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On the morning of March 20, Mathew Roberts was working at a chemical plant on the outskirts of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when he was involved in an accident with a forklift. Unresponsive and in critical condition, the father of two and Iraq War veteran known for his big laugh and warm smile was taken from the Nutrien nitrogen plant to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident, along with local law enforcement, but Robertss family members said they are still waiting for answers. The workplace death is not unusual in Louisiana, which has been ranked the sixth-most-dangerous state for workers in the U.S., according to a study that used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than 200 chemical plants and refineries sit along an 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, which has been dubbed Cancer Alley because of the high rates of cancer linked to petrochemicals. In recent years, there have been multiple chemical plant exposures or explosions in the state. In December, a possible explosion occurred at a Westlake Corp. chemical plant not far from the Nutrien plant. In October, four workers were sent to the hospital after being exposed to ammonia at a Formosa Plastics plant. In September, a hydrogen gas explosion at the nearby Chevron Renewable Energy Group plant injured two people. Several weeks before Robertss accident, Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency announced that it will close 11 OSHA field offices, including the one in Baton Rouge that is investigating Robertss death. It is the agencys only office in Louisiana, and its potential closure is raising concerns among workplace safety experts. The closures remain under review, per the U.S. Department of Labor, which oversees OSHA. A Department of Labor spokesperson told Capital & Main, Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors continue to conduct legally required inspections and remain focused on OSHAs core mission to prevent injury, illness, and death in the workplace and promote safe and healthy workplaces for U.S. workers. A spokesperson for DOGE did not respond to Capital & Mains request for comment. Former OSHA Director David Michaels said by closing the office, those enormous oil and petrochemical facilities with significant safety and health hazards will be inspected even less frequently than they are now. By closing the office, the government will save $109,346, according to DOGE. OSHA staffers in the office will have to choose between leaving OSHA entirely or relocating to another region hundreds of miles away, Michaels said. Staffers at the Baton Rouge office said theyre not aware of any layoffs, though rumors have been swirling since the DOGE announcement in mid-March. Were still here, but I dont know for how long, said one staffer who asked not to be identified out of fear it would put their job in jeopardy. In addition to the Baton Rouge office, which conducted 386 workplace inspections over the last year and assessed more than $750,000 in penalties for serious violations, DOGE is also planning to close field offices in Houston and in Mobile, Alabama. These closures will result in more injuries, illnesses, and deaths, Michaels said. Musks efficiency mandate will end up affecting workers, said Bernard Fontaine Jr., a former OSHA compliance officer. What theyre trying to do is consolidate offices and reduce costs, Fontaine said. But the impact of the services being provided is going to be dramatically reduced so that when people call and file a complaint, it may not be addressed for a very long period of time. By then, someone could be very sick. This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
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Exhaustion. Mental fatigue. Difficulty concentrating. Irritability. Dreading your next calendar appointment. Nobody likes showing up to work with a hangover. But these days, you dont need a long night of drinking to feel the effects. Instead, you might be suffering from a meeting hangoverthe lingering exhaustion, disengagement, and productivity drain that follow an unproductive meeting. Studies show that 28% of workplace meetings leave employees feeling drained, with more than 90% of workers experiencing meeting hangovers at least occasionally. Nearly half (47%) report feeling less engaged with their work afterward, while more than half say these hangovers disrupt their workflow and productivity. Meetings are a double-edged sword. Despite their pitfalls, they remain the