Latest news with #workculture
Fast Company
2 hours ago
- Business
- Fast Company
I'm an HP exec: I believe employees should have the right to work multiple jobs
The controversy surrounding Soham Parekh, the software engineer accused of secretly holding multiple jobs, has sparked a predictable backlash against 'overemployment.' Parekh's methods—he reportedly misled multiple employers—were clearly unethical, but this shouldn't obscure a broader question: Is it time to rethink our antipathy toward employees holding multiple jobs? A double standard? Parekh's case notwithstanding, there's a deeper structural issue at play. Why should it be acceptable for some CEOs to hold leadership roles at multiple companies yet unacceptable for a talented marketer or software engineer to have multiple jobs? The world of work has fundamentally changed, and limiting people to one job is an outdated idea that doesn't benefit anyone. Startups have embraced fractional executives; CFOs, CMOs, and other senior positions going part time is now standard practice. However, large corporations continue to address similar needs exclusively through consulting arrangements. This highlights a significant gap in how organizations approach talent acquisition and utilization. This disparity provides valuable context for understanding why employees may resort to undisclosed secondary employment. By establishing clear policies and frameworks for multiple job arrangements, organizations could provide more transparent alternatives to the current trend of covert moonlighting. The gap between evolving work patterns and traditional corporate structures points to an opportunity for more adaptive talent management strategies. The inevitable shift Workers don't have it easy today. Fresh graduates worry about their job prospects as entry-level roles shift to AI. Warehouse workers face replacement by robots. Large corporations continue to outsource jobs to cheaper sources of labor. We need to tilt the scales back in favor of workers and create an environment where talented and productive people can make a better living. By removing the taboo of overemployment, we would create an environment where honesty is rewarded over secrecy. AI is only going to make performing multiple jobs (a lot) easier. We should get ahead of this trend and bring it out into the open instead of pretending it won't happen. How many other Soham Parekhs are out there today, perhaps working at your own company? We really have no idea, but there are likely to be more of them moving forward. Toward mutual benefit This isn't just about employee flexibility; it could be a win for employers who are struggling to retain talent amid strict return-to-office mandates (another antiquated idea). It would allow enterprises to become more agile, tapping into top-tier talent only when needed. Furthermore, this shift would encourage a focus on outcomes and productivity rather than just managing hours in the office. The root cause of overemployment isn't that it's unethical, it's that we're forcing it underground. The real scandal isn't workers maximizing their earning potential; it's employers clinging to the primitive concepts that they own their employees' entire productive capacity. Transparent overemployment could actually strengthen the job market. Imagine if companies had to compete not just on salary, but on being the kind of workplace that actually cares about the employee experience. While we can all acknowledge the shift in traditional corporate jobs isn't going to be easy or happen overnight, we must also accept that the current system punishes honesty and rewards deception. We've turned competent professionals into corporate double agents. This isn't sustainable, and it's certainly not efficient. The question isn't whether overemployment will continue, it's whether we'll legitimize it before the whole charade collapses under its own absurdity. The industrial age is dead, but we're still using its rule book. While AI copilots and agentic workflows obliterate the tedious grunt work that once consumed entire careers, we're clinging to antiquated notions of what constitutes a 'full-time' commitment. The math is brutal: If machines can handle the repetitive tasks that fill 40-hour weeks, why are we pretending humans still need to be chained to single desks?
Forbes
6 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Forbes
Has The Backlash To Hustle Culture Gone Too Far?
