Latest news with #Astorino
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GMA Network
07-07-2025
- Health
- GMA Network
Rethinking stress: The different types of workplace stress and how to manage them according to an expert
These days, we blame stress for most everything. Can't sleep? Stress. Lost weight? Stress. Gained weight? Stress. Got sick? Stress. But at the sidelines of the TED Countdown Summit in Nairobi, Kenya last June, David Astorino, an executive coach with a doctorate in clinical psychology and senior partner at US leadership consulting firm RHR, argued 'at certain times, stress is good.' 'You know, 'I need to challenge myself.' Or if I'm the boss of someone, 'I need to challenge my employees to grow.' And growth is stressful.' he tells GMA News Online. At his Leadership workshop, Astorino talked of the three different kinds of stress in the workplace: Normal stress, which is regular, expected, predictable, and manageable. Think: the inconveniences and little hassles you need to deal with on a regular work day. Training stress, which comes from an intentional challenge. It's when you add more to your plate so you can increase capacity, become better at what you do, or demonstrate growth. It requires more energy from you. Excessive stress is when you exceed your current capacity. It's unplanned and unintentional and deviates from normal stress. Excessive stress can be chronic, which is when you don't get recovery time from even normal stress. Or acute, which is an episodic stress that can have life-altering impact — think getting fired from your job, or your company closing down. He also introduced the four kinds of energy, where they come from, and how to build them: Physical (capacity), or the amount of energy that you have. Did you get enough sleep? Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Are you physically able to do the job? Emotional (quality), or the quality of your energy. Are you able to recognize your emotions? Discern and regulate them? Are you constantly in a fight or flight mode or are you burning out? Mental (focus), or the focus of your energy. This is your analytical abilities, your creativity and self-esteem. This is what drives your strategic thinking and decision-making. Spiritual (force). This is your beliefs and values systems, your higher purpose in life. This is where your character comes in. Below is a quick interview with David. It's been edited for length and clarity. What are we getting wrong about stress? We don't appreciate the experience of different generations [within the work place] and how they each interpret the world. It has become, we've become very, very disconnected. it used to be, we all lived the same life, roughly. We had three sources of information, maybe three newspapers, maybe three TV stations and news channels and that was it, right? And now we have, Gen Z and Millennials [have] a completely different experience. And so when you have a Gen X or a boomer trying to communicate and understand or experience, they're like, you know, just suck it up. It's called work. It's not supposed to be fulfilling in every way. You're supposed to work hard, prove yourself, you move up, right? Um, whereas Gen Z is like, I don't think I like what you do as a company, so I'm gonna be very skeptical. I gotta believe in your purpose. The environment is a very big deal to them. They're also looking up and saying, 'you know, you've created kind of a mess.' And we've got these existential things like AI and climate change. They're exposed to so much. So I think the stress is coming from too much information, over stimulation. And it's true for everyone. I think it's true for everyone, which is why the burden of leaders is is literally to create as much clarity as possible about what I what the job is, what I need you to do, because the more ambiguity you leave in that, the more, it adds to the other amounts of stress, which is mostly around where is the world going, or what's my network doing, or FOMO or whatever. So I think that's a big part of the stress today. Technology has truly blurred the boundaries, so now we get messages from work even after the work day. It's the pace of change. I know that sounds like a cliché, but when you look at change around an exponential curve, we're hitting the exponential curve now. and that's what technology is driving at, and it's no longer on a human scale. And we've really outstripped our ability you know, when you think about how we process information is very slow and very limited. This is why we love computers. They process faster, and then you now have AI, which not only processes information but can, you know, almost think like us and think faster. So I think a lot of the stress is looking out and seeing a lot of things today, all those kinds of surveys that are going on and people are very worried. Am I still gonna have a job? Is it gonna be replaced by AI, you have these other things around the workplace or are starting to infiltrate in, and so um you seeing that impact the workplace, too. Can stress be managed? I think there is a big misperception about how to manage stress. Companies need to be much more enlightened about it. We work with a lot of clients to redesign and rethink their workspaces. We don't consult on that as others, but like, how are you creating a healthy place? Are you modeling it? When I joke about doing squats in front of people, but it's true. If the CEO was doing that, do you imagine? Like move, or go sit at your desk all day. Provide healthy snacks for people. You have more flexibility, depending on where employees are in their life. You know, we're seeing that happen more. If I want to retain people who have young kids, you know,hybrid work is great for them. If I have someone new to the organization, they will want