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Many employers are demanding more from workers these days, pushing them to log as many hours as possible. Google, for example, told all its employees that they should expect to spend 60 or more hours in the office every week. Some tech companies are demanding 12-hour days, six days a week, from their new hires. More job applicants in healthcare, engineering, and consulting have been told to expect longer hours than previously demanded due to a weak job market. On the other hand, companies such as Cisco, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Intuit have earned a reputation for supporting a strong work-life balance, according to Glassdoor employee ratings. To promote work-life balance, they offer flexible work options, give workers tips on setting boundaries, and provide benefits to promote mental and physical well-being, including mindfulness and meditation training, and personal coaching outside of work. As a psychologist who studies workplace performance and well-being, Ive seen abundant evidence that overworking employees can actually make them less productive. Instead, research shows that when employees have the time and space to lead a fulfilling life outside worksuch as being free to spend time with their families or pursue creative hobbiesit improves their performance on the job. Falling prey to the “focusing illusion” For example, a team of researchers reviewed 70 studies looking at how managers support workers family lives. They found that when supervisors show consideration for workers personal roles as a family member, including providing help to workers and modeling work-family balance, those employees are more loyal and helpful on the job and are also less likely to think about quitting. Another study found that workers who could take on creative projects outside of work became more creative at work, regardless of their own personalities. This was true even for workers who didnt consider themselves to be very creative to start with, which suggests it was the workplace culture that really made a difference. When employers become obsessed with their workers productivity, they can get hung up on tracking immediate goals such as the number of emails sent or sales calls made. But they tend to neglect other vital aspects of employees lives that, perhaps somewhat ironically, sustain long-term productivity. Daniel Kahneman, the late psychologist whose research team won a Nobel Prize in economics, called this common misconception the focusing illusion. In this case, many employers underestimate the hidden costs of making people work more hours than they can muster while maintaining some semblance of work-life balance. Among them are mental health problems, burnout, and high turnover rates. In other words, overly demanding policies can ultimately hinder the performance employers want to see. Taking it from Simone Biles Many top performers recognize the value of work while also valuing the time spent away from it. At the end of the day, were human too, said Simone Biles, who is widely considered the best gymnast on record. We have to protect our mind and body, rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do. Elite athletes like Biles require time away from the spotlight to recuperate and hone their skills. Others who are at the top of their professions turn to hobbies to recharge their batteries. Albert Einsteins passion for playing the violin and piano was not merely a diversion from physicsit was instrumental to the famous and widely beloved scientists groundbreaking scientific insights. Einsteins second wife, Elsa Einstein, observed that he took short breaks to play music when he was thinking about his scientific theories. Taking a break Ive reviewed hundreds of studies that show leisure time isnt a luxuryit fulfills key psychological needs. Taking longer and more frequent breaks from your job than your workaholic boss might like can help you get more rest, recover from work-related stress, and increase your sense of mastery and autonomy. Thats because when employees find fulfillment outside of work, they tend to become better at their jobs, making their employers more likely to thrive. Thats what a team of researchers found when they studied the workforce at a large city hospital in the U.S. Employees who thought their bosses supported their family life were happier with their jobs, more loyal, and less likely to quit. Unsurprisingly, the happier, more supported workers also gave their supervisors higher ratings. Researchers who studied the daily leisure activities of 100 Dutch teachers found that when the educators could take some of their time off to relax and engage in hobbies outside work, they felt better and had an easier time coping with the demands of their job the next day. Another study of German emergency service workers found that not having enough fun over the weekend, such as socializing with friends and relatives, can undermine job performance the following week. Finding the hidden costs of overwork The mental health consequences of overwork, spending too many hours on the job, or getting mentally or physically exhausted by your work are significant and measurable. According to the
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A dangerous, multiday heat wave descended on much of California and the U.S. Southwest, with near-record temperatures expected along with a higher risk of wildfires.Officials opened cooling centers this week in Los Angeles, where residents are warned to avoid strenuous outdoor activities. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered state firefighting resources deployed in areas where blazes could ignite.Here’s what you need to know. Sizzling hot The National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning for Southern California starting Wednesday into the weekend. If outdoor activities can’t be avoided, forecasters say, they should be moved to early morning hours. And everyone should hydrate.Downtown Los Angeles was forecast to reach 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius) on Friday, while valleys to the north braced for temperatures as high as 108 F (42 C). It will be several degrees hotter in desert areas including Palm Springs.Candice Catlett, who uses a wheelchair, rolled herself toward some shade as temperatures started spiking Tuesday in downtown LA.“It’s sizzling hot out here,” Catlett said. “I have sunblock. Hopefully, I can find some cold water. I’m trying to stay out of the direct sun.”Further north, nearly-always-hot Death Valley could see a severe 120 F (49 C), the weather service said, 14 degrees shy of its record high of 134 F (56 C) set more than a century ago when in 1913 it hit the highest-ever recorded temperature on Earth.In Arizona, the peak of the heat wave will hit Thursday and Friday, with the mercury possibly reaching 110 F (43 C) in the southern and western parts of the state. Similar temperatures were likely in Las Vegas. Fire risk Red flag warnings, signaling elevated wildfire danger, have been issued across Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties until Saturday. “If you live in a high fire danger area in the mountains or foothills, review your evacuation plans and route and stay tuned to your local emergency officials,” the weather service said in a statement.The state has sent 10 fire engines and multiple firefighting teams to LA County to assist local agencies if blazes break out.