When Rodriguez has an upcoming appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sometimes his daughters grades slip.
The stress of not knowing whether ICE will let him stay in the United States has already sent two of his children to therapy, Rodriguez said.
They know that when I go to the ICE appointments, we dont know if Ill come back, Rodriguez said in Spanish.
The Guatemalan man, who asked not to be fully identified out of fear of retaliation, has already been deported once, and he has been held in ICE custody a few times. Though Rodriguez already has a deportation order and officials could send him back at any time, his attorney has managed to convince the U.S. government to let him stay in the country for now as long as he checks in periodically.
That could change under President Donald Trump, who has already launched efforts to follow through on his campaign promise of mass deportations of immigrants.
That promise has raised concerns among economists as well as human rights advocates based on the effects of large-scale deportations in the past.
The Trump administration has floated ideas that include building temporary detention tent facilities where the government can hold people while it fast tracks their cases as well as using military and local law enforcement to assist immigration officials. The team has already indicated its considering invoking the same law that the government used to round up and detain Japanese Americans during World War IIa moment in U.S. history the government later apologized for and is now widely criticized as racist and xenophobic.
Erin Tsurumoto Grassi, whose grandparents were children when they were forced out of their homes under a notorious executive order issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, said Trumps plans will continue that legacy.
Its part of a much larger existing problem in this country that ties back to white supremacy, she said. What happened to my family is not necessarily unique when you look at the history of this country, when you look at the things that have been done to people of color in this country.
Adam Isacson of the human rights advocacy organization the Washington Office on Latin America said he expects the Trump team to try new, legally creative strategies this time around to bring about the promised deportations.
Who had read the quarantine statutes of the 1940s of the U.S. code as a way to exclude almost 3 million people? Isacson said, referring to a policy known as Title 42 introduced by Trump in 2020 as a way to block asylum seekers at the border. I had never heard of it, but Stephen Miller had.
People like Rodriguez, who have already been ordered removed, are likely to be targeted for arrest in the coming days as ICE officers work to meet newly established quotas. In several cases during Trumps first term in office, people with such orders sought protection from deportation by living in churches.
The only thing that makes us different from other people is that we dont have status, but with everything else were the same, Rodriguez said. We want our children to do well.
Planning a Mass Deportation
To deport the number of people that Trump has discussed, the administration will have to figure out how to streamline the deportation process, which often drags out in lengthy court proceedings and then in the logistical hurdles of getting a country to agree to take someone back. In his first term, Trump deported more than 900,000 people, according to ICE data. Thats fewer than former President Barack Obama deported in either of his terms.
The process of deporting someoneI think their only restraint is resources, Isacson said.
Trump has declared a national emergency and ordered the Department of Defense to deploy military troops to assist with immigration enforcement.
Incoming administration official Tom Homan, Trumps so-called border czar, has called the military a force multiplier for immigration enforcement efforts.
The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from participating directly in civilian law enforcement, but troops could provide logistical support from construction to monitoring. For example, every president since George W. Bush has deployed National Guard troops to do logistical work at the border, including to reinforce barriers or monitor Border Patrol camera feeds. Military planes are also now conducting deportation flights.
Project 2025, the conservative policy plan by the Heritage Foundation that several of Trumps early appointees helped write, calls for changing detention standards to allow ICE to hold people in tents. The state of Texas has already offered 1,400 acres of ranchland for the administration to build additional detention facilities. Under the first Trump administration, the military participated in building the border wall, and it could be called in to help with this construction as well.
As Project 2025 suggested, ICE has already removed restrictions on officers ability to conduct immigration arrests in places like schools, religious buildings, hospitals and emergency shelters such as those used during the Los Angeles fires.
And, in keeping with Project 2025s plans, Trumps Day One executive ordersincluded instructions for an expansion of a program called expedited removal, which allows immigration officials to issue a deportation order without going before a judge. Historically, the program applied only to people who just crossed the border, but in his first term, Trump attempted to expand it to include anyone who had been in the United States for less than two years. Initially stalled in court, te change was eventually allowed though later rescinded under former President Joe Biden.
I think their hope is that there is some legal device or set of legal devices that can kind of do for them in the interior what Title 42 did for them on the border and allow them to sidestep the immigration laws in whole or in part, said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants Rights Project.
He noted that requiring hearings before a judge to secure a deportation order helps protect peoples due process rights.
Its not complicated for the sake of being complicated, Jadwat said.
The ACLU has already filed a lawsuit to challenge the administrations re-expansion of expedited removal.
Beyond that, the Trump administration is expected to lean into a program known as 287(g) that allows ICE to deputize local law enforcement to do immigration work. Some cities and states, including California, already forbid local participation in that program.
Kevin Johnson, a professor of law and Chicano studies at the University of California Davis, said he was especially worried about local law enforcement becoming involved in the mass deportation effort because of what happened in the 1930s, when local authorities rounded up people believed to be Mexicanincluding U.S. citizensand sent them south on trains and boats.
We have rules and laws regulating removals from the country, but if we start down the path of mass arrests and quick-and-dirty deportations, then those rules are not likely to be followed, Johnson said.
Effects of a Deportation
Most mass deportation efforts are rooted in a nativist belief that immigrants take jobs from U.S.-born workers, according to Tom Wong, a professor of political science and founding director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at University of California, San Diego. He said that belief is neither accurate nor rational, but the effects can cause lasting harm.
