Twenty years ago, getting promoted to manager was a major milestone. Today its a punishment.
Thats according to recent research from LinkedIn. In a survey of more than 10,000 LinkedIn users, nearly 7 in 10 said they would leave their job if they had a bad manager. But only 30% said they want to become a people manager within the next few years.
So, why the change? Why doesnt anyone want to be the boss anymore?
We could sum up the answer in seven words: Nobody showed them how to lead effectively.
The data backs this up. Global consulting firm West Monroe surveyed 500 managers and found that 66% of those received eight hours or less of manager training. Of those who had been managers for less than a year, a stunning 43% had received no training at all.
Why is this lack of training so problematic? And, more importantly, how can you inspire and prepare the next generation of leaders at your organization?
Sign up here for my free email course on emotionally intelligent leadership.
The leadership training gap
The problem is the skills that get people promoted arent the ones that help them excel at the next level.
Management experts Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel explore this concept in their book The Leadership Pipeline. They describe five different leadership roles:
Leading self
Leading others
Leading leaders
Functional leaders
Business leaders
The passage from one role to another requires new learning and new behavior, assert the authors. Whats more, they say, the leader who transitions from one role to the next has to acquire a new way of leading and leave the old ways behind. This calls for a fundamental adjustment in skills and in the way you use your time.
The challenge here is that many of the things leaders need to stop doing are things they enjoy doing and which have brought them success.
For example, a sales manager may be great at closing deals. But once he or she is promoted, closing deals on their own should no longer be the most important thing. Rather, they should be concerned with helping their reports to excelfor example, clarifying target setting, giving emotionally intelligent feedback, and coaching and development.
This change in perspective will affect everything from what they believe is important to how they define success and how they allocate their time. It will also impact the effect they have on their people and the organization as a whole.
The change in perspective should continue as a leader continues to transition across roles.
A leader of leaders must recruit the right leaders and hold them accountable for their role in developing their people.
A functional leader has to not only lead but also build competitive advantages and agendas that enable the company to do things better than competitors.
A business leaders focus is long term, but he or she must also stay in touch with the short-term picture. Business leaders must develop strategy and build teams down the chain that assist in executing that strategy.
One thing that all of these roles hold in common? They each demand emotional intelligence, skills and abilities like listening, empathy, effective processing, and delivering of feedback.
How to fix your leadership problem
How do you make sure your organization is preparing your leaders and managers for success?
Here are some tips.
Map leadership passages: Define the transitions in your organization (individual contributor, manager one, manager two, etc.). Specify what emotional skills are needed at each stage.
Develop training: Whether designed in-house, with help from a leadership consultancy, or both, tailor management and leadership training to your organization.
Schedule time: Each time a person is promoted, schedule the training and make sure you provide the time and resources they need to complete it.
Provide a mentor: A mentor can guide the persons development, answer questions, and support them emotionally. Where possible, allow the person to choose their own mentor.
Support mentors, too: Outline guidelines for how mentors can help, and a program for them to meet regularly (in addition to impromptu meetings when needed).
Measure outcomes: Track metrics and results, but also look beneath the surface. Pay special attention to retention/turnover, team engagement, conflict rates. Remember, metrics are important but interviews with direct reports and team members can reveal much.
Lead by example: Senior leaders must practice developing their emotional intelligence, share their mistakes and learnings, and ask for help. In doing so, they set the founation for the culture.
Dont just dump a person into a new role and expect them to figure it out. Some will. Many wont.
In contrast, if you prioritize leadership development, youll strengthen your teams and the organization as a wholenot just today but into the future.
By Justin Bariso
This article originally appeared in 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.
In September, my mom died after a short battle with colon cancer. She was 83 and lived a full life in which she had a fulfilling career in education, traveled the world visiting 100-plus countries, and was married to my father for more than 60 years. Its hard to lose a parent, and my workplace (like many) allowed me time off to be with family for the days before and after the funeral.
But no matter how generous the policy at your workplace is, youre going to have to come back to work before youre done grieving. Grief happens following any significant event that creates a tear in the fabric of your life story. The death of a loved one is an obvious source of grief, but many kinds of events can trigger the grief process, including a fire at your home, or the loss of a job. Indeed, you may have heard of the five stages of grief. Those were originally described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who studied patients who had received a terminal diagnosis.
The problem with Kubler-Rosss stages of grief (denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance) is that theyre purely descriptive. You need not go through these stages when grieving. They also dont form a linear path. You may bounce around among these emotions or actionsor experience only a few of them. You may be fine for long periods of time and then find yourself sobbing uncontrollably at a comment someone makes or a scene in a movie. Its a messy process thats different for every person (and different within a person for each thing you grieve).
So, how do you deal with that messiness at work?
Cut yourself some slack
First things first, dont try to be a superhero. You dont have to have it all together immediately upon returning to work. If youre still feeling fuzzy and foggy a month or two after a significant loss, dont beat yourself up. Dont assume you should be over it already.
By allowing yourself to feel what youre feeling, you can avoid the common trap of amplifying the difficulties of grief by feeling guilt over your grieving process. Instead, accept the process. You may not yet be at the point where you can accept your loss, but you can accept that grief itself is complex.
In addition, you need to recognize that for some period after a loss, your work products may not be as sharp as they were before. That doesnt mean youll never recover. It just means that it takes time. Grieving can be a lot of mental work, and you need to let the process unfold.
Let others know
When you experience a loss, your work colleagues may or may not be aware. Even when you have a death in the family, there are likely to be some people around you who have not heard. Its okay to let your colleagues, clients, and other people in your work community know whats going on.
There are several ways that letting other people know can benefit you. For one thing, people are often willing to give you some grace when you make mistakes when they know youre going through a difficult time. In addition, people may be willing to take on a little extra work on your behalf as you recover from a loss. It is not a sign of weakness to rely on others during a difficult period.
Measure twice, cut once
No matter how careful you are when youre working at your peak, you need to be extra careful in the stressful times that accompany grief. Slow down a lot of your work to minimize the number of mistakes you make. Reread emails and reports before sending them off. Take extra time when making important decisions to ensure that you havent missed anything important. Ask other people to look over key documents before sending them off.
In addition, there are many decisions you make at work that have an emotional component. You may use the way you feel about an option to elect to go forward with it. The more anxiety youre experiencing, the harder it can be to separate that from the way you feel about a particular option. As a result, you may feel paralyzed when trying to make a difficult work decision. At times like that, bring in a decision partner to help you. That will help you to avoid significant delays in key projects.