mentoring. They want to actually come to the office. So trying to customize more what the employee experience is really a much more, that's what's happening now, if you wanna attract the best talent. Oh so even office designs can help manage stress? There's a lot of learning about what's an optimal workspace for people, but it's not happening as fast as I think it should. Because I think we could, we can do better, like bringing nature into the offices and plants and color and, you know, so the visual experience is healthy. Open work spaces were a big experiment [but it's proving] not good for focused work because it's really distracting. Most are really kind of doing away with open spaces. They'll instead have collaborative spaces, and then we'll have like little telephone booth-types that look like we can close the door and literally have quiet and and it's sending a message I need time. And then there's still, you know, cubicles, but not as much. Is stress something we can solve? Or is it something we just have to live with? We definitely need to manage it as best we can. Manage, but not really solve. We have to understand that at certain times, stress is good. You know, 'I need to challenge myself.' And if I'm the boss of someone, I need to challenge my employees to grow. Growth is stressful, but again, we're not trying to create excessive stress. I'm trying to create training stress and then also support the person to manage that if I can. Organizations, I think, need to think more about that. A lot of times, they throw people into big things, like survival of the fittest. It was like sink or swim. It was a very tough, for most of corporate evolution. and that's silly. It's really silly. You gotta think much more about it and and not be overly protective and let people experiment and lean into it. But I think we uh we're not as thoughtful as we could be around particularly when you put an employee in a training stress kind of situation, what is that gonna take? OK, so how do we manage it? Living into your purpose and showing up as your best self require us to manage the four energy domains — physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. You have to understand these four domains build on each other. So, if you're physically exhausted, and you're not doing the basics around keeping this up, remember your brain sits on your body. It's all connected, and you've gotta keep that in place. So, knowing what the signs are of physical stress is [important]. And then emotional stress is really is the other critical thing is. What's moving off of my center? What frustrates me? What really triggers me? And is that real or not? Is that an old pattern, you know, and like, really on figuring out um that kind of stress. That frees you up to be sort of more leaning into your purpose and mentally more mentally clear and able to focus. So they do build on each other. But going back to overstimulation — for many people, stress enters because they struggle with boundaries. They struggle with these devices. They struggle with setting boundaries with others, you know, and so they let too much in. And it's not their fault. It's the way society has sort of programmed and takes control of us through algorithms and things like that, So it's much harder than it ever was to create the boundaries. Whereas before societies, we were the healthiest we used used to be. I wake up and I'm living in a healthy boundary environment. I don't have to work it so hard, you know. But now we've created a lot more complexity, and with that comes a lot more choices. When I have more choices, I use more energy, you know, from the part of the brain that has to think. So limiting that, limiting the inputs could be very helpful. um if if we can. — GMA Integrated News
WIRED
28-04-2025
- General
- WIRED
Poop Drones Are Keeping Sewers Running So Humans Don't Have to
Poorly maintained sewers can have disastrous consequences, but regular inspections can be time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous. The solution: subterranean dung drones. On the morning of Christmas Eve 2016, residents of a house in Fraser, Michigan heard a curious pop, pop, popping sound coming from their walls. After initially dismissing it as melting snow falling from the roof, they soon realised the truth: the noise was the result of bricks being squeezed out of place as their home slowly crumpled into a sinkhole. The house and several nearby were evacuated as authorities assessed the situation and determined its cause: a collapsed sewer interceptor, threatening several homes and a long stretch of Fraser's busy 15 Mile Road. It was hardly the start to the festive season anyone would wish for. 'This was quite the impact to our system and community,' says Vince Astorino. As Operations Director at the Macomb County Public Works Office, he's responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the county's wastewater infrastructure, including some 68 miles of sewer lines. 