Immigrants are complements, not substitutes, he said, giving the example of an immigrant worker offering child care services so that a U.S.-born single mother can also work.
He said that economists have found labor market shortages following mass deportations. The coming removals, he said, could lead to an increase in food prices as well as gaps in construction. Advocates pointed to the daunting task of rebuilding in the wake of the Los Angeles fires as a project that could be impacted by mass deportations.
The American Immigration Council recently estimated that Trumps deportation plans could shrink the United States GDP by 4.2% to 6.8%. According to the immigration policy think tanks October report, undocumented workers paid $46.8 billion in federal taxes in 2022, along with $29.3 billion in state and local taxes, while contributing $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare.
But Wong said he does not think messaging about potential economic harm will convince the voters who elected Trump.
I think the American public is willing to pay the costs, Wong said.
Its going to take a lot of pain before people realize how damaging mass deportation efforts are, he added.
Wong said members of the public may begin to wake up to the problems caused by mass deportation once they see the effects on neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones.
Rodriguez, the man who is among those facing potential imminent deportation under the second Trump administration, said he works two jobs, one in construction and the other at a restaurant.
Ive never hurt anyone. Ive never asked the government to maintain me, he said. The only thing weve done is work every day.
He first came to the United States in the 1990s, fleeing the civil war in Guatemala and the obligatory military service that came with it. Over the years, he tried to get attorneys to help him sort out his case, but for one reason or another, it never worked out. He remained undocumented.
Meanwhile, he got married and started a family. Then in the mid-aughts, ICE deported him.
I had my family and kids here. I was paying for a house, Rodriguez said. I had to come back.
He crossed through the desert mountains and returned to California, but during the Obama administration, ICE found him again. This time, the agency allowed him to stay temporarily as long as he checked in periodically with its officers.
Rodriguez said he is worried about what will happen to his family if ICE sends him back again. He doesnt want his children to move to Guatemala, and he knows they will suffer emotionally and financially in his absence.
He said that when he was in ICE custody, teachers noticed a change in his sons behavior. The boy didnt play with his friends, and they ended up sending him to a counselor.
Rodriguez is the breadwinner, supporting his children as they pursue college degrees.
Under the law, I guess its right, but for many of us who have been here for years, the family is who suffers, he said.
Growing Gardens
Though some polls have found public support for mass deportations, Johnson, the Davis School of Law professor, said he believes that many will protest if Trumps threats become a reality.
He noted that organized political movements in the Latino community didnt exist during the historical removals of the 1930s and 1950s in the way that they do today.
There was no MALDEF that was going to sue to try to stop the repatriation, he said, referring to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a prominent civil rights organization.
He acknowledged that there appears to be a lot of support for mass removals, but he also predicted national outrage. Family separation, one of the Trump administrations key immigration policies in its first term, ended because the public couldnt stomach it, Johnson said.
Tsurumoto Grassi, associate director of Alliance San Diego and a descendant of Japanese Americans whom the government forced from their homes during World War II, said the stories of resilience during previous immigration roundups can teach community members how to navigate the years ahead.
Japanese Americans held under former President Franklin Roosevelts executive order made gardens and planted trees around the prison camps that were hastily constructed to separate them from the rest of society, she said.
They found ways to still come together as a community and find their dignity in the midst of all that, Tsurumoto Grassi said.
She said that community wisdom from those past experiences is among the ools that people can draw on today.
How do we make it through a time when people are treating individuals like they are less than human? she said. We need to look to those stories to give us hope for how do we get through what looks to be a difficult time ahead.
Rodriguez said hes hoping that the public will consider people like him before deciding to support the mass deportation effort.
The most important thing is that society puts its hand on its heart and thinks about all the people who will be affected if this new administration does everything that its saying, he said.
Kate Morrissey, Capital & Main
This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
The standing desk is old news. Behold, the standing table. Herman Miller just released a new design that takes the concept of a standing desk to a whole new level. The Spout Sit-to-Stand Table comes in a range of sizes, from 2-by-4 feet to a whopping 4-by-7 feet, supports up to 400 pounds, and can seat a whole team rather than just one worker. Thats because it breaks a key form factor that most other standing desks follow: the number of legs in use. The vast majority of standing desks have only two motorized legs, mostly because theyre easier to stabilize and engineer to move seamlessly. Meanwhile, the Spout table stands on four legs, allowing chairs to be placed comfortably on all sides of the table.[Image: Herman Miller]The biggest challenge in designing a four-leg solution was creating a rigid and stable platform that could seamlessly support large surfaces, a Herman Miller spokesperson shared with Fast Company. The design team and engineers tackled this by developing an elegant 360-degree understructure that not only enhances stability but also scales across multiple sizes, from 2448 deep and 4284 wide.[Photo: Herman Miller]A four-legged standing desk isnt unheard of (in fact, Herman Miller offers a leather-wrapped version), but youd be hard-pressed to find one with 28 square feet of surface space. And, whereas most standing desks on the market tend to live within a minimalist color palette, the Spout can be customized with a wide range of surface materials, edge details, and leg colors, like dusty blue or fire engine red. To keep the tables profile sleek and elegant, its engineers also had to ensure that all of its moving mechanicslike the motors and drive assemblywould be tucked out of view inside the legs themselves.[Photo: Herman Miller]The team devoted countless hours to ensuring that every line and radius aligned perfectly, the spokesperson said. While the table may appear elegantly simple, the precision and complexity behind its design are anything but.Buyers of the Spout table will certainly be paying for this attention to detail. The price of the table varies widely depending on the size you choose and how you personalize it (see a guide here), but the three standard sizes currently available for purchase on the website start in the mid-$2,000s. For a Herman Miller product, this isnt exactly a surprise. Many of the companys office goods have make up their pricey costs not only in their high-quality materials, but also in their status-signaling cachet (see the Eames lounge chairs recent renaissance among tech bros).Personally, Id want my $2,000 desk to come with just a bit more opulence. Still, for any work-from-home tech couples out there or office managers looking to literally level up their space, this might just be the perfect product.