Dont go it alone
Even people who have been psychologically healthy for most of their lives may struggle when grieving a significant loss. If you have never engaged with a mental health professional before, you may feel that theres a stigma associated with needing therapy.
Theres no reason to avoid working with someone if you find the emotions and thoughts youre having in grief to be overwhelming. You would not stay away from a doctor if your foot was hurting significantly enough that you couldnt walk. Dont use fear of engaging with a therapist as an excuse to suffer without help. Instead, reach out to your community to get recommendations for a therapist who has experience working with grief. The resilience skills you learn are likely to benefit you beyond the situation youre dealing with now.
In addition, there are many great resources out there that can give you suggestions for how to move forward. I was fortunate enough to interview Lisa Keefauver recently, and her book on grieving (while irreverent) is an excellent guide to dealing with loss. In addition, there are many great blogs that people have written with helpful tips that may get you through your worst days. Remember that when you walk down the street and see people walking with friends laughing and talking, that many of those people have suffered significant losses in their lives and have eventually emerged from grief. It may take time, but youll learn to integrate significant losses into your life.
My wife and I visited Singapore last week for the first time in a couple of years, and I was reminded how impressed I am with the country. It illustrates a great strategy point, the subject of this Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) piece, which borrows from Billy Preston, whose Billboard No. 1 hit song in October 1974, Nothing From Nothing, contained the immortal line: Nothing from nothing leaves nothing. This piece is a play on the line entitled Something From Nothing Leaves Something: How Strategy Choice Can Make Something out of Very Little. And as always, you can find all the previous PTW/PI here.
Impressive Singapore
The minute you land at Changione of the worlds truly great airportseverything about the country works. Singapore is efficient, clean, and safe. It is always ranked at or near the top of the ratings for low crime rate. It has truly awesome food and great architecture.
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And it is incredibly prosperous. The International Monetary Fund ranks it as the country with the second-highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. I rank it first because the only one ahead of it, Liechtenstein, is a medium-size town of 40,000, not a real country (similarly for sub-1-million population jurisdictions like Luxembourg, Macao, or Brunei). Singapore may be small (population 6.1 million), but it is bigger than Ireland or Norway, other famously high-GDP countries. Its 2025 GDP per capita is estimated at $157,000, which is 74% higher than the U.S.’s. (Though the U.S. shouldnt feel too bad. It is clearly harder to have a very high GDP per capita if you are a large country with more than 25 million people. The U.S. GDP per capita is 22% higher than the next biggest consequential country, Germany.)
Some may argue that you shouldn’t compare a city-state like Singapore to entire countries because there are lots of very rich cities. But even by that standard, Singapore is impressive. The highest GDP per capita of any other large city is San Francisco, at $145,0008% lower than Singaporeand after San Francisco, there is a steep drop-off. The only sizable place richer is Silicon Valley, with a GDP per capita of $210,000, which is super impressive but not entirely comparable. It is a region anchored by one small city, San Jose.
The truly impressive thing about Singapore is not its current prosperity, but where it came from. Singapore truly created something from nothingor at least from precious little.
Singapore became an independent country in 1965 after a fractious two years as a state of the newly formed Malaysia. Its GDP per capita at the time was estimated to be US$516, or just under $4,000 in 2025 dollars, which is around the same as the current levels of Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Papua New Guinea. So, it was a very poor country.
It had close to nothing with which to start. Its population was mainly ethnic Chinese, and there was no love lost between the Malays who surrounded it and the Singaporean Chinese. Singapore had zero natural resources. And in the 1960s global economy, it was in the middle of nowhere geographicallynot known for a single thing other than the Singapore Sling cocktail.
But it then proceeded to increase its GDP per capita at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3% for 60 yearsunprecedented in the modern global economy. No jurisdiction has kept up that rate of growth for that long.
Something from Something Strategy
If you have a rich endowment of valuable resourceswhether you are a country or a companythe strategy imperative is to exploit those resources to overwhelm any competitor (i.e., to play chicken).
For example, if you are the U.S., you start with the richest endowment of natural resources in the world, the largest endowment of arable land, a favorable geography (mainly protected by oceans), and a large flow of motivated immigrants, and you invest heavily to exploit the natural resources. Then you use the wealth generated to invest more than any other country in becoming the worlds manufacturing superpower, including building a vast and efficient rail systemand later an interstate highway systemto move goods. Then you use that wealth to invest more in education and scientific research than any other country to become the worlds technology superpower. During your ascendancy, you simply out-invest every other jurisdiction in extremely expensive sources of advantageand there is nothing they can do to stop you.
The same dynamic applies to companies. If you are relatively better endowed, your imperative is to invest in expensive advantages that your competitors cant match. For example, when upstart Reebok challenged Nike in athletic shoe sales, Nike invented a new scale-sensitive cost categoryathlete endorsement (e.g., Air Jordan, Dream Team, etc.)and cranked up the investments in this category to heights never even contemplated before until Reebok said “no mas.” The rest is history: Reebok flatlined and Nike solidified its dominance.
The general rule, then, is that when you have a resource advantage over competition, look to invest in the most expensive sources of competitive advantage.
Something from Nothing
But if you are at a major resource disadvantage, like Singapore was in 1965, the imperative is to seek sources of advantage that are cheap and doable for you, but tricky for the competition to follownot an easy strategy choice task.
That was the brilliance of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapores prime minister from before its independence through 1990. His fundamental strategy choice was to make Singapore the most efficient and secure place to do business in South Asia. He would ensure that it would be easy to do business in Singapore for foreign companies, and they could be confident that they could transact business without fear of the corruption endemic to that part of the world.
Strategically, I love this because it didnt require a huge expenditure of capital (which they didnt have). It required clever choicesfor example, to have the best-paid bureaucrats in the world, so that they dont feel compelled to make extra money on the side. Is that free? No, but the cost pales in comparison to, say, a single giant infrastructure project.
And it required building and nurturing a judicial system that was willing to fight corruptionand punish it severely. Again, his is not an expensive investment. Rather, it requires extreme commitment and careful ongoing attention.
The other strategy tool that Singapore deployed was flexibility. The island nation famously transitioned through multiple economic phasesfrom labor-intensive to skill-intensive to capital-intensive to tech-intensive to innovation-intensiveacross its relatively short history, pivoting more quickly and proactively than competitive jurisdictions.