most common form of workplace communication. In fact, research suggests face-to-face meetings are more effective for idea generation and task absorption than video calls. In other words, meetings arent going anywhere. But leaders can take chargeensuring meetings are productive, efficient, and, most importantly, not hangover-inducing. Here are the strategies I use as CEO of Jotform. Set a concise agenda If youve ever walked into a grocery store for a few essentials and walked out with a cart full of snacks, you understand the power of having a clear list. The same principle applies to meetings. At Jotform, meeting agendas are indispensable. We also believe in minimizing meetings. By preparing an agenda, you can determine if a meeting is really necessary. If an asynchronous methodlike an email, Slack message, or shared documentcan achieve the same outcome faster, we opt for that instead. But when a real-time discussion is necessary, such as brainstorming solutions to an ongoing issue, a meeting is the right call. An agenda also ensures that only the necessary people are in the room. If someone isnt essential to the conversation, they can contribute asynchronouslyperhaps by answering follow-up questions afterward. As a result, we have fewer, more efficient meetings and fewer meeting hangovers. Keep the conversation on track The Big Apple Circus in New York once featured a team of Chinese jugglers who could each spin eight plates at a time on the ends of long, slender sticks. Interviewing is a similar balancing act, writes professor and journalist Helen Benedict. The same is true for leading a meeting. Youre listening, observing, processing, and asking questionsall while ensuring the discussion stays focused. Benedicts strategy for interviews is to arrive with a list of questions and stick to them religiouslyeven if it means cutting off tangents and redirecting the conversation. It may not be smooth conversational technique, she writes, but it can save me hours of listening to off-the-track waffling. Running a meeting requires the same discipline. If a discussion starts veering off course, our meeting leaders are tasked with gently steering it back. If were stuck on a point with no resolution, we note it and ask participants to revisit it later rather than letting it derail the agenda. This helps us conclude meetings on timeand sometimes early. If an hour-long meeting ends up taking 45 minutes, theres no need to fill the space with white noise. Recap with clear deliverables Finally, we never leave a meeting without a clear recap of whos responsible for what. Outlining deliverables ensures that nothing falls through the crackstasks dont get lost, and responsibilities dont blur or overlap. This is where Ive found AI agents make a huge difference. Combined with AI-powered note-taking apps, agents can generate concise summaries, highlight key takeaways tailored to each participants role, and compile a clear action-item list. This accountability creates a sense of shared leadership and boosts team effectiveness. An AI agent can also streamline follow-ups by creating a separate document with action items and deadlines, time-stamping key moments so participants can revisit discussions without replaying the entire meeting, and even drafting follow-up emailsleaving nothing more to do than review and hit send. With these tasks automated, meeting participants can stay focused on the actual substance of the meeting rather than getting bogged down in administrative details. This also cuts down the total time spent on meetings. Despite technological advancements, the time that workers spend in unproductive meetings has doubled since 2019to five hours per week. With automation and the above strategies, employees can spend less time on meetings, experience fewer hangovers, and feel energized to take on more meaningful work.
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E-Commerce