It took decades, but Rachael Kelly broke the insidious cycle of abuse shed been stuck in since childhood. At the time, she was leading human resources at a restaurant group in 2020. Im new in this job, and my toxic marriage start[ed] to peak, she says. Meanwhile, she was trying to help the employees at her restaurant who were suffering through the trauma and joblessness of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ending her marriage to an abusive husband while helping those workers establish safety nets made her think: How do we package [what Im doing here] and model it forward?
Kelly ended up doing just that by first launching her nonprofit HiveStrong, which helps survivors of intimate partner violence and human trafficking. She then translated HiveStrongs principles to the professional sphere with her for-profit consulting arm called HiveSmart. I didnt expect how much trauma there is in the workplace, she says, and how much work around trauma and holding a safe space [could increase] business productivity.
HiveSmart Consulting provides HR and coaching services to organizations with anywhere from five to 5,000 employees in industries ranging from hospitality to retail to HR technology in the U.S. It may look like any business consulting firm on the surface, but all its profits go toward Kellys survivor-aiding nonprofit and its methods stem from this workin other words, theyre trauma-informed. For Kelly, that means teaching business clients on how to do things like hold a safe space for their employees and where to draw the line between being compassionate, empathetic, and flexible while maintaining accountability.
It also involves helping mediate and improve relationships between bosses and employees, particularly when one or both have experienced traumas that make them wary of each other, or unable to communicate effectively. Kellys particularly equipped to do this given her background as both a trauma survivor and a business leader.
Since its August launch, HiveSmart has grown to include 20 consultants and works with four to six active clients at a time, Kelly says. Shes not alone in running a consultancy that fosters trauma-informed work environments; a quick Google will reveal that trauma-informed consultants are active around the country. But its a trend that Kelly says more employers are starting to see the need for, judging by the growing interest in her expertise and greater awareness of just how many people experience trauma.
One global 2016 study found 70% of respondents reported experiencing at least one traumatic event in their lives, while the US National Center for PTSD reports roughly 5% of U.S. adults have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in any given year, a condition that might result in employees shutting down or lashing out when theyre triggered by a colleague or managers behavior.
Everyone experiences trauma, Kelly says, citing the mass trauma incurred from the pandemic, and there’s a way to make change that’s inclusive, not alienating. The challenge, then, she says, is bringing that message to the C-suite.
How trauma affects the workplace
Its difficult to trace the exact origins of trauma-informed practice, but many cite its roots in the healthcare field, specifically in how professionals came to work with Vietnam War veterans in the 1970s. With PTSD newly identified among veterans, healthcare providers shifted their approach to address its symptoms. This meant instead of asking patients, What is wrong with you? theyd start by asking, What happened to you?
That latter question is still at the root of trauma-informed practices today, which have expanded beyond healthcare into arenas like education and, thanks to consultants like Kelly, the workplace. The U.S. Department of Healths Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration names the six key principles of a trauma-informed approach as safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, empowerment aka voice and choice (giving workers agency that they lacked in their traumatic experiences) and cultural, historical, and gender issues.
When organizations dont consider those principles in their operations, say trauma-informed practitioners, trauma can manifest at work in myriad ways. It’s hard to [paint] a broad stroke, because trauma responses can look so different across folks, says Shelby Cook, who founded the Ohio-based Cook Counseling and Consulting after getting burnt out as a therapist with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Two prominent examples she sees are absenteeism and presenteeism. (The former happens when employees, for example, repeatedly take sick days for their mental health. Presenteeism means employees physically show up to work but are mentally checked out and underperforming.)
That can be a result of trauma, where that shut-down mode [turns] on, Cook says.
As a therapist, Cook describes herself as touchy feely but notes this isnt the most common trait across C-suite executives. Kelly points out how many older executives grew up in an era when the common wisdom deemed emotions weak, she says. That can result in bosses and managers, perhaps inadvertently, shaming employees for feeling. When you do that, you make those emotions more acute, she says, training the brain that theyre worse than they are.
Eschewing trauma-informed practices also results in communication breakdowns. I would see people talking past each other, Kelly says, because they didnt understand where the other was coming from. Context is everything when it comes to successful communication. This stuck out to Kelly when she worked with a CEO whod been traumatized by people having stolen from him and was trying to improve his relationship with an employee whod been abused by an older man when she was younger.
Their relationship was sparking [the employees] triggers of controlling, untrustworthy, middle-aged white men, says Kelly, But once she understood what was going on with him, and he understood what was going on with her, they could . . . meet in the middle. That employee, whod been on the verge of quitting, ended up getting promoted and increasing her companys revenue.
