food security at Amazon Community Impact.
“So then you start to think about, okay, how do we divide up the packages across multiple routes? How do you set the order of the different stops to be the most efficient, and how do you divide that up? How do you manage all of these orders? How do you figure out which ones have been picked up? Have you made sure that they’re being delivered?” Hirschland adds.
The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank had a delivery program before working with Amazon, but was able to significantly expand it. The nonprofit now makes around 1,000 home deliveries a day, primarily to seniors and adults with disabilities.
[Photo: Amazon]
In many cases, Amazon works with its network of Flex drivers, gig workers who use their own cars, to make the deliveries. Instead of picking up a shift for Amazon Fresh, a driver can choose to pick up a carful of prepacked boxes from a food bank and deliver them over the next hour or two. Amazon foots the bill. The program, like the rest of its Community Impact work, isn’t a separate philanthropic arm of the company, but part of a business strategy to find ways to benefit communities by using its existing infrastructure and technology.
The company adapted software that it had initially used for Amazon Restaurants, a food delivery service that the company shut down in 2019. Engineers created a portal that food banks can use to add and track orders.
In some cities, like Los Angeles and Austin, food banks pack shelf-stable food that doesn’t need to be delivered immediately, and the boxes can be incorporated into regular Amazon delivery routes. Larger trucks pick up pallets of boxes at food banks and take them to Amazon sort centers.
“At the sort center, those boxes start to be comingled with iPhone cables and jigsaw puzzles, and then get sent down to a truck where they are driven to the delivery station,” Hirschland says. At the company’s last-mile delivery stations, boxes are loaded onto racks and then head out on vans. Using vans helps make it easier to reach rural areas, he says, where it’s often even harder for families to access food pantries.
[Photo: Amazon]
The company now has a team of engineers dedicated to continuing to improve the technology behind the philanthropic initiative. One recent feature, for example, tracks how long each package is with the driver, from pickup to delivery.
Since the program started, Amazon has been renewing it with its food bank partners each year. But now, with a longer three-year extension, the nonprofits will be better able to plan. “If you are running a home delivery program as a food bank, even if the transportation is free, there are still any number of costs that you’re looking at,” Hirschland says. Food banks also don’t want to offer the service and then have to unexpectedly cancel it. The longer commitment “is something that we’ve been trying to d for a long time,” he says.
The need keeps growing: The cost of food is now nearly 30% higher than it was in 2020. Tariffs are pushing up the cost of imported foods like bananas and coffee. The Department of Labor warned last week that current immigration policies are causing a shortage of workers on farms, and that’s also threatening the food supply chain and food prices.
The budget bill that President Trump signed in July made steep cuts to SNAP, the federal food assistance program, that will soon begin rolling out. Earlier in the year, the Department of Agriculture cut $1 billion in funding for food banks and school nutrition programs to buy food from local farms. With rents and energy prices also rising, buying food has become even more of a strain.
The delivery program can’t solve the larger issues that make hunger a logistics problem. But in a strained system, it’s become a critical tool for food banks.
Iceland has long been known as the only habitable place in the world free from mosquitoes. (Antarctica is also mosquito-free, but is not habitable to humans). The Nordic country has been spared from the insects in part because of its intense winters and oceanic climateuntil now.
Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the first time this month, a sign of how our warming world is enabling the pesky and downright deadly insects to expand their range.
An insect enthusiast in Kjós named Björn Hjaltason posted about his discovery in a Facebook group that translates to Insects in Iceland, multiple Icelandic news outlets have reported. Ladies and gentlemenmay I introduce . . . for the first time in Iceland . . . MOSQUITO!” the post read, according to the Icelandic newspaper Vísir.
After finding three mosquitoes, Hjaltason sent the insects to the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, which researches the countrys natural environment. Matthías Alfresson, an entomologist there, confirmed the bugs were, in fact, mosquitoesspecifically, ones from the Culiseta annulata species, which is native to northern Europe.
Mosquitoes have previously been found on planes coming into Iceland, Alfresson told RÚV, the national public broadcaster, but this recent finding marked the first time that the insect has been found on Icelandic soil. He said the discovery was significant.
A warming world
Climate change is causing the entire planet to experience record-high temperatures, and Iceland is particularly affected. Iceland has been warming about three times faster than the global average warming rate, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Rising temperatures are also lighting a fuse under volcanoes, causing more eruptionsa process already observed in Iceland. Almost all of Icelands glaciers are receding, and some have vanished completely.