These are the kind of things that many well-endowed competitors are just not willing to doi.e., they pass the “wont” part of the “cant/wont test.” They would rather spend big on something easier for them to carry out. Prime Minister Lee was absolutely resolute in ensuring adherence to his key strategy choices for the many decades during which he was in charge.
Of course, as Singapore became rich, it was able to spend heavily on more expensive things like its massive investment in education and logistics infrastructures, like the aforementioned Changi airport in the late 1970sand then the airports recent enhancement, the award-winning $1 billion Jewel shopping mall featuring the worlds tallest indoor waterfall.
Personal Cases of Something from Nothing
The something-from-nothing strategy approach is near and dear to my heart because I have needed to employ it in multiple personal leadership rolesfor example, with the Rotman School at the University of Toronto and with Tennis Canada.
Rotman SchoolWhen I became dean of the Rotman School in 1998, we had very little going for us. We were poor, with a budget one-quarter the size of our leading competitor, and we were running a deficit on that tiny budget. The business school was hemorrhaging professors to U.S. universities because the Canadian dollar had plummeted from 87 to 67 over the previous several years, leaving Rotman salaries uncompetitive relative to U.S. professorial salaries. The schools alumni were disengaged, and we werent connected at all to the Toronto business community. Overall momentum was significantly negative.
We had to figure out how to build advantages cheaplyand I mean really cheaply. One way was to take our very expensive academic researchthat only other academics normally readand make it readable and interesting for a broader business audience, which we did inexpensively through Rotman Magazine, transforming it from a mediocre alumni magazine to an internationally valued source of business thinking. It helped put the school on the map for its business ideas at a tiny cost. Other schools didnt follow because they were run by academics who placed a low value on engaging businesspeople with their research findings.
We developed a narrative that Rotman stood for fundamentally transforming business educationA New Way to Think. Our boldness earned us a massive amount of earned mediamore than all the other Canadian business schools combinedat a time when we had zero resources to invest in paid media.
I learned that I had a cheap but valuable currency when it came to motivating professorsmy love and affection. The ones that taught well and contributed to translating research into actionable business ideas received disproportionate public accolades from me, and that moved the needle on their efforts more dramatically than I might have imagined. They would bring back stories from colleagues at other competing schools who wished their deans cared as much as I did for the work of my professors.
Those cheap but effective strategy choices enabled us to build resources to subsequently invest in expensive thingslike professors, student services, and a new building.
Tennis CanadaWhen I joined the board of Tennis Canada in 2005, we were deeply in debt from having built a new tennis stadium in Toronto, we had little history of success internationallyand the modest successes were in the relatively distant pastand, as a cold country that had never prioritized tennis, we had very few year-round tennis courts. (They had to be indoor courts or outdoor courts that were bubbled during the winter months.)
We were an also-ran competing against established tennis nations that had historical advantages and orders of magnitude more resources. Nonetheless, we sought to become counted among the leading tennis nationslike the U.S., Spain, France, Germany, Australia, and Russia.
A key potential resource that wasnt being exploited was Tennis Canadas ownership of both a mens (ATP) and womens (WTA) top level (1000 series) tournament (of which there are only nine and 10, respectively), the biggest and most important annual tournaments after the four Grand Slams (U.S. Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon, and Roland Garros). We ran it as a competitive sports event, not a valuable economic property.
We hired an experienced sports entertainment executive, Michael Downey, as our new CEO, and he turned them into the second-highest revenue pair of 1000-series tournaments, trailing only Indian Wells, the plaything of Larry Ellison, the centibillionaire with unlimited investment resources.
We were able to invest the massively increased cash flow provided by the tournaments in an innovative approach to player development. The resulting success of our Canadian tennis stars generated plenty of earned media and sponsorship dollars. We leveraged Canada into a leading tennis nation by inexpensively transforming a wasted asset into a powerful strategic tool.
Practitioner Insights
If you lag your competitors dramatically in resources, dont cry yourself to sleep at night and give up. You have a tough and tricky strategy taskbut not an impossible one. Your central task is to think through how you can gain an advantage on the cheap.
Start by refusing to focus on and obsess about how and on what your competitors are spending their massive resources. Instead ask, despite all that spending, what are customers missing? By the way, that means customers of all sorts because many modern markets are two-sided (including Rotmans and Tennis Canadas).
Then spend all your strategic thinking energy on finding inexpensive ways to achieve uniqueness in meeting those unmet customer needs.
Search along two vectors. The first is to recognize the assets right under your nose that you arent utilizing for strategy purposeslike the two 1000-level tournaments, academic research that had zero impact on businesspeople, and the deans love and affection. The second is to identify cheap but valuable assets that you can createlike a low-corruption environment, or a more exciting and appealing approach to business education.
As Lee Kuan Yew amply demonstrated: Where there is a will, there is a way to create something from nothing.
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Below, co-authors Ruth DeFoster and Natashia Swalve share five key insights from their new book, The Fear Knot: How Science, History, and Culture Shape Our Fears and How to Get Unstuck.
Ruth is a journalism professor and media scholar who teaches at the University of Minnesota, where she is also the Director of the Undergraduate Studies for the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Natashia is a neuroscience professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, where she teaches psychology and psychopharmacology.
Whats the big idea?
The Fear Knot explores our misguided human fears, from premature burials to GMOs, while explaining the real dangers out thereand why youre less likely to be afraid of them. With the right tools, we can all be better equipped to untie the fear knots misleading our behavior.
Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Ruth and Natashiabelow, or in the Next Big Idea App.
1. Fears are at least partially hardwired
Not all fears stem from trauma, but most of them are built upon our most primal anxieties. Our bodies are naturally geared to experience fear, and rightfully so. The famous neuroscience patient, known by her initials, S.M., has a biological glitch that makes her unable to feel fear. While this may sound enjoyable, its incredibly dangerous. S.M. constantly finds herself in risky situations, like the time she was held up at knifepoint and responded by laughing at the criminal.
S.M. shows us that sometimes fear is a necessary evil. It helps us avoid deadly scenarios and keeps us alive in a constantly evolving world. But our fears also make us jump to worst-case scenarios, setting us up to believe in conspiracy theories and fall prey to misinformation. Parents worry about their children, so they chide them about playing in the dirt, likely increasing their chances of developing an allergy by avoiding dust and dander. We fear sickness and work hard to treat our ailments. But by doing so, we spark the spread of antibiotic resistance, many times more deadly than the original diseases. We fear the fate of our world, and so we build backyard honeybee hives, creating an army of new competitors for the creatures that are actually vulnerable: wild bumblebees.