Implementing trauma-informed practices at work
Dawn Emerick, a former CEO who now runs the trauma-informed Dawn Emerick Consulting in Florida, learned how her trauma affected her ability to work when she came up against what she calls a bully boss in her previous job. His authoritative characteristics, she says, elicited the fight or flight responses she didnt realize shed been suppressing since her traumatic childhood. They became so overwhelming that Emerick eventually resigned.
Today, Emerick draws on her experience to coach other CEOs on trauma-informed methods. Coaching, she underscores, is not the same as giving advice, which she avoids in favor of executives comng to their own solutions. We talk it through and give scenarios, she says. Sometimes CEOs just need a confidential place [to talk], because it’s lonely at the top.
She often uses the elevator metaphor to help clients land on productive responses to workplace problems. If there’s ten floors to their emotional response, and theyre at an eight, she says, they need someone to help them get down to a four so they don’t send that damn email.
Strategizing around specific conversations is also a big part of Kellys work, as is ensuring leaders listen to and empower their employees. Having agency and choice is so important for trauma survivors, because its something they were denied as victims. Asking employees for their input, then, is crucial to fostering trauma-informed workplacesand not just asking, but then acting on employees suggestions and requests.
This holds for big and small asks. Cook brings up employees requesting she stock decaf coffee in the office kitchen. These small touches show employees that they matter and are being heard.
When Kelly started working with LaMonte Jones, whos on the board of directors of the nonprofit Children of Restaurant Employees, the organization struggled with board members operating in silos and cliques, Jones says, keeping their issues hidden. Kelly built connections with individual members to facilitate, Jones says, an environment that allowed everyone to be heard and all their ideas to be considered. The board members realized they had a common goal; they were just disagreeing on how to get there. Once they saw others listening to their ideas, they were able to incorporate more board members perspectives productively.
Since Kellys intervention, says Jones, COREs funding is up, and theyve identified staffers to promote to the executive levelthe first time theyve promoted in-house in a long time. At the last board meeting, Jones observed that everyone likes each other, he says. They’ve got more strategic partners than they’ve ever had in the past. . . . They have people working in spaces that highlight their gifts and talents.
‘Empathetic leadership’ doesnt equal ‘trauma-informed’
While Cook calls this work touchy feely, Cook says the approach is essentially rooted in specific actions covered in those six SAMHSA principles, ranging from DEI efforts to other practices like responding sincerely to employee input. Defining it only as empathetic leadership, says Emerick, doesnt do it justice. Being an empathetic leader means being able to put yourself in an employee’s shoes, she adds, while being a trauma-informed leader means acting on that empathy by making employees feel safe at work (like making sure theyre listened to and supported) in such a way that still holds them accountable to their job requirements and deadlines.
For example, bosses can act compassionately toward their employees without bending to their every demand. Holding a safe space doesn’t mean you’re saying it’s okay not to perform, Kelly says. Bosses can practice flexibility by, say, letting an employee with a history of trauma leave a little early one day a week to go to therapy while still requiring they meet their deadlines.
Kelly looks to the Americans with Disabilities Act for guidance on how to treat employees whove experienced trauma equitably without favoring them: What’s reasonable, she asks, if somebodys going through something, to accommodate in a way that still meets the needs of the business?
Employees notice shallow accommodation efforts. Offering snazzy workplace perks like ping pong tables or team-building days arent going to solve employees trauma-rooted problems. Cook brings up a misguided Employee Assistance Program she witnessed at a large Ohio university that offered counseling for its staff and students . . . provided by its own staff, meaning it lacked meaningful confidentiality.
Ultimately, says Kelly, trauma-informed practices at work are means to an end. There’s always a business outcome we’re trying to accomplish, she says. For executives, achieving that outcome while holding safe spaces for employees isnt unattainableyou just need the right coaching.
The Trump administration and Elon Musk have spent the past several weeks upending the federal government. After essentially shutting down most operations of the nations foreign aid efforts through USAID, the next target appears to be NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Musks team has reportedly infiltrated NOAAs offices, and NOAA staff have been told to stop all contact with foreign nationals, which threatens the very nature of the agency’s work; international cooperation is crucial to both weather and fisheries activity because neither the atmosphere or the ocean are limited to U.S. borders. Employees are anticipating drastic staff and budgeting cuts.
Project 2025 specifically noted NOAA as a target, as well. The Heritage Foundations 900-page right-wing playbook called the agency one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and recommended it be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated” and instead privatized. It’s not clear what that would look like, though experts have said it isn’t a good ideaand that private weather companies wouldn’t even want that change because they’d have to bear the cost of collecting weather data that’s currently given to them for free.
NOAAs services are far-reaching; most prominently, it houses the National Weather Service, which provides forecasts for the country, and the National Hurricane Center, which issues warnings and forecasts for tropical cyclones. It’s also responsible for marine fisheries and even space weather predictionswhich can affect the GPS that all our phones rely on.
Even if you dont live in an area at risk of hurricanes or eat seafood from fisheries managed and inspected by the agency, NOAA plays a huge role in your life. Everyone relies on NOAA, whether you realize it or not, says Jeff Watters, vice president of external affairs with the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental advocacy nonprofit. The services that NOAA provides touch basically everyone everyday, in some way or another.
Weather forecasts, marine rescues, plastic pollution, and oil spills
Because theres no NOAA logo under each local meteorologists forecast or on weather apps, most Americans may not realize that agency is actually providing the data that underpins Accuweather or the Weather Channel or their local news channel’s meteorological reports. But once NOAA’s functions “start to fall apart or degrade, Watters says, we’ll notice them pretty quickly.