As our planet warms, it becomes more hospitable to insects, which spread beyond their native regions. Scientists have long warned that mosquitoes are on the move, and as they are the worlds deadliest animalcarrying diseases from malaria to Zika virus to dengue feverthat puts millions more people at risk.
Culiseta annulata is not considered a primary vector for disease, but other mosquitoes that have been expanding into colder areas of the world are. Asian tiger mosquitoes, originally from Southeast Asia, which transmit dengue, have recently been found in the United Kingdom, for example.
In Iceland to stay
Iceland was always somewhat of an anomaly when it came to its lack of the buzzing, biting bugs. Its Nordic neighbors, including Denmark, Norway, and Greenland, have had thriving mosquito populations. Iceland is also full of lakes and ponds, where mosquitoes often breed. (The country is home to other flying, biting bugs, though.)
Scientists have theorized, The New York Times previously reported, that Icelands oceanic climate, including its multiple major freezes and thaws each year, has kept the bugs from breeding and surviving.
But the mosquitoes recently found in Iceland are likely there to stay, entomologists say.
The species is particularly cold-resistant and may survive the Icelandic winters by hiding out in basements or barns. Experts will need to monitor the situation come spring to see if the species really becomes established in Iceland, one entomologist told Fast Company.
Their potential infiltration of the Nordic island ultimately isnt much of a surprise to scientists, who have expected this outcome as evidence of global warming has mounted.
Icelands average air temperature has increased about 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 20 years, per the Times, allowing some 200 new insect species to make Iceland their home, when they couldnt previously survive its conditions.
If the warming continues, we may find mosquitoes in Iceland in the near future, Gisli Mar Gislason, a biologist at the University of Iceland, predicted in an interview with the Times in 2016.
Netflix missed Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings targets because of an unexpected expense from a dispute with Brazilian tax authorities, while it offered a forecast a touch ahead of Wall Street projections for the rest of the year.
The report failed to impress investors accustomed to fast-paced growth from the streaming video pioneer. Shares of Netflix, which had risen 39% this year ahead of the earnings report, fell 6.3%, to $1,163.80, in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Netflix posted net income of $2.5 billion and diluted earnings per share of $5.87 for July through September, a period when the animated K-Pop Demon Hunters became the most-watched movie in Netflix history. Analysts had expected $3 billion and $6.97, respectively, according to the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).
Revenue was even with forecasts, at $11.5 billion.
Netflix is seeking growth from new areas such as advertising and video games after attracting more than 300 million customers around the world. It faces competition from YouTube, Amazon’s Prime Video, Disney+, and others. The media business is facing major changes, including the potential sale of industry titan Warner Bros. Discovery and the rise of generative artificial intelligence with the ability to produce short-form video.
Netflix reported an operating margin of 28% for the third quarter. Without the Brazilian tax expense of roughly $619 million, the margin would have exceeded the company’s guidance of 31.5%, it said, adding that it did not expect the matter to have a material impact on future results.
PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said he believed the tax issue weighed on Netflix shares.
“All things considered, this was another robust quarter, despite a blip due to an unforeseen expense,” Pescatore said.
For the fourth quarter, Netflix forecast revenue of $11.96 billion, compared with Wall Street’s projection of $11.90 billion. It projected diluted earnings per share a penny ahead of analysts’ targets, at $5.45.
For the third quarter, Netflix said it recorded its best ad sales quarter in history but did not disclose a number.
“This gives the impression that the sustained revenue growth achieved this quarter, and forecasted for next quarter, will predominantly continue to come from subscription fees,” eMarketer analyst Ross Benes said.
Netflix will release the final season of one of its biggest hits, Stranger Things, in November and December, and stream two live National Football League games on Christmas.
“We’re finishing the year with good momentum and have an exciting Q4 slate,” Netflix said in its quarterly letter to shareholders.
Earlier this year, Netflix stopped reporting subscriber numbers and urged investors to focus on revenue and profit.
It has expanded into video games and advertising, two areas that have contributed little to revenue so far, according to analysts and investors.
By Lisa Richwine, Reuters
Seeking a flatter management structure is a leadership trend you could compare to fashions craze for skinny jeanstrendy yesterday, forgotten tomorrow, then back in fashion again before you know it. Recently, big tech firms like Meta, Microsoft, and Google made headlines for cutting management positions to lower costs and increase productivityturning some of their workloads over to AI tools.