Frauds and hucksters thrive on our instinctual fears, selling so-called cures like bleach as a treatment for everything from autism to HIV. But recognizing where those fears originate from can help. It can cause you to pull back from buying the untested treatment or trying out that new parenting technique that, while your neighbor vouches for it, is not backed by any science. While it may feel like your fears are driving your decision, you ultimately have the final say.
2. Fears are cyclical
In much the same way that diseases spread, so do cycles of overblown fears, which sociologist Stanley Cohen referred to as moral panics. Throughout history, moral panics have cycled with surprising regularity, often tied to concerns about childrens safety. The Salem Witch Trials of the late 17th century alleged that witches were tormenting and even possessing local children, while the Satanic Panic of the 1980s picked up on similar themespromoting the myth that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles was operating out of American daycare centers. Even today, the QAnon conspiracy preys on the same fears of innocence lost and threats to American children.
Throughout history, moral panics have cycled with surprising regularity, often tied to concerns about childrens safety.
But whether these moral panics are associated with witchcraft or terrorism, one thing remains the same: we continue to repeat the same mistaken fears. The targets differ by year, but while the villains change with the decade, the tactics used to maneuver us toward those fears remain similar. Thankfully, ways to counter misinformation can be recycled as well.
3. We need shades of gray in a black-and-white world
If youve heard of the drug kratom, youve likely heard one of two tales: Its either a life-saving miracle plant, or its the lethal new opioid killing teenagers. As a drug researcher, I must mentally prepare myself if someone brings this drug up in conversation because I will likely be fighting misinformation from both sides.
Drugs are an easy target for rampant misinformation. The social program called D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) has maligned drugs across multiple generations of children, warning us that all drugs are bad. But on TikTok, we hear that the terpenes in cannabis can cure cancer, and melatonin will help put a stop to all your sleep problems.
The problem with this type of thinking is that the answer is somewhere in between. Kratom can help people quit using other, more dangerous opioids. But kratom also has addictive qualities and, because its unregulated, almost anything can be packaged into the product. Kratom samples frequently test positive for heavy metals and even Salmonella.
Humans tend to use an all or nothing mindset. Your nemesis is pure evil, and your best friend deserves the world. When we fear something, this distortion becomes even more extreme.
Humans tend to use an all or nothing mindset.
As a result, our fears prompt us to swing wildly in the opposite direction of flawed trends. The laissez-faire parenting of the past is seen in the present as neglectfuland so, parents swing toward what is called helicopter parenting, hovering over our childrens every move. But the best parenting is more likely somewhere in between, promoting independence but ending the custom of literally throwing your children into the deep end of the pool.
Its easy to picture a political opponent as trying to destroy the country you love and your choice for the role as a savior. But most of life exists within those more ambiguous shades of gray. The more we paint things solely in black or white, the more we lose the nuance of the everyday.
4. The biggest problems are complex, but crucial
Every summer over the past decade or so, we have continued to see new heat records set. We watch floods ravage cities and hurricanes inundate areas previously considered safe. We avert our eyes, not because we dont fear what our future is going to look like but because we feel helpless in the face of it.
The things we really should fear the most are often the hardest to wrap ones head aroundproblems like climate change, systemic racial and gender inequality, childhood poverty, and domestic terrorism, to name a few.
As individuals, its easy to ignore these problems becausein the first placewe dont think that we can contribute productively to the eventual solution. And itsoften painful to confront the behaviors of our own that contribute to these nightmarish scenarios, from the seemingly humdrum algorithmic echo chambers in which far too many of us now exist to the emotionally and economically expensive decisions we will likely have to make to try to fix them. But these big, systemic problems, many of which have continued to plague society for centuries, are what we now should focus on the most.
5. We believe what we see
Across the world, rates of reliable types of birth control have plummeted, while more unreliable methods have begun to skyrocket. The horrors of hormonal birth control are shared between inboxes with no fact-checking in sight. Daysy, a fertility tracker app, became a leading example of the new face of contraception, supposedly protecting women from the evils of hormonal birth control while preventing pregnancy. But behind the curtain, the popular app that influencers promoted relentlessly turned out not to be as effective as originally touted, with the science backing it having been retracted from the original journal.
Our fears dont merely guide our daily actions; they also sharply define some of the biggest questions we face across society.
Many social media stories turn out to be misleading or dangerous. Scientists talk about Andrew Wakefields study falsely linking vaccines to autism as a warning because this original source of misinformation has snowballed out of control. But every day, even more falsehoods flood social media, sometimes benign but other times deadly. Doctors plead for people not to rely on the new trend of cough CPR as a method to treat a heart attackand yet, videos make the rounds, shared by millions without thinking of its risk.
Social media algorithms are designed to feed you what you want to see, and we want to see things with which each of us agrees. Over time in an algorithmic silo, our views become more extreme, and we become more at risk of sticking to our siloed positions. All the while, misinformation slides from one person to another, across countries and friend groups, exposing us to more of our own particular views. Recognizing that our algorithms drive these anxietiesshaping who and what were afraid ofis the first step toward taking a hard look at your own consumption and counteracting its persuasion.
Our fears dont merely guide our daily actions; they also sharply define some of the biggest questions we face across society. Its getting harder to know what we should be afraid of, particularly when our news and social media feeds are increasingly full of deep fakes and lurid sensationalism. Our biggest problems can seem all but impossible to solve, especially when were struggling with daily concerns like what type of food to buy or whether our space heater is dangerous. Even though our fears might be based on something primal, always remember that you are still in complete control of your behavior. Being informed, counteracting your own biases, and thinking critically about the world are crucial.
Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea App.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
For the first time in history, five generations are sharing the workplace. But grouping different generations under one roof doesnt have to cause friction. Sometimes it means unlikely friendships blossom.
Me & someones dad 8 hours a day, TikTok creator @witchofwallstreet posted last week. In the video, the young financial planner and her older colleague are lip-synching to a remix of Nicki Minajs Beez in the Trap (featuring 2 Chainz) and 4 Non Blondes 1993 hit Whats Up? The video currently has over 13 million views.
This lip-synch trend featuring these songs has been circulating online in recent weeks, but has now been taken up by coworkers to showcase their age-gap workplace friendships.
Me and someones mom at our 9 to 5, another TikTok user posted, lip-synching to the same remix. Age gap friendships are my forte, she added in the caption.
The comments are filled with others sharing fond memories of their unlikely workplace besties.
At my first big girl job, I was 21 and my work bestie was 75, one wrote. Mary was the freaking best.