If our weather forecasting industry were to be entirely privatized, as Project 2025 envisions, it could leave entire areas of the country without proper forecasting and essentially in the dark. What about remote areas in Alaska? Watters asks. Is a [private] company going to invest in multimillion pieces of infrastructure to monitor and understand weather in those locations when theyre serving small-ish numbers of people? Americans needand have come to expectblanket weather forecasting coverage. If you break that system, I almost shudder to think of the ramifications, he says.
As another example, the entire tsunami warning system is within NOAA. It’s another function Americans may not notice “until you are facing down a potential tsunami, and don’t have the prediction that a tsunami is going to hit,” Watters says. Multiple scientists reacting to the threats against NOAA have summed up its impact by simply noting that accurate, publicly available weather forecasts save lives.
Beyond weather forecasts, NOAA manages the network that responds to stranded marine mammals, like beached whales or dolphins that need rehabilitation. They’re essentially first responders” for sick, injured, or distressed animals from whales and dolphins to seals and sea lions, Watters notes. Its also responsible for the stewardship of nearly everything in the ocean, from managing marine sanctuaries and coral reefs (which are in severe decline) to monitoring marine debris, which includes plastic pollution.
Ocean Conservancy does a lot of work on the plastic pollution front, and Watters notes that two recent pieces of legislations to bolster the marine debris programthe Save Our Seas Act and Save Our Seas 2.0were actually signed by Trump during his first term. President Trump should be proud of that part of what NOAA does, he says, and to turn our backs on those important bodies of work would be hugely damaging to the ocean environment.
Understanding oil spills also falls under NOAAs purview. Theres a small but mighty team within the agency that works on models to predict the movement of oil, so whenever theres a spill, it can explain how it will spread and calculate how much oil might be in the water. If we don’t have that function and a big oil spill happens, we have no way of figuring out how to deal with it, Watters says. NOAA also helps recover funds from those responsible for oil spills; over the last 30 years, that’s totaled more than $10 billion. Without NOAA, there may not be that retribution, which is crucial for restoring coastal communities.
NOAA is bipartisanand stopping it doesnt stop climate change
Project 2025 takes aim at NOAA for its role in driving what it calls the climate change alarm industry. The Trump administration has been purging mentions of climate change, and any data associated with it, from government websites. But dismantling NOAA doesnt stop the effects of climate change; it would just limit how prepared we are for them.
NOAA also, notably, doesnt have a partisan alliance. Its actually historically had bipartisan support. Watters calls it the impartial eyes and ears and what’s going on in our atmosphere and in our ocean. NOAA doesnt relay this data with any political bias or agenda, it does so from a purely scientific view that information and transparency matters. It is up to the administration to decide whether they want to actually do anything about climate or not, he adds. But to cut off our eyes and ears and say we’re going to face the world blindfolded seems like not a very good idea.
All of NOAAs powers and responsibilities have been given to it by Congress over decades, and written ito law. Watters didnt share an opinion on Neil Jacobs, Trumps nominee to head NOAA who was cited for misconduct in an incident known as Sharpiegate in 2019. But Watters emphasized the need, in Jacobs confirmation hearing, for senators to ask about the administrations plans for the agency. (Congress also has jurisdiction over NOAA’s activities, so the threats to the agency are another example of how Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is embarking on illegal actions across government departments. DOGE itself isn’t even a federal agency, as the creation of new cabinet-level departments needs approval from Congress.)
Congress has given so much direction and responsibility to this agency, and American people depend on it. If someone has plans for this agency and isn’t saying so, shouldn’t we have a conversation about that? he says. It shouldn’t just be up to someone behind the scene deciding that they want to tear an agency apart. The services that NOAA provides are too important for us to not have a national conversation about the future of the agency.
Appointing a chief of staff is a critical first step for any CEO looking to make impactful leadership decisions. But an executive who merely utilizes their chief of staff as an administrative extra set of hands risks missing out on meaningful transformation opportunities. The critical decision to position a chief of staff as a true executive partner, when executed well, can be a bold investment that impacts a CEOs legacy.
Based on my own experience as a chief of staff for a Series A unicorn-to-be and my current work coaching and placing these professionals, Ive seen firsthand that todays chiefs of staff act as leadership amplifiers. They occupy a unique position at the top of the organizational chart, where they can operate across teams without being burdened by the direct management of a department. This freedom allows them to shield their CEOs from distractions and ensure they focus on the work that truly matterstheir unique strengths, vision, and decision-making.
An open secret and unfair advantage
Understanding and defining the role remains a challenge. As a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz put it, appointing a CEO-whispering talent as one of the firms inaugural chiefs of staff made sense because nobody knew what that meant.
I’ve seen this asymmetry of understanding first-hand in hundreds of conversations with executives. For Jamie Hodari, CEO and cofounder of Industrious, a chief of staff is a clear necessity. Who wouldnt want to be in two places at once? The best chief of staff relationship enables exactly that. Sitting alongside his sixth chief of staff since founding his company, Hodari told me, Ive never encountered a hard problem at work where two smart people trying to think through it wasnt preferable to one.
But Ive also spoken with CEOs who have been given the misguided view that this position is merely an administrative role with a fancy title. Bridging this executive knowledge gap promises so much upside that McKinsey and BCG have intensified their thought leadership around this role in recent white papers and podcasts.