Burnout used to be a status symbol. Now the anti-hustle movement is railing against it. There was a time, not too long ago, when burnout was a status symbol. The busier you were, the better. Success meant staying late, rising early, doing more, and doing it faster. Hustle culture was idolized. For many women, the so-called "girlboss" era promised empowerment through overachievement. But after years of glorifying the grind, burnout hit hard. The backlash was inevitable, and a counter movement began to take shape. 'Quiet quitting,' 'lazy girl jobs' and the 'soft girl era' climbed to the top of TikTok's algorithm. The rise of the 'trad wife' aesthetic began to reframe passivity as empowerment. As the recent New York Times article 'From Girlboss to No Boss' points out, the hustle era has quietly faded. This counter movement began as pushback against a toxic work culture that left little room for rest, balance, or authenticity. But some wonder if the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. The anti-hustle movement was an overdue reminder that ambition shouldn't come at the cost of mental health. That work-life integration was possible, even if balance wasn't. But as "softness" becomes more of a virtue and disengagement is rebranded as empowerment, it raises an important question for leaders, workers, and entrepreneurs alike. In 2017, Amanda Goetz was living in New York City leading a marketing team at a public company. A normal workday among for her included 6 a.m. Soul Cycle classes, going into an office from 9-6, then happy hours and dinners with friends. She says the problem wasn't necessarily the hustle itself, it was the hustle without rest or intention. "This binary of ambition versus contentment is leaving us all somewhere in the messy middle, holding everything and yet feeling like we are failing at it all." That's what led her to write her forthcoming book, Toxic Grit, which draws on the principles of character theory to guide people toward finding a middle ground where they don't have to choose between ambition and disengagement. Jo Piazza, host of the Under the Influence podcast, has studied influencer culture for decades. She believes the cultural shift we're going through stems from the realization that all the effort and ambition didn't give women what the Lean In movement promised them - equality in the workplace. "It was born from burnout, from women realizing that no matter how hard we hustled, the system wasn't going to reward us with balance or sustainability," says Piazza. "Some women did what humans do when they hit a wall. They pivoted in the opposite direction. Enter 'soft girl,' 'tradwife,' and 'romanticize your life' culture." Piazza's new novel, Everyone Is Lying to You, is a satire of the trad wife lifestyle. The story follows two college friends: a journalist and an internet-famous trad wife who reunite to solve a possible murder. Their contrasting perspectives reveal the darker side behind social media's domestic bliss aesthetic. Have we reverted to the days of "The Donna Reed Show?" "My goal is to puncture the fantasy that trad wives perpetuate, that life is easier, more beautiful and more fulfilling if women just drop out of the workforce and depend on a man," Piazza says. "Because the fact is those women are working as content creators, often making more money than their husbands and putting in a ton more labor." Is trad wife culture really just hustle culture, with the pantsuit traded in for a raw milkmaid dress? Piazza wants the anti-hustle movement to rally around meaningful structural change, like protecting mental health and demanding protections like universal childcare and paid leave. 'Instead of pushing for better systems, some corners of the movement are encouraging women to check out of the workforce entirely, to opt out and rely on a man instead,' she says. Former HR executive Mita Mallick points out that, "This always on, hustle culture is killing us. Individuals are waking up to the realization that it's not normal." Her book, The Devil Emails at Midnight, explores how toxic hustle culture traumatized a generation of leaders, and how the next wave must unlearn those habits. Coach and founder Sofie Ragir sees the anti-hustle trend not as laziness, but as grief. "The hustle model doesn't work the way it promised. You can work your whole life and still not afford a home," she says. Her clients still want "big, bold lives," but they're no longer willing to sacrifice themselves to get there. "It's not about rejecting ambition," Ragir says. "It's about rejecting the idea that our worth is measured by constant output." But she warns against flattening this nuance with labels like "soft girl" or "tradwife." 'I don't think stillness or softness is inherently a problem,' says Ragir. 'For some, it's the beautiful ability to rest and recover. I don't think moralizing how people cope is helpful.' Specifically, preying on the guilt of women feeling like they're not enough, be it not leaning in hard enough, not hustling enough, or not being 'soft' enough. "If the current trend is to break glass ceilings yet you are in a season of cleanup and rest, you feel guilty,' she says. 'If you're pushing toward a big career goal, yet the current trend is about enjoying slowness, once again, you are left feeling guilty." "The pendulum will continue to swing back and forth," says Goetz. "We have to embrace the nuance and personalization of life and stop letting macro trends create micro guilt." Rachel Janfaza, founder of The Up and Up, a media and strategy firm focused on Gen Z research, says that despite the perception, this generation is not rejecting ambition. "Many Gen Z women are building careers as self-starters and entrepreneurs while actively setting boundaries and protecting their wellbeing," she says. 'What's different now is that holding both, grinding and also appreciating grounding, is not only normalized, it's expected.' But at its core, this moment seems to be about agency. 'Gen Z women know they have opportunities previous generations didn't,' says Janfaza. 'Many relish those opportunities. And yet, some are choosing a different path: not because they have to, but because they can. In rejecting the girlboss grind embraced by older millennials, they're reframing what empowerment looks like.' The experts agree that what's missing from this conversation is nuance, agency and the recognition that women do, in fact, still have choices. But when the loudest voices in our feeds scream, "Choose my way of life! It is the best way!" it can feel like that choice has already been made for us. "I want us to move toward a world where women have actual choices, not just rebranded versions of oppression in pretty packaging,' says Piazza. 'You want to work in an office? Great. You want to stay home with your kids? Also amazing. But let's not pretend that either one is easy or free of labor. Caregiving is work. Influencing is work. None of it should be erased or glamorized into something effortless." The real progress isn't in choosing hustle or softness, corporate work or domestic life. It's in protecting the agency to choose either, both, or something in between.