Some videos overlay the text workplaces are experiencing major age gaps, followed by something like me and someones dad 8 hours a day.
These major age gaps are primarily due to older workers remaining in the workforce longer than ever, either out of choice or economic necessity.
A phenomenon called age similarity preference means that we often gravitate toward people of a similar age, including among our coworkers. However, an AARP survey found that nearly 4 in 10 adults have a friend whos 15 years older or younger, most often meeting through work.
Having friends is important, no matter their age. About half of adults in the U.S. report feeling lonely, and 45% of workers reported feelings of loneliness at work, according to a new study from the accounting and advisory firm KPMG.
Workplace friendships have tons of benefitsboth for the employee and the organization as a whole. Research has found that positive workplace relationships are not only beneficial for teamwork, career development, and building a sense of community, but they also help employees find more meaning in their work.
Age-gap friendships have their own unique benefits, with fewer feelings of competition and pressure. Many have already named “girl dads” as the best bosses.
Naturally, there are many things that boomers, millennials, and Gen Zers dont always see eye to eye onfrom how often to come into the office to the necessity of small talk. Yet, having much older or much younger friends at work can help break down negative stereotypes about different generations by revealing common interests.
Even if that is filming TikToks on your lunch break.
Every encounter with another person is an opportunity to shape that relationship. The first words out of your mouth are key in establishing the goodwill we all crave. Unfortunately, too often our opening lines damage that rapport.
I once had a client who was at a conference and saw a board member she wanted to get to know. She walked up to him and blurted out, You look tired, have you been traveling? He replied, Why yes, Ive just flown in from China. She could see he was miffed by her negative comment. She admitted I dont know why I said that. It was a poor start to a relationship she hoped to develop.
Below is a list of openers to avoid and suggestions for better choices.
GREETINGS TO AVOID
To begin with, steer clear of bland, clichéd questions that ask both too much and too little of the person youre speaking with.
How are you?”
This frequent greeting may be appropriate if youre sitting down for a long conversation with a good friend. There can be times when its a sign of empathy for a friend you know is going through some difficult times.
But for pretty much anyone else, for casual acquaintances, or for colleagues in your office, avoid this greeting.
People today are facing a host of difficulties. According to a recent report, 66% of people in todays workplace are grappling with some kind of job burnout. Meanwhile, 81% are afraid of losing their jobs. Others face issues at home.
Would a colleague want to unpack their life in what is a casual or passing encounter? Not likely. So, the response is usually a nod or a cliché like, Not bad, or Okay. The person answering wont feel good about that cop out.
Whats up? or SUP
These greetings are common. They have the same overtones as, How are you? Only theyre slightly more flippant.
Saying to someone What’s up? puts them in a position of either responding with a meaningless cliché (Not bad) or unpacking their life in what is typically a passing encounter. Few people want to do that.
Hey! or Hay
This is a poor choice because it is overly casual and offers nothing to the recipient. This greeting can feel offensive when directed to a friend, an acquaintance, or anyone who would expect you to offer some feeling of recognition or rapport.
Saying Hey or Hay in fact borders on rudeness. My mother used to say Hay is for horses [not for humans]. Indeed this greeting creates no human connection.
Also avoid greetings that carry negative baggage, and put the recipient on the defensive. Here are examples:
You look tired, You dont look yourself today, or Having a rough day?
These openings unintentionally insult the listener. It puts them on the defensive. If they are tired or down, you are asking them to confirm this negative assessment. If they feel better than you imply, you are demanding they defend themselves. You may think youre showing empathy, but really youre challenging the person youre speaking with.
GREETINGS TO USE
For a group, a friendly greeting is always appropriate.
Hi [name]. Its nice to see you.
When meeting someone, warm words, showing your appreciation of that person, provide an excellent start to a conversation. Using their name is another nice touch. Everyone wants to feel that someone enjoys being with them.
Hi [name], thats a great tie.
Everyone wants to feel that they look good! So, if someone does look good, greet them by commenting favorably on some aspect of their appearance, such as their tie. Or do a variation of it: I love your dress or that color really suits you!”
You can even say I like your style. But beware that you dont comment on how attractive someone is, or that could be viewed as sexist.
Congratulations on your new job.
This is an excellent way to begin . . . as are work compliments of any kind. These would include happy to hear about your promotion . . . you deserve it or nice presentation at last weeks meeting.
I loved reading your book.
Everyone loves complimentsanother great way to go is compliment a recent accomplishment thats outside of work. Suppose youre meeting with someone who gave you a copy of their book. Theyll love hearing that you enjoyed the book. In the same way, say I loved seeing your latest article in Fast Company.
Thank you for sending me those beautiful flowers.
Showing gratitude for someones act of kindness is always a good idea and it provides an excellent opening to any conversation. Other such openings include (to a boss) thank you for joining our team at our recent retreat and (to a colleague) I appreciate the support youve given me in my new role.
This list of greetings should alert you to the need for sensitivity in even the most casual comments. Think ahead and be kind. Everyone will cherish your sensitivity.
With a new season of mass layoffs upon us, it seems corporate America has found a new scapegoat.
When Amazon recently disclosed that upcoming layoffs would impact 14,000 corporate jobs, the tech giant said the cuts would help make Amazon leaner.
This generation of AI is the most transformative technology weve seen since the internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before, HR leader Beth Galetti said in a memo. (Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has since clarified that the layoffs are driven by culture, not AI or the bottom line.)
Other tech companies like Microsoft have trimmed headcount this year to the tune of over 15,000 layoffs, all the while sinking billions of dollars into AI investments. “To deliver on our mission, we need to stay focused on our three business priorities: security, quality, and AI transformation,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees after a significant round of layoffs in July. “We are doubling down on the fundamentals while continuing to define new frontiers in AI.”
Corporate behemoths like Target and UPS have made significant cuts to their workforce in recent months while framing AI as a key component of efforts to turn around their business. The layoffs at Target are the first major cuts to its workforce in a decade, eliminating 1,800 corporate roles; UPS, on the other hand, has slashed 48,000 jobs over the course of the year, most of which have targeted drivers and warehouse workers. Incoming Target CEO Michael Fiddelke has shared that one of his key priorities is to “more fully use technology to improve our speed, guest experience and efficiency throughout the business. During an earnings call last month, CEO Carol Tomé noted that UPS would make fewer seasonal hires and cut back on vehicle leases, and that “much of this efficiency is powered by automation.”