Christie Horvath, CEO of pet healthcare company Wagmo, says that she views her chief of staff as an extension of her own brain. The chief of staff on her team takes on tasks that can be delegated to other departmentstheyre often CEO-led initiatives where the chief of staff must operate as a true strategic partner, not just a project manager.
Unleashing emerging leaders
Ive seen chief of staffs being tasked with all sorts of significant initiatives by savvy CEOs. These might include projects like:
Spearheading the hiring process for other C-Level roles
Company-wide Rhythm of Business and Stakeholder Management Plans
Standing in and speaking for the CEO in high-stakes meetings
. . . all with little to no guidance.
Their often-uncommon career trajectoriesspanning disciplines like consulting, law, and product developmentalso equip chiefs of staff to bring fresh, outsider perspectives that might not otherwise appear in executive leadership meetings. And while 75% of chiefs of staff support CEOs, many others work with CFOs, CHROs, or department heads, tailoring their expertise to the leaders scope.
Hire for a partner, not a position
A trusted right hand can create new value that even the CEO or board of directors might not see.
While the position is usually leveled as a middle-management role, the chief of staff is one-of-one in the corporate hierarchy, reporting directly to a boss several levels more senior. These individuals command competitive salaries even in a challenging job market, reflecting the rigors of the position.
We see this in the data from our most recent Ask a Chief of Staff compensation reportcompared to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, average chief of staff salaries across industries are approximately 49% higher than the latest median salary figures for general and operations managers.
Taking on the $150 billion pet care industry as a leadership duo with her chief of staff, Horvath shared with me that, a huge part of what makes this partnership successful is the “chemistry”how easily my chief of staff can anticipate what I envision. The key is to hire someone who complements your skill set and shores up areas where youre less effective, rather than duplicating your strengths.
The most important takeaway for CEOs is that this role is not merely a positionits a partnership. Empowering a chief of staff as a true C-suite partner is a bold future-focused move, requiring the highest degree of self-awareness, trust, and adaptability from a chief executive.
Maybe I should begin this article by arguing that nothing spices up a mundane meeting like a creative, beautiful, or hilarious background for your Zoom calls. But the reality is that most of us just need to hide messy offices, guestroom beds, or dirty-dish-filled kitchens.
These three websites offer up almost half a million free Zoom backgrounds for your perusal, so forget tidying up and get that scrolling finger ready.
Pexels: Something for everyone
The undisputed king of free Zoom backgrounds, Pexels houses more than 450,000 photos and more than 50,000 videos in its Zoom section.
With that many options, you have . . . well, options. Whether you’re looking for something professional, fun, or quirky, Pexels has you covered: nature, home, office, space, peopleyou name it. If you cant find it here, it might not exist.
Photos can be filtered by orientation, size, and color to help you whittle down your selection. They can also be sorted by popularity or latest additions.
Unsplash: Modern masterpieces
With only (only?!) 10,000 or so Zoom background images, Unsplash cant hold a candle to Pexelss giant collection, but this site specializes in slick backgrounds that will make your Zoom calls look posh and polished.
There are some great options here, mostly skewing to the modern end of the spectrum. Theyre like what your office could look like if you had the time, money, awesome lighting, and daily cleaning service.
Images can be filtered by landscape and portrait orientations, and sorted by relevance, date, and curated, which features hand-picked selections.
Freepik: No nonsense, no distractions
When you need a background to hide your background, Freepik has a wonderful selection of understated options.
There are lots of plants here. Lots and lots of plants. However, theres also a great selection of slightly-blurred backgrounds that give your setup a nice, real-life depth of field to make things seem as realistic as possible.
With not-quite 4,000 images on hand, this is the smallest collection of the bunch, but its a great place to start if youre looking for something neutral and nondescript.
Its also got the most robust searching features, with more than a dozen filtering options to help you hone in on a most excellent downloadable.
The Super Bowl is a magical time and place for brands. A rare and brief three-or-so hour moment when people want to see commercials. Every marketers Xanadu.
What defines a great Super Bowl ad is obviously subjective, no matter what the Ad Meters, and any number of other measurement tech tells you. Hell, even your own brain might be lying to you. The real scorecard is unique to each brand and what it considers the worth of up to $40 million or more in investment around the game.
My criteria for a good Super Bowl ad remains relatively simple: Is it fun or emotional in a way that is both entertaining and memorable? An easy question to ask, but as each year proves, much more difficult to answer.
Before I get into my top 5 list, here are the honorable mentions.
The coffee wars come to the Super Bowl! Im a fan of Dunkins work with Ben Affleck, created by Artists Equity Advertising (the ad arm of Affleck and Matt Damon-founded Artists Equity). This years spot was a funny take on the coffee wars, using a part-Warriors, part-Anchorman dynamic to continue the adventures of the DunKings.
I also really liked Starbucks Hello Again, by Anomaly, which aimed to remind us why we liked the brand in the first place. However, the spot could be used as a case study in how crucial the right song can be, because this ad wouldnt hit nearly as hard without AC/DCs classic Thunderstruck.
After 27 years, its about time we saw another Nike commercial in the Super Bowl. Hare Jordan is arguably a Top 10 all-time Super Bowl commercial, so getting the swoosh back feels right. Now in So Win, the brand used Led Zeppelin and a murderers’ row of female superstars to stylishly continue its swing back to the ultra-competitive attitude Nike was built on.