Nathan Fielders comedy can feel like watching a slow-motion plane crash. On semi-scripted shows such as Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, the comedian makes real people squirm with his bizarre suggestions, which he offers with rigor mortis-level deadpan. Some of it is best viewed through the slightly parted fingers of a face-obscuring hand. The second season of The Rehearsal, returning to HBO on April 20, is no exception. Like its predecessor, the show again uses elaborate role-play to game out difficult social scenarios, only this time the stakes are way higher. Season 2 focuses on the dynamic between copilotsand how it can lead to, or possibly prevent, plane crashes. But while the topic may be eerily timely, this season is truly about the universal experience of standing up to a superior at work. In its first season, Fielder positioned The Rehearsal as a show where different people practice solving a new interpersonal problem each episode. Using a fleet of actors and expensive, movie-caliber sets, Fielder created a reality-simulation technique that allowed its subjects to rehearse, say, admitting to a friend theyd been lying for years about having a masters degree. By Episode 2, however, the show pivoted to helping one womanand Fielder himselfrehearse what it might be like to become parents. The remainder of the season was spent burrowing further down that (often uncomfortable) rabbit hole. The second season instead dispenses with any pretense of being an anthology and announces its aviation concentration straight away. As glimpsed in the trailer, the seasons opening moments encapsulate everything the show will spend this batch of six episodes unpacking. Inside a cockpit, the first officer voices his disapproval of the pilots tactics. The pilot ignores him, and their plane crashes in a fiery wreckonly for the cockpit to be revealed as a motion simulator. Cue Fielder emerging in front of a projected inferno, a Mona Lisa smile on his face. As they used to say on infomercials, theres got to be a better way. At some point after the first season of The Rehearsal aired in 2022, well before the recent spate of plane crashes and near misses, Fielder apparently became interested in air disasters. While reading through endless pages of black box transcripts, he uncovered a distinct pattern. Whenever first officers seemed to sense an imminent problem, they often either fell short of a full-throated warning or buckled under the slightest pushback. What if, Fielder wondered, he could help first officers rehearse advocating for themselves more effectively? Disagreeing with ones supervisor presents a classic conundrum. Say something and the boss might either overrule you or resent you for being right. Keep it to yourself, letting the chips fall where they may, and you might be the one getting thrown under the bus if theres any fallout. This thorny communication issue carries exponentially more urgency and risk, though, when it happens at high altitudes, with dozens of lives at stake. [Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO] Though he understands he might not be the right person to take on this particular communication conflict, Fielder recognizes a source of killer material when he sees one. A lot of the comedians previous work mined humor out of the way people communicate. His breakout series Nathan for You, which ran on Comedy Central for four seasons in the 2010s, featured Fielder convincing small business owners to try out wild marketing strategies. Although the strategies themselves were the meat of the showa yogurt shop unveiling a poo-flavored option, for instance, to drum up publicitypart of the cringy fun was watching Fielder talk people into going through with them. Hed present each ridiculous idea with a straight face and a feather-soft voice, then the owner would laugh nervously, unsure whether Fielder was serious. (Rule number one of these shows: Fielder is always serious.) Viewers could practically see the gears turning in the owners heads, questioning whether the reward of getting a plug for their business on a TV show will be worth the short-term pain of actually going through with a poo-flavored yogurt promotion. Invariably, theyd agree to whatever madness Fielder had in store, usually after an awkward silence. [Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO] In the second season of The Rehearsal, though, that equation has inverted. Instead of using his authority as an ambassador of television to talk people into doing something, hes teaching people to talk someone in a position of authority out of doing something. Throughout the course of the season, as with most Fielder productions, some profoundand profoundly uncomfortabletruths come tumbling out. Also as per usual, the show is filled with surreal meta-moments, inventive tableaux, and the creator rappling with whether his own communication issues might stem from having the aura of a corporate IT guy with a dark secret. Whether the comedian ultimately finds a practical method for making difficult cockpit conversations easier will remain unspoiled here. Watching the show, though, should provide some new ideas about how to communicate with ones bossespecially when theyre about to make a huge mistake.