'An 11-foot diameter sewer, approximately 70-feet deep, experienced a failure which drastically reduced wastewater flow. This section of pipe is near the main outlet of our system and approximately 800,000 residents rely on it to convey their wastewater downstream.' Prompt action from Astorino and his team got bypass systems in place in time to prevent sewage backing up into residents' homes, and in the end only one building—the house where the popping sound was heard—required demolition. But it was nine months until the offending stretch of pipe, roughly 4000 feet of it, would be fully replaced. The direct cost to taxpayers was around $75 million, not taking into account the added costs to residents and nearby businesses as a result of the disruption. The key to preventing disasters like this is regular inspection of sewer lines, hunting down any cracks and fissures that, if left unattended, can lead to soil ingress and eventual collapse of the pipe. But sewer pipes can be dark, cramped and filled with pockets of gas, making inspecting large networks using traditional methods (typically a tethered, remotely operated crawler fitted with a camera or even in-person) a slow, costly and often hazardous process. This is where drones come in. Designed and engineered to operate in confined spaces, a new generation of flying robots is being sent into sewers to perform inspections in a safer, more efficient way. The Elios 3 drone is a popular option for sewer inspections. Flyability One such drone is the Elios 3, designed and manufactured by Swiss company Flyability and used by major industry players like Veolia. Equipped as standard with a protective cage, impact-resistant exoskeleton, 16,000-lumen lighting rig, 4K camera and LiDAR, it can navigate through dark and dusty pipes while creating a live 3D model of the environment. The modular design means it can also be fitted with specialized payloads like explosive gas sensors or ultrasonic thickness gauges. Eloise McMinn Mitchell, Communication Manager at Flyability, says that the company is seeing huge sales growth as a result of the Elios 3's capabilities and efficiency versus in-person human inspections, particularly when it comes to sewers. 'To inspect a stretch of sewer underneath a road, you'll need teams of at least four people and have to divert traffic in multiple locations. With the drone, you just need two people, and nobody has to climb into the sewer, eliminating confined space risks and exposure to hazardous environments.' As a result, the safety rules surrounding drones are much less rigid than when humans are involved, which McMinn Mitchell says greatly eases the cost of inspections. 'There's an average 40 percent cost reduction compared to traditional methods, and you can inspect 900 meters in a day with the drone compared to 400 meters.' In May 2024, in a drive to streamline their inspection process, Macomb County adopted a technology-led approach combining a remotely piloted Asio X drone, built by Flyability rival Flybotix, with a software program called SewerAI. The total cost of both was around $100,000. Previously, the county had been spending $1 million on inspections every three years, manually inspecting footage for defects, many of which could be missed due to the poor image quality. Around 16 inches across and equipped with powerful 40,000-lumen lights, a 4K camera and a cage for protection against collisions, the Asio X can capture crystal clear video of the sewer system while navigating all but the narrowest of pipes. Astorino describes it as a 'night and day difference' to the old method. Footage from the Asio X of the Macomb County sewers Macomb County Unlike some of the latest consumer drones, which fly almost autonomously, the Asio X requires mostly manual control, and in some very unforgiving locations too, as Astorino points out: 'It's dark, air flow can quickly change within a confined space, and managing a flight path above flowing water in a restricted pipe is challenging.' As a result, he leaves flight to the experts: 'Our main operator, Captain Zach, is able to fly through some very tricky environments.' That being said, the inspection process itself is straightforward. 'An antenna is lowered into the manhole to provide signal strength from the drone controller to the drone,' Astorino tells WIRED. 'The operator will fly the drone from one manhole to the next, recording video through that flight path.' With around 20 minutes of battery life, the Asio X can document around 1,000 feet of pipe in a single flight, capturing not only video but LiDAR and infrared scans, and gas readings as it passes through a section of sewer. Under the old system, video data would be analyzed in the field, with the camera operator logging defects as they navigated through the pipes. Now, the drone-captured data is sent off to contractors at SewerAI, who run it through their AI-assisted algorithms to identify defects automatically. Astorino tells me it's been a game-changer, saving his team huge amounts of time and money. SewerAI can detect problems that need addressing from drone footage. Macomb County 'We performed months of testing against coded video in the field from various contractors against what SewerAI was able to do with the same footage, and every single time SewerAI excelled in what it was able to find and code correctly.' Previously, inspecting a section of sewer pipe might take months, but SewerAI has an agreement to send data analysis back to the county within 10 days; Astorino says it usually does so within 24 hours. The team have been so impressed with the software package that even in areas where the drone cannot go and more traditional methods of inspection are required—small diameter pipes, for instance—the resulting data is now sent off for analysis rather than being coded in the field. Old data can be quickly reviewed and re-analyzed too, picking up defects the original contractors may have missed at the time. This means repair work can be done where it's most needed, preventing the sort of worsening conditions that can lead to disastrous and costly incidents like the 2016 sinkhole. Macomb County has been a pioneer in this field. It's the first county in Michigan to utilize this combination of drones and AI software for underground infrastructure inspection and has won two in-state awards as a result of its forward thinking. But Vince Astorino tells me he and his team are always on the lookout for new ways to modernize operations. 'It's hard to count out great leaps forward in technology around this space, especially with the great AI race taking place all around us. We're keeping our options open.'