My admiration for what FanDuel has created with Kick of Destiny is well-documented, and continues this year. While the main event isnt technically an in-game adthis year cleverly embedding itself within the Fox pregame showit remains one of the best-ever Super Bowl brand ideas.
Speaking of all-time big game brand ideas, another shout-out to Doritos for bringing back Crash The Super Bowl after an eight-year hiatus. The spots were fun, funny, and the contest remains a benchmark in fan participation.
And lastly, a shout-out to the brands that decided to go full emosh and actually pulled it off with impressive results. The NFLs Somebody, Lays Little Farmer, and Googles Dream Job all struck a nice balance for the brands and the moment.
OK, now on to my top 5 ads of the 2025 Super Bowl.
Stella Artois “David & Dave: The Other David”
Its a premise that could be explained in one line: David Beckham finds out he has a secret American twin named Dave. This is Artists Equity Advertisings first Super Bowl spot for a brand thats not Dunkin’, and here we have the companys other co-founder Damon in a starring role.
I spoke to execs at the agency for a story coming out later this week, and they told me the brief from the brand was to shift Stellas image in the U.S. as an upscale beer to more of a quality everyday beer. Enter Dave Beckham. Weve seen David pitch for the brand plenty of times, in ads, on Hot Ones, and beyond, but here we get to see a funnier side of the soccer legend.
Mountain Dew “Kiss From A Lime”
Mountain Dew has long-been one of the more experimental Super Bowl advertisers. In 2021, it enlisted John Cena to challenge viewers with a contest to be the first person to tweet the correct number of Mountain Dew Major Melon bottles that appeared in the ad for a chance to win $1 million. In 2018, it partnered with sibling brand Doritos for a surreal rap battle between Peter Dinklange and Morgan Freeman. And of course, 2016 gifted us the classic Puppymonkeybaby.
This year the brand went all in on the big game version of unhinged. Seal as a seal? Directed by Taika Waititi, not only is this absurdity bullseye consistent with the sodas identity when it comes to the Super Bowl, it delivers an on-brand ear-worm care of a 1994 love ballad. Whats not to like? (Its still in your head, isnt it?)
Uber Eats “A Century of Cravings”
Uber Eats made a relatively late decision in September to completely change its Super Bowl plansa planning process that typically starts in July. A spot starring Matthew McConaughey, in which he floated a conspiracy theory that the function of all sports is to act as a catalyst for us to eat more food, got a great response. Could they continue that in the big game? Short answer: yep.
Here it goes deeper. Not deep like finger-rolling a booger in your Lincoln deep; just different deep. A decade on, The McConaissance is still deep in its commercial era, and here the Oscar winner keeps the streak alive by giving us a history lesson of his earlier conspiracy.
Its a fun instalment of an overall celebrity-soaked ad strategy that manages to stand out, even as Pringles put up a strong challenge to its multi-celeb approach.
I think people now have a clearer understanding of our brand and tone because were consistently showing up with a very specific type of spot that is landing a specific type of humor, Ubers head of marketing for North America Georgie Jeffreys, told me last week. Even if the message changes, the core tenets of our brand are the same.
Bud Light “Big Men on Cul-De-Sac”
Just like at a bar, it was a close call between this and Bud Lights blood rival Coors Light. Both ads are really funny and pretty much exactly what a light beer ad in the Super Bowl should aim for.
What puts Bud Light over the line here is how it not only meets the above criteria, but does so with solid brand consistency. A great big game ad that doesnt feel like a one-off is often a rare species. This isnt the first time weve seen Post hit the field for Bud Light, and the work Gillis has done over the past year has completely reinvigorated the brands personality.
Todd Allen, Bud Lights senior vice president of marketing told me that it was a no-brainer for the brand to keep the momentum going and continue to lean into Gillis brand of humor. Theres absolutely no bigger stage to deliver a laugh than the Super Bowl, and when you combine a comedic powerhouse like Shane with Bud Light, I think we have a winning formula, said Allen.
Liquid Death Safe For Work
I mentioned the importance of the right song earlier with Starbucks, and here it applies just as much, but in a totally different way. Instead of relying on a classic song or new hit banger to tap into the audiences existing affinity, Liquid Death crafted its own hilarious, pseudo-country jam about drinking on the job.
The cops are drinking, the surgeons are drinking, the pilots are drinking, the court judges, the football refs, even the school bus drivers are all drinking on the job.
Liquid Death is no stranger to celebrities. Its worked with Martha Stewart, Bert Kreischer, Tony Hawk, and more. But here, the brand shrewdly avoided any big names knowing full well its exactly the opposite of what the majority of Super Bowl advertisers would do. The sharp contrast between the parade of celebrity pitchfolks and this lack of Hollywood star power, makes the ad stand out for all the right reasons.
For the first time in 27 years, we saw a Nike commercial in the Super Bowl. Has it really been that long? Hard to believe that one ofif not theworlds greatest marketing brands hasnt been on the big game stage for almost three decades. Hare Jordan is arguably a Top 10 all-time Super Bowl ad.
Blame complacency, the fragmentation of media and culture, or whatever you like, but getting the swoosh back to the Super Bowl just feels right. Not only that, but the brand is using this opportunity to re-establish its hardcore athlete bonafides, in case anyone forgot.