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Every few months, theres a new story or study or think piece on the exact dollar amount needed to afford retirement. The most recent is Northwestern Mutuals 2025 Planning & Progress Study, which found that Americans believe they need $1.26 million to retire comfortably. Unfortunately, many people give up on the very idea of saving for retirement when they hear $1.26 million is the price tag for a comfortable (not lavish) retirement. Aiming for a seven-figure nest egg can feel out of reach for many of uswhich may explain why Northwestern Mutual also found that 51% of Americans expect to outlive their money. But the reality of retirement is far more nuanced than studies like this make it seem. Not only is there no magic number that will ensure a well-funded and fulfilling retirement, but you also have a great deal of agency over your financial decisions now and in retirement. Heres what you need to know about planning your retirement if youre worried that your portfolio will never measure up to the target number du jour. $1.26 million is meaningless Theres a reason why the Northwestern Mutual studyand others like itchoose to name a specific dollar figure as a retirement goal: its eye-catching. Every person who reads the study or scrolls past the headline will have a visceral and emotional reaction to that dollar amount. But even though $1.26 million is a very specific amount of money, its also meaningless. For some people, $1.26 million is an astronomical sum. For others, it will barely cover the first five years of retirement. And both groups of people can create a fulfilling retirement, even though their nest egg isnt in the same zip code. How much you really need to retire Instead of focusing on the specific target amount listed in studies like these, its better to aim for a goal based on your personal financial situation. One common rule of thumb is to aim for a nest egg equal to 10x your final salary. This offers a more personalized metric to shoot for. For example, Oliver earns $55,000 per year and is aiming for a nest egg of at least $550,000. But Cynthia, who earns $300,000 per year, has a goal of $3 million. A goal of $1.26 million could be inappropriate for both of them for different reasonsits too high for Oliver and too low for Cynthia. Your retirement needs are personal and idiosyncratic and cant be summed up with a specific dollar amount. So you can feel free to ignore those numbers and focus on goals based on your financial situation. The importance of flexibility We often think of retirement planning as set in stone. You might ask yourself if you need $1.26 million to retire, assuming the answer is either yes or no. Similarly, the question of whether you can afford to retire at age 65 feels like it should have either a yes or no answer. But retirement decisions are not nearly so cut-and-dried. Any retirement plan you make should include flexibility that allows you to make changes as circumstances change. That starts with crunching the numbers to figure out your retirement budget based on what you have, rather than an arbitrary target number. You can make changes to your plans, spending, or savings based on the real data. This works for your planned retirement date, as well. If youre thinking about retiring at age 65, go ahead and plan for itbut make contingency plans if something changes and your anticipated retirement date is no longer an option. Get the retirement you wantfor less Embracing this kind of plan flexibility can even help with your big retirement dreams. Maybe you have a vision in your mind of retiring to a sun-soaked Greek isleand somehow ensuring that Colin Firth shows up. But if you dont have the money to make your Mamma Mia! retirement dreams a reality, you dont have to give up on Kalokairi entirely. You can include more affordable versions of your dream into your retirement planningsuch as spending a month singing along to “Dancing Queen” on white beachesso that you have options once you’re ready to retire. Retire on your terms Theres no shortage of financial reporting that will make you feel like youre doing it all wrong, especially when it comes to retirement. While putting more money aside for retirement is never a bad idea (seriouslytransfer some money to your 401(k) right now!), you can let go of any anxiety you feel when your nest egg cant compete with the currently touted retirement target. An easy way to calculate your retirement goal is to multiply your salary by 10, which gives you a target that fits your specific situation and needs. And no matter the size of your nest egg, build flexibility into your retirement plan for everything from timing to fulfilling your dreams. This will allow you to make your retirement work even if your circumstances change.
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E-Commerce