But a new survey from San Francisco-based workplace communications outfit Firstup shows that eliminating too many management jobs can have some unexpected effects on the way your teams work, sometimes damaging employee engagement, which undermines productivity. This is definitely something to bear in mind if youre considering restructuring your own companys management ranks.
The surveys top results show that employees think middle management layers are crucial to the company success. More than half the people surveyed said their direct manager was their most trusted source for up-to-date workplace newscompared to just 10% who think that senior leadership is their best source for this information.
Interestingly, the Firstup survey, which quizzed 1,000 U.S.-based, full-time non-managerial employees at companies that carried out layoffs in the last year, shows that junior staff think that their middle management layers are critical to their well-being at work. Fully 75% of respondents said they rely on managers for recognition and appreciation, 63% said they relied on them for helping tackle workplace challenges, while 50% said they seek coaching and development advice from managers. Meanwhile, 86% of people said they relied on managers to translate company updates into meaningful advice about what changes mean for individual workers.
This paints a picture of junior staff relying on their layers of middle management as a trust and information barrier between themselves and senior leadershipperhaps hinting at an ivory tower syndrome surrounding senior management.
Other survey details offer a deeper view of what happens when layoffs hit the management structure of a company.
Fully 38% of survey respondents said that since their company experienced layoffs, their manager had become less accessible. This has had consequences: 30% of people said theyd felt less support when things were disrupted or changed, 34% expected theyll lose a sense of connection and 30% expected decreased or zero access for mentorship and career development options.
Employees also dont trust senior leaders, with nearly 40% saying they cant get mentorship or guidance from upper management, 37% saying they feel unheard by the top leaders, and only 47% agreeing that their company leadership is somewhat transparent.
This paints an interesting picture of how the average U.S. worker views their management, relying on their direct supervisors while apparently distrusting upper layers of company leadership. The report quotes Firstup CEO Bill Schuh, who explained that the data show workers see middle managers as critical for translating organizational priorities into action, clarity, and connection for their direct report.
As companies shed middle managers, they risk losing this vital link, which can leave frontline workers feeling lost and unsupported. That discontent will likely diminish their engagement with their work, and could reduce their productivity. Meanwhile Schuh also noted that stripping managers out adds strain on their remaining colleagues. That means companies are asking fewer managers to do more, and that simply is not sustainable, he said. While AI is useful for handling some mundane managerial tasks, it wont replace the human connection and leadership that great managers provide.
What does this mean for your company?
In smaller organizations, there may be more of a direct line of communication between senior leaders and frontline workers: but these data are still important. If youre considering trimming your intermediate management structure, you should consider how this will impact employee trust and expectations for career advancement. Open and frank conversations may improve levels of trust among your employees and help support their engagement and productivity during times of upheaval.
Kit Eaton
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
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After a record-setting rally over the past week, commodities traders went all in on a massive gold sell-off on Tuesday. The price of the precious metal fell down to $4,118 an ounce, after a high of $4,381.52 an ounce just one day before. Meanwhile, silver is trading at $48.76 an ounce in midday trading at the time of this writing, down from $54.35 last week.
At the time of this writing, the live gold spot price for an ounce of gold in U.S. dollars (USD) is $4,133.13, a gram of gold is $132.88 and one kilogram of gold is $132,883.22, according to JM Bullion.(Gold spot price can fluctuate by the second.)
For some context, that means gold prices have decreased the most they have in four years, and silver is seeing its biggest drop since early 2021, per Bloomberg.
This is a stunning reversal from last week, which saw gold and silver prices spiking as investors sought out a “safe haven” from more volatility in the stock market due to overall economic uncertainty.
The two main ways to invest in gold and silver are by buying the physical metals, or through futures contracts.
What’s causing the abrupt change?
Analysts say it’s not just one thing causing the slump. They point to the current economic and political climate, including a prolonged government shutdown; upcoming U.S. and China trade talks amid Trump’s escalating tariff wars with Beijing; and softer than expected numbers from the US Consumer Price Index (CPI), which are expected to be released by end of week.
The shutdown is delaying some economic and jobs data from coming out as government workers are currently furloughed, while at the same time, there have been mass firings.
Meanwhile, a standoff with Beijing over rare earth minerals resulted in President Donald Trump threatening a massive increase of tariffs on Chinese products,” seemingly triggering a market sell-off.
However, a retreat from gold and silver could mean the market is feeling more secureand therefore, a good sign investors aren’t running for cover.