The past month has seen an uptick in layoffs across the business world: Over 150,000 jobs were cut in October alone, according to a tally by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmasthe most in October since 2003. Artificial intelligence was one of the most common explanations for layoffs, a close second to the usual excuse of reducing costs. All this has fueled concerns that AI is, in fact, coming for your jobperhaps sooner than you anticipated.
But experts say there is little data to support this narrative, despite what the recent job cuts might suggest.
In this Premium story, readers will learn:
– Why so many companies are blaming AI for their layoffs
– What’s really going on with the labor marketand whether your job is at stake
– How AI may actually impact the way you work
The AI meltdown
Statements from CEOs are about the worst way to evaluate the impact of AI on the labor market, says Martha Gimbel, executive director of the Budget Lab at Yale University.
Gimbel coauthored a recent analysis with the Brookings Institution and the Budget Lab, which found that the rise of generative AI has had little effect on the labor market so far: In the three years since ChatGPT launched to the public, the share of workers in jobs that are most vulnerable to disruption has remained more or less unchanged.
Unemployment figures also support these findings, with little indication that AI is displacing workersat least not yet. In fact, the analysis shows that adoption of AI has been fairly comparable to how previous new technologies, like computers and the internet, permeated the workplace.
I think that’s surprising to the public, and it’s surprising given the tenor of the conversation, says Brookings senior fellow Molly Kinder, who also worked on the report.
But it’s really not surprising when you think of how hard it is to implement this in the workplace. There’s a really big gap between how fast the technology itself is going and the messy, slower pace of workplaces figuring out how to use it beyond a pilot.
There are, of course, legitimate fears about how AI can (and will) upend the way we work. Public opinion polling indicates that few Americansjust around 15%believe the technology will have a positive impact in the coming years, while 64% of the general public expects to see job losses due to AI. But Gimbel posits those concerns may be overshadowing the real dynamics of the labor market and perpetuating a misleading narrative.
I think everyone is so freaked out about AIand they are so itchy that if there is the phrase layoffs and the phrase AI within two miles of each other, everyone has a meltdown, she says.
I get why this is so stressful to people. But the cart is not just before the horse. The haystack is eight miles in front of the horse.
The (more complex, more boring) truth
So what should we make of claims that AI is catalyzing a seismic shift across the workforce?
For starters, Big Tech is no stranger to mass layoffs. Even when the tech industry does make major cuts, however, they account for just a fraction of layoffs across the labor market, according to experts. Gimbel points out that the U.S. has about 1.7 million layoffs and discharges each month, per data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There is a lot of attention that goes to layoffs in Silicon Valley for a range of reasons, she says, but we should not kid ourselves about how big these layoffs are in the context of the broader U.S. economy.
Tech companies are also prone to overhiring and then culling the ranks when the economy takes a turn, as has been the case across the industry since the pandemic. For some of those companiesincluding Microsoft and Amazonlayoffs are also the result of a desire to eliminate middle managers, who certainly cant be supplanted with AI at the moment, Kinder says.
There’s no question in my mind that Amazon will look for labor-saving possibilities, she explains, but it’s not obvious to me that AI right now is good enough to replace middle management. (Amazon told Fast Company the layoffs were a continuation of the companys efforts to reduce bureaucracy and that the vast majority of cuts were not connected to AI.) In fact, Kinder believes companies and business leaders are doing themselves a disservice by suggesting AI is driving layoffs or that emplyees’ jobs might be at risk if they don’t get up to speed on the technology. “There’s a very strong business case for why you shouldn’t just scare the pants off of your employees,” she says. “The way that companies are choosing to lead on this is really anti-worker, in my view.”
Given the hype around generative AI, Kinder argues that many employers are scrambling to keep up and want to look like theyre innovating. It makes companies look good to their shareholders, to suggest we are deploying AI so well [that] we are now cutting our labor costs, she says.
CEOs are looking over their shoulder saying, Oh, my gosh. How is it that my competitors have figured out how to cut a bunch of their staff? I haven’t figured out those efficiency gains yet.
Meanwhile, leading tech companies are personally invested in widespread AI adoption. These are companies who are in the business of selling these services, Kinder adds. It’s entirely possible that AI really is part of the story, but I think we need to have a dose of skepticism about some of the motivations they have for being so loud and proud.
Real disruption
Thats not to say AI has had no impact, or that it is not already reshaping certain jobs.
Klarna was among the first companies to openly talk about how embracing AI had enabled hundreds of job cuts; in May, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski disclosed that Klarna had reduced its headcount by 40%, in part due to AI. (Its worth noting that Klarna had slowed hiring overall and was gearing up for an IPOand in the months since, Siemiatkowski admitted that “in a world of AI, nothing will be as valuable as humans” and reportedly reshuffled employees to fill customer service roles.) Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff claimed the company was able to cut 4,000 customer service roles because of its AI-powered chatbots, and that Salesforce relies on AI for up to 50% of its work. Tripadvisor is laying off 20% of its staff as part of a restructuring that will lean more heavily on AI. And just last month, YouTube started offering voluntary buyouts amid a restructuring that will enable the company to devote more resources to AI innovation.
There are also signs that entry-level jobs may be under siege amid rapid advances in AI, particularly in industries like tech and finance where there is a high rate of adoption. A recent paper from Stanford Universitys Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence found that early-career workers in jobs that are most vulnerable to AI disruptionsoftware engineering and customer service, for examplehave seen a 13% decline in employment since late 2022. (Employment rates for other entry level jobs, however, remain unchanged or continue to grow.)
Its also difficult to quantify how AI is changing the nature of jobs, Gimbel says, even if those jobs are not being eliminated outright. AI could replace or heavily augment HR roles and other back office functions, and its already clear that the technology is transforming fields like software engineering.
But many economists and other experts believe its unlikely that AI is the driving force behind the mass layoffs that are currently underway, particularly at big tech companiessomething that Jassy himself acknowledged this week.
The real explanation is, perhaps, less interesting.
A real rush to ascribe everything to AI
Target, for example, has faced consumer boycotts and backlash this year over its retreat from DEI. But its financial woes predate those issues. Many companies, including UPS, have been hit hard by tariffs. (Target and UPS did not respond to requests for comment.)
Under the Trump administration, the business world has to contend with larger macroeconomic forces, between the tariffs and policy uncertainty. There’s a real rush to ascribe everything to AI, Gimbel says. If you asked me what was the biggest headwind facing the labor market right now, I would not list AI. My number-one issue for the labor market would be immigration.