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ashtabula schools bring in insurance adjustor, construction manager for Lakeside
ASHTABULA — The Ashtabula Area City School Board approved an agreement between the district and Alex N. Sill Company at a Wednesday meeting. The firm will provide public adjustor services for the district's insurance claim surrounding reconstructing Lakeside High School. The district is bringing in Greenspace Construction Services, LLC as a construction manager for the high school. Treasurer Mark Astorino said the district is looking to meet with the insurance company soon for possible updates on the building's future. 'We were looking to meet with the insurance company to get an answer May 7 or 8, and I think now it's been moved to May 11,' he said. The high school's roof collapsed during the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm. Astorino talked about how the Ohio House's proposed budget could affect the district, saying the district would be provided with an additional $50,000 in year one and $25,000 in year two. 'When you read the articles that say no school was cut, that's true, but if you think a $75,000 increase on a $40 million budget is anything to write home about, that's not really all that good,' he said. The district received an additional $1 million from the state over the duration of the last state budget, he said. Astorino had a hard time learning about aspects of the house budget's effect on school districts. 'There was a cap on administrative costs, where your total district administrative costs wouldn't be worth more than 15% of your total expenses, but nobody knew what that meant,' he said. Astorino is waiting to see what the Ohio Senate's proposed budget will be, he said. 'I don't think it's getting much better, to be honest with you,' he said. 'I think it might even get worse.' The district is sending a 1.25-mill renewal levy to fund textbooks, educational technology and instructional equipment to the Ashtabula County Auditor, in preparation for it being placed on the ballot. The board ratified an agreement with Saint John School to allow them to play varsity and junior varsity football at high school's stadium, Astorino said. The board approved a replacement of the district's telephone system. Astorino said the district's telephones have reached their end of life. Astorino said there will be payments for the upgrade over the next three to four years. 'For teachers, you really need a hard phone in class,' he said. The new phones will be moved into the high school, when it is ready. The board heard a presentation from Camille Licate, founder of Kids for Positive Change, an organization that gets students into environmental activities like gardening and recycling. Licate said she recently worked with sixth graders to raise $600 for World Central Kitchen and make Valentine's cards for victims of the January fires in Los Angeles.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
AACS provides update on Lakeside High School
SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — The Ashtabula Area City Schools leadership team is presently evaluating information regarding the structural integrity of Lakeside High School after the Dec. 1 collapse of a portion the roof, according to a press release from AACS Superintendent Lisa Newsome and AACS Chief Financial Officer/Director of Operations Mark Astorino. 'On Friday, district leadership and the Board of Education received several reports from professional firms engaged by the district to assess the structural integrity and viability of repairing the two-story front academic wing of the high school,' the press release states. The roof collapse occurred after five feet of snow blanketed the area and caused a portion of the roof to collapse on Thanksgiving weekend. After the roof collapse, the district reviewed the inside of the school, and eventually the remaining roof was removed and put back together as evidence, school officials said at the time. The reports provided Friday detailed the damage done to door frames, lockers, concrete block outside walls and inside demising walls and plumbing. The release indicates the firms recommendation to the district's insurance carrier, Liberty Mutual, is to proceed with complete demolition and rebuilding of the front, two-story academic wing. Newsome and Astorino have been working with these firms to obtain these recommendations. 'The amount of water is very concerning and the damage it has done to the first story of the building and the mold will become an issue,' Newsome said. She said her concern has been for the students and staff from the beginning of the disaster. 'We want to make sure the decisions the decisions that are being made are decided for the health and safety of our students and staff,' Newsome said. The school board and leadership will continue to evaluate the next steps. Newsome said the recommendation is not yet the final plan. 'That is only the recommendation, that is not the plan because we still have to go through our insurance company,' she said. 'The recommendations are coming from our structural engineer and our people. It's just a recommendation, it is not the plan.' 