My brothers text messages can read like fragments of an ancient code: hru, wyd, plztruncated, cryptic, and never quite satisfying to receive. Ill often find myself second-guessing whether gr8 means actual excitement or whether its a perfunctory nod. This oddity has nagged at me for years, so I eventually embarked upon a series of studies with fellow researchers Sam Maglio and Yiran Zhang. I wanted to know whether these clipped missives might undermine genuine dialogue, exploring the unspoken signals behind digital shorthand. As we gathered data, surveyed people and set up experiments, it became clear that those tiny shortcutssometimes hailed as a hallmark of efficient communicationundermine relationships instead of simplifying them. Short words lead to feeling shortchanged Most people type ty and brb (for thank you and be right back) without batting an eye. In a survey we conducted of 150 American texters ages 18 to 65, 90.1% reported regularly using abbreviations in their daily messages, and 84.2% believed these shortcuts had either a positive effect or no meaningful impact on how the messages were perceived by the recipients. But our findings suggest that the mere inclusion of abbreviations, although seemingly benign, start feeling like a brush-off. In other words, whenever a texter chops words down to their bare consonants, recipients sense a lack of effort, which causes them to disengage. Its a subtle but pervasive phenomenon that most people dont intuit. We started with controlled lab tests, presenting 1,170 participants ages 15 to 80 with one of two near-identical text exchanges: one set sprinkled with abbreviations, the other fully spelled out. In every single scenario, participants rated the abbreviating sender as less sincere and far less worthy of a reply. The deeper we dug, the more consistent the pattern became. Whether people were reading messages about weekend plans or major life events, the presence of truncated words and phrases such as plz, sry, or idk for please, sorry, or I dont know made the recipients feel shortchanged. The phenomenon didnt stop with strangers. In more experiments, we tested whether closeness changed the dynamic. If youre texting a dear friend or a romantic partner, can you abbreviate to your hearts content? Evidently not. Even people imagining themselves chatting with a longtime buddy reported feeling a little put off by half-spelled words, and that sense of disappointment chipped away at how authentic the interaction felt. From Discord to dating apps Still, we had nagging doubts: Might this just be some artificial lab effect? We wondered whether real people on real platforms might behave differently. So we took our questions to Discord, a vibrant online social community where people chat about everything from anime to politics. More importantly, Discord is filled with younger people who use abbreviations like its second nature. We messaged random users asking them to recommend TV shows to watch. One set of messages fully spelled out our inquiry; the other set was filled with abbreviations. True to our lab results, fewer people responded to the abbreviated ask. Even among digital nativesyouthful, tech-savvy users who are well versed in the casual parlance of text messaginga text plastered with shortcuts still felt undercooked. If a few missing letters can sour casual chats, what happens when love enters the equation? After all, texting has become a cornerstone of modern romance, from coy flirtations to soul-baring confessions. Could plz call me inadvertently jeopardize a budding connection? Or does u up? hint at more apathy than affection? These questions guided our next foray, as we set out to discover whether the swift efficiency of abbreviations might actually short-circuit the delicate dance of courtship and intimacy. Our leap into the realm of romance culminated on Valentines Day with an online speed dating experiment. We paired participants for timed dates inside a private messaging portal, and offered half of them small incentives to pepper their replies with abbreviations such as ty instead of thank you. When it came time to exchange contact information, the daters receiving abbreviation-heavy notes were notably more reluctant, citing a lack of effort from the other party. Perhaps the most eye-opening evidence came from a separate study running a deep analysis of hundreds of thousands of Tinder conversations. The data showed that messages stuffed with abbreviations such as u and rly scored fewer overall responses and short-circuited conversations. Its the thought that counts We want to be clear: Were not campaigning to ban lol. Our research suggests that a few scattered abbreviations dont necessarily torpedo a friendship. Nor does every one of the many messages sent to many people every day warrant the full spelling-out treatment. Dont care about coming across as sincere? Dont need the recipient to respond? Then by all means, abbreviate away. Instead, its the overall reliance on condensed phrases that consistently lowers our impression of the senders sincerity. When we type plz a dozen times in a conversation, we risk broadcasting that the other person isnt worth the extra letters. The effect may be subtle in a single exchange. But over time, it accumulates. If your ultimate goal is to nurture a deeper connection, be it with a friend, a sibling, or a prospective date, taking an extra second to type thanks might be a wise investment. Abbreviations began as a clever workaround for clunky flip phones, with its keypad texting (recall tapping 5 three times to type the letter L) and strict monthly character limits. Yet here we are, long past those days, still trafficking in omg and brb, as though necessity never ended. After all of those studies, Ive circled back to my brothers texts with fresh eyes. Ive since shared with him our findings about how those tiny shortcuts can come across as half-hearted or indifferent. He still fires off brb in half his texts, and Ill probably never see him type Im sorry in full. But somethings shifting: He typed thank you a few times, even threw in a surprisingly heartfelt hope youre well the other day. Its a modest shift, but maybe thats the point. Sometimes, just a few more letters can let someone know they really matter. David Fang is a PhD student in marketing at Stanford University. Sam Maglio, an associate professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Toronto, contributed to the writing of this article. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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