“By prepositioning firefighting crews, equipment, and other resources in high-risk areas, we can respond faster and more effectively when needed,” said Nancy Ward, director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.California’s largest blaze this year, the Gifford Fire, was at 95% containment Wednesday after charring nearly 206 square miles (534 square kilometers) of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties since erupting on Aug. 1. The cause is under investigation. Thunderstorms too Adding to the chance for wildfires, especially in mountain areas, is lightning that could accompany thunderstorms, said Sam Zuber, a meteorologist with the weather service’s San Diego office.“We have monsoonal moisture coming in, we have an unstable environment because of the heat, and that creates perfect condition for thunderstorms,” Zuber said Wednesday. She added that lightning can strike in dry areas up to 15 miles (24 kilometers) away from where downpours occur.Heavy rain could also cause localized flooding and mudslides, forecasters warned. Christopher Weber and Damian Dovarganes, Associated Press
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Nexstar Media Group is buying broadcast rival Tegna for $6.2 billion, bringing together two major players in U.S. television and the country’s local news landscape.If the transaction is approved, Nexstar will pay $22 in cash for each share of Tegna’s outstanding stock. And the regulatory greenlight could be likely under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has long-advocated for loosening industry restrictions.Announcing the proposed merger Tuesday, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook pointed directly to actions being pursued by the Trump administration, which he said “offer local broadcasters the opportunity to expand reach, level the playing field, and compete more effectively with the Big Tech and legacy Big Media companies that have unchecked reach and vast financial resources.” He added that “Tegna represents the best option for Nexstar to act on this opportunity.”Nexstar oversees more than 200 owned and partner stations in 116 markets nationwide today and also runs networks like The CW and NewsNation. Meanwhile, Tegna owns 64 news stations across 51 markets.Consolidation would mean pooling together all of these resources and that typically includes cutting any “redundancies” identified in the process, explained Paul Hardart, director of the entertainment, media and technology program at New York University’s Stern School of Business.“The good news for Nexstar is that makes it run at a lower cost rate, which they need to do because there’s all these headwinds on the revenue side,” Hardart said. But for local communities that rely on the company’s stations, the bad news is that “there will be a homogenization of content,” he added.Other experts note that previous consolidation in the industry has already shown this.Nexstar, founded in 1996, has itself grow substantially with acquisitions over the latest two decades, becoming the biggest operator of local TV stations in the U.S. after it purchased Tribune Media back in 2019. And Danilo Yanich, professor of public policy at the University of Delaware, says the company is the “biggest duplicator” of news content today pointing to recent research he worked on that looked at how often local TV news used the exact same words in at least 50% on their broadcasts.Nexstar’s size gives it the most opportunity to syndicate information in this way, Yanich noted, and further duplication seems all but likely as the company looks to “achieve economies of scale,” he added.Nexstar on Tuesday maintained that the deal will also help it give advertisers a bigger variety of local and national broadcast and digital advertising options.The potential purchase also arrives amid wider regulatory shifts. Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman the Federal Communications Commission, which will need to give the transaction the green light, has long advocated for loosening industry restrictions. On Aug. 7, the FCC announced that it would be repealing 98 broadcast rules and requirements that it identified as “obsolete, outdated, or unnecessary.”Some of those rules date back nearly 50 years, the FCC said, and apply to “old technology that is no longer used.” Carr maintained that such provisions no longer serve public interest.In late July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit also vacated the FCC’s “top four” rule, which has long prohibited ownership of more than one of the top four stations in a single market. The ruling is still subject to a monthslong assessment by the FCC, but could significantly clear the way for future mergers in the industry.In company earnings calls held in early August, before Tegna and Nexstar publicly confirmed merger talks, both Tegna CEO Michael Steib and Nexstar’s Sook pointed directly to this ruling, and applauded Carr’s deregulation agenda as a whole.“We believe that deregulation is necessary, important and coming,” Steib said in Tegna’s Aug. 7 call, noting that local broadcasters are “up against big tech competitors who have absolutely no encumbrances in how they compete.”Beyond their core broadcast TV businesses, both Nexstar and Tegna also boast digital news, mobile app and streaming offerings, all of which have played key roles for the industry as consumers change the way they consume news and other entertainment.Broadcast TV has been hit particularly hard by “cord-cutting,” with more and more households trading their cable or satellite subscriptions into content they can get via the internet.“The challenge has been recently of ‘cord cutters’ but the bigger concern is the ‘cord nevers,’ of people who grew up never watching television, or linear television,” said Hardart, noting that most consumers, particularly young people, have just about all the content they want on social media or their phone.Despite these shifting landscapes, experts like Yanich say the suggestion that tech players “could do what local journalism does simply doesn’t hold up,” pointing to the difference in content and reach. Still, he notes that other broadcasters could soon follow Nexstar and Tegna’s footsteps, consolidating the industry even further.Nexstar’s proposed purchase of Tegna is expected to close by the second half of 2026. Beyond the regulatory greenlight, it still needs approval from Tegna shareholders. Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Michelle Chapman, AP Business Writers
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