In the current climate, it may not be politically expedient for CEOs to call attention to the real challenges that are driving layoffs and turmoil across their workforce. AI might be a more convenient excuse for layoffs, and one that may bear out as companies figure out what to do with it.
But there is not yet enough clarity on how AI can be most effectively harnessed by businesses, despite what leadersparticularly those in Silicon Valleymight say about the technologys potential to revolutionize work.
I want to be clear: It is not the case that there are no uses for the technology, Gimbel says. It is not the case that there are no companies who have figured out how to monetize it. It is not the case that no worker has lost their job to generative AI in the U.S.
I’m saying when you look at the current macro economy, there is not a sign that it’s really having any kind of major impact right now. That is partly because people are just not thinking about what it takes for companies to incorporate new technology: It takes time.
Its not the coolest phrase in the world to utter, but here goes: I love Windows.
Maybe you do too. Maybe you dont, but youre forced to use it for work. Whatever the case, for all its positives, Microsoft Windows also bundles in a handful of tools that are either bafflingly archaic or simply underpowered for the demands of the modern user.
The good news? The best things in life are often free, and it’s never been easier to swap out some of Windows default bloat for great free replacements. Here are five that are worth the download.
Trade File Explorer for Files
The native File Explorer has received a facelift and tabs, sure, but it still feels sluggish and lacks modern organizational features, and navigating between multiple locations is still clunky. Its a glorified folder viewer.
Say hello to Files. This is the file manager Windows should have right now. It’s gorgeous, embracing the sleek Fluent Design of Windows 11 and, more importantly, it features a dual-pane view for dragging files between locations like a pro.
It also supports file tagging, so you can stop relying on rigid folder hierarchies and start organizing your documents with custom, color-coded tags. And the chefs kiss: integration with popular cloud drive services.
Trade Windows Search for Everything
You hit the search bar, type in the name of a file you know is there, and then watch the little dots dance. Windows Search indexing is notoriously slow and resource-heavy.
Instead, try Everything by Voidtools. Instead of indexing file contents, this utility indexes only the file and folder names on your drives. The result is pure speed.
You start typing, and the results appear instantly. If you know the name of the file you want, Everything will find it before youve finished the first syllable.
Trade the Snipping Tool for ShareX
The built-in Snipping Tool gets the job done if the job is “take a picture and save it.” But what if you need to capture a scrolling window, annotate with arrows, and instantly upload the image to a shareable link?
Thats where ShareX shines. This open-source utility turns a simple screenshot into a complete workflow. After you capture your region (with advanced options like scrolling capture), ShareX can automatically upload it to dozens of online services, shorten the link, and copy that link to your clipboard.
It eliminates the manual steps of saving, opening the browser, and uploading. It’s a massive productivity multiplier.
Trade Notepad for Notepad++
Notepad is a fossil: a blank canvas that knows how to hold text and nothing else. Its great for pure simplicity, but utterly useless for anything that requires even a basic level of efficiency, like viewing source code or editing config files.
Notepad++ isnt just a better text editor; its a standard utility for developers and power users.
It offers tabbed document viewing, syntax highlighting for dozens of languages, and incredibly powerful search-and-replace functionality. It manages large files beautifully and supports the kinds of macros and plug-ins that make working with text-based data infinitely smoother.
Trade Sound Recorder for Audacity
Windows current Sound Recorder is strictly for capturing audio: a basic, single-track utility with zero editing capability. If you want to trim the beginning, remove background noise, or layer tracks, youre out of luck.
The godfather of free, open-source audio editing, Audacity is a full-fledged,multitrack digital audio workstation (DAW) that costs zero dollars.
You can record, edit, mix, and convert audio with a vast library of free effects and tools. Whether youre cutting an interview clip, cleaning up a podcast recording, or digitizing an old cassette, Audacity offers pro-level features that blow the built-in Windows recorder out of the water.
American agriculture is facing a crisis. The average U.S. farmer is nearly 60, and according to American Farmland Trust research, we are losing farmland at a rate of more than 2,000 acres per day. Yet, consumer demand for organic and regenerative food continues to climb, creating an urgent need. This is not just an agricultural issue. It is an economic and cultural challenge with profound implications for our food security, our environment, and our communities.
If we step back, the problem reveals an opportunity: Farming must be reimagined as a viable, purposeful career for people who may never have considered it before. Tomorrows farmers may not grow up on farms at all. They may be transitioning professionals, entrepreneurs, or military veterans looking for ways to serve their country at home.
AGRICULTURE AND FARMING AS A MODERN CALLING
For too long, farming has been portrayed as a profession in decline. However, regenerative and organic agriculture offer a different, innovative vision. They represent an economy of renewal through restoring soil, rebuilding ecosystems, and creating healthier food systems.
For individuals searching for meaning in their work, farming provides something rare in todays economy: the ability to see the tangible impact of labor. Planting a seed, nurturing it into food, and feeding a community is deeply rewarding. Unlike many modern jobs, farming ties daily effort to a long-term purpose.
A NEW MISSION
One group for whom this opportunity has been especially powerful is U.S. military veterans. Each November, we pause as a nation to honor their service and sacrifice. But what happens after the parades and tributes fade? For too many, the transition from service to civilian life brings challengesfinding meaningful work, reconnecting with a sense of purpose, and healing from the wounds of battle.
At Rodale Institute, we believe regenerative organic agriculture can be part of the solution. In 2016, we launched the Veteran Farmer Training Program to provide a full-time, hands-in-the-soil experience for service members transitioning into agriculture. On our 400-acre certified organic research farm in Pennsylvania, veterans learn about soil health, crop rotation, livestock management, equipment operation, and business planning. Just as importantly, they rediscover community and mission.
The connection between military service and farming runs deep. Historically, returning soldiers often found grounding and renewal in working the land. Farming offers more than a paycheck. It provides structure, purpose, and a tangible way to continue serving others by feeding communities.
For example, Josh, a U.S. Army veteran, served multiple tours overseas and struggled with depression after leaving the military. Through the Institutes farmer training program, he not only learned to grow food organically, but he also found a new calling. Today, he runs a small vegetable farm that supplies fresh produce to local food banks and markets.
As another example, Erika, a former Marine Corps logistics officer, came to the Institute with no prior farming experience but a passion for sustainability. After completing training, she joined a regenerative farm and now mentors other veterans looking to enter the field.
These stories highlight something bigger than a career shift. Farming becomes a way to support veterans in reconnecting with themselves, their communities, and the land.