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Starbucks issues ultimatum to staff in latest attempt to turn around struggling chain
The morning rush just got a little earlier for some coffee-sipping corporate types. Starbucks' top boss, Brian Niccol, said the coffee chain will now make its corporate employees come into the office for four days each week. For months, employees needed to show up at the office only three times each week. The new policy is set to kick in on September 29. Niccol said employees should expect to come into offices Monday through Thursday for 'common days.' All managers at support centers are now required to relocate to Seattle or Toronto within 12 months. 'Being in person also helps us build and strengthen our culture. As we work to turn the business around, all these things matter more than ever,' the chief executive said. 'We want leaders and people managers to be physically present with their teams.' The update applies to workers at Starbucks' Seattle and Toronto support centers, along with regional offices across North America. Niccol, who will complete a year in the job in less than two months, has been steering Starbucks back to its coffeehouse roots by focusing on enhancing in-store experience and reducing dependence on mobile and to-go orders. In February, the coffee chain operator asked the remotely working vice president level leadership to begin relocating to Seattle or Toronto. It is now extending this requirement to all support center people leaders, who are expected to move within 12 months. Starbucks has been accelerating the roll out of new staffing and service model across company-owned North American stores to revive sales growth after struggling in the face of rising inflation and economic uncertainty.
Japan Times
13-07-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
When Vibhor Jain moved to Tokyo in 2022, it wasn't because he wanted to conquer the language or thrive in Japan's demanding office culture. Just the opposite — he made the move because he wouldn't have to do those things. An IT engineer from Delhi, Jain, 46, originally left India in 2002 to study and work in Finland, Spain and New Zealand. He freelanced through much of that time, enjoying a high degree of autonomy and flexibility. 'I was also drawn to Japan, but I worried about adjusting to the work culture — especially the long hours, the lengthy commutes and the language barrier.'
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The CEO of startup Rilla gives his employees up to $1,500 a month to live closer to the office—But there's a catch
Companies offer all kinds of unusual benefits these days, from wellness retreats to executive gap years. At AI startup Rilla, employees get the chance to take advantage of a vanishingly rare corporate perk: a rent stipend to cover the high cost of living in New York City. But there are some strings attached. To receive the money, up to $1,500, employees have to live within 10 to 15 minutes of the company's Long Island City-based office, and are expected to work around 70 hours a week in person. Sebastian Jimenez, Rilla's CEO and co-founder, says that the rent stipend is an incentive meant to limit commuting time so employees can designate it to their jobs instead. 'One of our core principles is to maximize productive time,' says Jimenez, who started the company in 2019, and lives within a five minute walk to the office. 'If you live 30 minutes away from the office, that's an hour a day that you could be working.' So far, around a dozen out of roughly 80 employees have taken Rilla up on the rent offer. And it's certainly a tempting proposal given the perennially high cost of New York City rent. In the last year alone, the median rent for properties in New York City increased 5.6% to $3,397, according to data from The rent benefit is just one example of Rilla's hardcore work culture. The company uses a '996' calendar; employees are expected to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days per week. Jimenez says the company also frequently holds off-site events on Sundays. Jimenez rejects the 'work smarter not harder' concept, and says the only way for teams to be successful is to put in the most hours possible. However, he does advocate for a full night's rest. 'We want them to take care of themselves, to work out, to eat healthy. We want them to maximize their time and still sleep eight hours a day,' he says. 'They can do this and still have one or two hours of leisure time in their day outside of work, which is plenty of time to do the important things in life.' In addition to the rent benefit, the company also allows employees to expense at least two meals a day, and covers gym memberships. It also appears to offer generally high compensation for various roles. A product designer role has a salary of $110,000 to $230,000 per year, according to Rilla's website, and a software engineer can make $200,000 – $300,000. People working in sales have an annual salary average of around $350,000, says Jimenez. Rilla might be an extreme example when it comes to intense work hours, but companies are increasingly more comfortable asking workers for more. In a cost-cutting environment, leaders are being tasked with finding ways to get more productivity out of their employees without hiring additional people. In an internal memo to employees in February, Google co-founder told employees that 60 hour work weeks are the 'sweet spot' for productivity. And a recent report from Microsoft found that the average work day is stretching later, with meetings after 8 p.m. rising 16% since last year, and around 29% of workers checking their inboxes after 10 p.m. Rilla does go out of its way to let job candidates know exactly what they're signing up for. Job postings on the company's website tell workers not to apply if they're not excited about 'working 70 hrs per week in person with some of the most ambitious people in NYC.' The company also lays out these expectations on a 'culture deck' that all potential employees are required to read before accepting a position, says Jimenez. He doesn't necessarily recommend other companies follow suit, and he knows that kind of work schedule doesn't work for most people. He says most of the people he hires are startup founders themselves, or D1 athletes fresh out of college; anyone who is 'used to working 13 hours a day' and 'always wants to be busy.' 'This is by no means the way to run every startup,' he says. 'This is just the way it works for us.' This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