'We want the students back in the high school, but we will do our due diligence with our experts to do what is best. Working to repair the back part of the building first, to be able to utilize that part sooner is at the forefront and we will work toward that goal during this unimaginable process,' Newsome said in the press release. Astorino said in the release the potential for mold development is a major issue. 'We are really concerned with the amount of water infiltration and potential for subsequent mold development,' he said. 'We are not open to bringing any students or staff back into a building that could present future environmental and hygiene issues. 'The recommendations are very clear, make sense and we are eager to get the rebuilding process underway as soon as possible.' Astorino said the school district hired Sill Public Adjusters to represent them with respect to this large claim. The company will be working with Liberty Mutual on moving forward with the work, Astorino said. He hopes the district will be able to have a tentative timeline for reconstruction in the next few weeks. The status of the back roof over the E/F classroom wing is also being evaluated by engineers. 'Although no sections of that roof area collapsed, there have been concerning, structural observations that need to be addressed,' Astorino said in the release.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ashtabula schools getting reimbursed for snowstorm
ASHTABULA — Ashtabula Area City School District Treasurer Mark Astorino said at a Wednesday meeting the district will be reimbursed around $258,000 for expenses from the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm. The state asked the district to pick its costliest days for reimbursement, he said. Astorino said the district's reimbursement is around 75% for the week of the snowstorm, not for the whole winter. 'Our total snow removal cost, with all the roof snow removal, the parking lots, all the heavy equipment to move snow, the extra salt and all the maintenance over time was in the mid-$400,000 range,' he said. Astorino is looking into how the reimbursement will affect the district, he said. 'We're working on an updated forecast, so we know where we'll finish the year at,' he said. Astorino's forecast will also analyze how potential state cuts to public education could affect the district, he said. Also at the meeting, the board approved an expenditure reduction plan. Superintendent Lisa Newsome said she and district administrators were looking at changes to enrollment, possible state-wide public education cuts and where the district could cut. 'Right now, it's at $2.1 million,' she said. Newsome said she does not want to be in the 'caution area' next year before the state finishes its budget. 'That's all I can cut right now,' she said. 'I'm not going to cut anymore until we get that budget.' Board President Scott Yopp said people have been shielded from how cuts could affect them. 'We are now to the point where you're going to see it impact things,' he said. The board approved bringing in Auburn Environmental to do an environmental study of Lakeside High School and GPRS to study the building's envelope. The high school's roof collapsed during the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm. Board member and legislative liaison Laura Jones said she and Newsome went to Columbus Tuesday to testify to the Ohio State Senate in favor of House Bill 43. The bill was reported by senate committee and is going to the senate floor. Sponsored by Ohio State Representatives Sarah Fowler Arthur and David Thomas, HB 43 would provide flexibility for graduation requirements, and waive not more than 24 of the required minimum number of hours a school building must be open with students in attendance. Lakeside High School Principal Doug Wetherholt said at a board work session his students have been resilient. 'Our goal is to bring down discipline by about 15% from last year to this year,' he said. 'We've done a pretty good job. If you look at our suspensions, we went from 277 to 211.' Cell phone use in school is common, Wetherholt said. 'We tripled the amount of discipline we're doing with cell phones, just to try to get them off of that,' he said. Wetherholt said there have been more in-school suspensions that out-of-school suspensions. 'The major infractions have come down and we're addressing minor infractions,' he said. 'That's really where you want to live ... because kids are meant to make mistakes. They're going to make mistakes, and they just need to learn consequences.' The high school's staff have been resilient, too, Wetherholt said. The board voted to give district teachers a 2% raise over the next two years. Newsome said the teachers deserve the raise, because they put in extra work after the high school roof collapse. 'I wish I could give them more,' she said. 'With everything going on, they are working beyond their eight hours and beyond their 185 days.' Astorino's office received an award from the Ohio State Auditor's Office, he said. 'They were just starting that audit when the roof issue happened,' he said.