A BUSINESS CASE FOR FARMING CAREERS
The need for new farmers is not limited to veterans. Teachers, engineers, and corporate professionals have also found purpose in regenerative organic agriculture. But to broaden the pipeline, we must lower barriers: access to land, training, financing, and markets.
This is where business leaders should pay attention. A resilient food system underpins every sector of our economy. Without healthy soil and secure domestic food production, long-term prosperity is at risk. Veterans, alongside others making the transition into farming, bring leadership, resilience, and discipline, exactly the qualities needed to transform our food system.
Supporting new farmers can take many forms: sourcing from regenerative organic farms, investing in training programs, or shaping supply chains that prioritize soil health. Each action strengthens not just agriculture, but the foundation of our economy.
A CALL TO ACTION
Ive had the privilege of meeting many people, who like me, left behind one life to answer the call of the land. Each of us carries different reasons, but the same longing: to heal, to grow, to give. What started as my personal leap of faith is now a shared movement, with roots spreading far beyond what we first imagined.
We are returning to the farm like never before. We are waking up to how disconnected we are from our food system. We are leaving our jobs and careers to reorient our lives around food, whether thats growing it, distributing it, or working in advocacy, financing, or education.
This Veterans Month, lets go beyond gratitude and invest in opportunity. Support a veteran-owned farm. Invest in the transition of organic farmland. Partner with organizations preparing the next generation of farmers.
The crisis in agriculture is real, but so is the opportunity. Farming can be a modern calling, a path to renewal for both the land and the people who work it. When we acknowledge farming as a career of dignity and innovation, everyone benefits: our veterans, our food system, and our shared future.
Jeff Tkach is CEO of Rodale Institute.
When the head of schedule planning at American Airlines, Jay Gargas, stepped off the plane in Dallas-Fort Worth after an 18-hour journey from Istanbul last Wednesday, he faced chaos.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was telling the country that, come Friday, Nov. 7, flights would be cut 10% at 40 key airports in order to ease pressure on an air-traffic control system that, 30-plus days into the longest-ever federal government shutdown, was under crippling stress.
The first mood was chaos, says Gargas. What they knew: Robert Isom, the CEO of American, would meet with Duffy at 5:30 p.m. “What we needed to do was create a definition of what the requirements were going to be. We needed to know what exactly was going to be required in order to put the puzzle together.
By 8 p.m. that evening, Gargas and his team, fueled by countless cups of coffee and pizza delivery, knew where and by how much they needed to cut Americans schedule of around 6,100 daily flights in about 36 hours. They went to work making those reductions happen and, by around 11:30 p.m. that night, had a schedule in hand for Americans operations center to implement on Friday.
All that work was done methodically to ensure American can return to its full schedule quickly whenever the government shutdown ends. Flights flown by its regional affiliates those on smaller planes under the American Eagle banner and ones to non-hub domestic destinations were pruned to minimize disruptions to both customers and crew.
For example, on Friday, American cancelled one of its 11 daily flights between Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio but kept its 12 daily flights between its hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago, Cirium schedule data shows. Hub-to-hub is the lifeline to the airline in order to move crew and more people around, says Gargas.According to Cirium, in the two months before the shutdown (August and September), American Airlines was, on average, cancelling about 1% of flights a day or about 75 flights. In October, the carrier averaged just 0.6% of flights cancelled, or about 37 flights a day.
Executives at other major U.S. airlines who were not authorized to speak publicly also described the time around Duffys announcement as chaotic and similar to the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the flight cuts five years ago were in response to border closures and the decision by most would-be travelers to stay home, these were the result of critical air traffic controllers working unpaid through the government shutdown.
A picture of disarray
The disarray is understandable. Major airline executives were only notified about 30 minutes before Duffys announcement of the cuts, reported The Air Current, an aviation trade publication. And airports, even those among the 40 where flights were being cut, were left in the dark. The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority has not received official notification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding a decrease in flight activity in response to the federal government shutdown, Orlando International Airport posted on X at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6.
Orlando was among the 40 affected airports when the FAA released its official order around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. The other airports include everything from major hubs like Atlanta and Denver, popular but constrained fields in New York and Washington, D.C., and even far flung airports in Anchorage and Honolulu.
The FAAs order outlined a phased implementation. Flights would be cut by 4% from Friday; 6% from Tuesday, Nov. 11; 8% from Thursday, Nov. 13; and finally 10% from Friday, Nov. 14.
And, on Sunday, the National Business Aviation Association trade group said that the FAA would restrict private planes at 12 of the countrys busiest airports beginning Monday, Nov. 10.
No corner of the country was left untouched by the reductions as they rippled out from major hubs to places like Bakersfield, Calif., and Corpus Christi, Texas.
Airlines cancelled 4,978 flights from Friday-through-Sunday, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. This includes disruptions for weather, aircraft maintenance and air traffic control staffing. Another 1,623 flights in the U.S., or 6.3% of the total, were cancelled on Monday by midday, Cirium data shows.
(Still) prepared for the worst
Neither American nor any other U.S. airline is taking a chance on when the shutdown will end, even with a funding deal making its way through the Senate.
The carrier has loaded cancellations in its schedule through Wednesday, Nov. 12, and is prepared to add cancellations for Thursday, Nov. 13, given the uncertainties around when and if Congress could pass the bill. There was concrete progress last night on a deal, but there are many steps ahead, and the next several days will continue to be challenging, says David Seymour, chief operations officer at American, in a letter to staff on Monday warning of continued flight disruptions.
When the government does reopen and the FAA rescinds the flight reductions, Gargas says American can return to something near a normal schedule as soon as the next day. The exception: Some cancellations are related to run-of-the-mill weather there was a snowstorm in Chicago over the weekend, for example or aircraft maintenance that could ripple through its schedule for several days.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines took a similarly methodical approach to cancelling regional and non-hub flights to minimize disruptions. The three airlines also continued to fly their full international schedules.
And, despite the initial confusion, the messaging to airline staff was one of order.
Thanks to many similar challenges weve faced before with weather and other disruptions, our crew scheduling team has become quite expert at processing these volumes of cancellations efficiently to minimize disruption to our flight crews, wrote United executives Marc Champion, vice-president of flight operations, and Rob Thomas, vice-president of flight operations planning and development, to the airlines pilots in a letter on Nov. 6 viewed by Fast Company.
Pilots at three major airlines described the notifications from their employers as similar to what they receive during irregular operations like a snowstorm.
The 737 MAX grounding and COVID really helped these kinds of chaos situations, says Gargas. You learn quickly on what the art of the possible is.”