Created with Wieden+Kennedy, and narrated by Grammy winner Doechii, here we get a cranked up, black and white film, set to Led Zeppelins Whole Lotta Love. It features top athletes like ballers Caitlin Clark, Aja Wilson, JuJu Watkins and Sabrina Ionescu; footballer Alexia Putellas, tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, sprinter ShaCarri Richardson, and more, all showing the various ways they’re proving critics wrong.
Chief marketing officer Nicole Hubbard Graham says the brand returned to the Super Bowl in order to tap into one of the very few mass, shared cultural experiences we have left. Thinking about the Super Bowl and thinking about this moment, it felt very timely to tell this athlete story, says Graham. Women are just absolutely shattering records right now, selling out stadiums, ticket sales, commanding contracts like you’ve never seen before, and being placed with probably some of the harshest expectations of how you’re supposed to act. And I think they will redefine what it means to be athletes and personalities of the future.
Down on your luck. No one believes. The odds are stacked. Nike is using the most reliable premise in all epic sports stories to not only make a point about any individual athlete, and the state of womens sports, but also to give a not-so subtle middle finger to all the shade the brand itself has been thrown over the past year or so.
Attitude adjustment
Soon after Graham took over as CMO, her first order of business was to talk to the brands elite stable of athletes. What she heard most often was the notion of winning had a losing reputation in the world. The whole idea of being maniacally focused and obsessive and following your dreams to no end was sort of becoming a little bit taboo in society, says Graham. We thought that was a really interesting insight. And that led to the Olympic work.
Winning Isnt For Everyone was an ode to the uncompromisingly competitive. Narrated by Willem Dafoe, the work was reminiscent of Nikes campaign for the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta that featured the tagline, You dont win silver, you lose gold. As I wrote at the time, the new Olympic work marked a return of the f**k you attitude in Nike advertising that taps into its hardcore athlete pedigree.
The Super Bowl campaign is the start of a larger campaign that will run into 2025, all looking to tap back into Nikes connection to athletes by using the same foundations of style and emotion that built the brand in decades past.
This brand wasn’t built on Google ads or clicks, it was built on feelings, and big, disruptive, irreverent, emotional ideas. says Graham. That has been a really important strategy for us, and obviously with our partners at Wieden. How do we make sure that we are very much athletes over algorithms?
Bigger picture
The brand will need all the emotional power it can get to counter the headwinds it’s been facing. Last summer, Nike saw its biggest stock drop since 2001. Second-quarter revenue dipped by 8%. The brand is up against steep competition across major sports like running, thanks to a resurgent Adidas and Brooks, as well as newer players like On and Hoka. Critics point to a lack of innovation, being more about streetwear Air Jordans and Dunks than performance products.
Emarketer senior analyst Zak Stambor says that the brand has taken a lot of steps to identify its problems and to right the ship. Getting back to iconic advertising is just a piece of it. For all of Nike’s challenges, the power of the brand remains incredibly strong, says Stambor. If the marketing can lean on that core strength, it likely will resonate. Then comes the need for everything else. You don’t want the marketing to drive the ship, it should be following the lead of the innovation, but it’s still a significant part of the puzzle.
Last year, particularly with the arrival of Graham, the brand started its mission to get back to the strategy co-founder Phil Knight espoused: First capture the market for hard core athletes with innovative performance gear, and the casual consumer will follow.
Graham agrees and describes Nikes biggest strength as a triangle that is built on its athlete partnerships. Unique insights lead to innovative products, which are then talked about through aspirational and inspiring ways.
The work appears to be backing that up. Executives said on a recent earnings call that there are truly transformative sneakers coming for spring of 2025. Last week, the brand revealed Aja Wilsons long-awaited signature shoe, to much fanfare.
We’re getting back to that trifecta, says Graham. That is our winning playbook, and that’s what you’re going to see from us over and over and over again.
If Nike cant be iconic, its going to push its hardest to be iconic.
The challenge is formidable: Create an ad campaign that somehow shows a brands integral role in a pivotal moment of human history. But also, like, make it fun?
When OpenAIs ChatGPT hit 100 million users two months after its launch in November 2022, a UBS study declared it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. Now at upwards of 400 million users, ChatGPT might be the best-known consumer product to invest the least in advertising. Historic product awareness, zero brand awareness.
For OpenAI chief marketing officer Kate Rouch, the Super Bowl was the perfect stage to start telling the world what the brand actually means.
Obviously, 130 million people are watching this, says Rouch. ChatGPT has 400 million users worldwide, so it’s not a niche technology. But we do have an opportunity to help them understand both the historical moment we’re in as well as the fact that they can participate today in this new movement and use these tools right now.
The ad cleverly uses ChatGPT’s cursor dot to show people how it thinks. Set to cheerful music, we see eras of human progress animated in the dots. From fire to the wheel to agriculture, trains, the lightbulb, air travel, space exploration, and computing, until we see the tagline, All progress has a starting point.
Its a conscious move to embed the product in the brand message. Rouch made a similar move back in the 2022 Super Bowl, when she was CMO at Coinbase. The crypto exchanges floating QR code ad went viral and drove so many people to its platform that the app crashed.
When you ask ChatGPT a question, the dot comes up, and that is actually expressed in other OpenAI products as part of the brand design that we just refreshed, says Rouch. People are sitting around at Super Bowl parties, and they’re going to be like, Whoa, hey do you use ChatGPT? How do you use it? And they’ll pull out their phones.
Building the brand
The Super Bowl ad comes at a compelling time for the OpenAI and ChatGPT brand. Long the leader in awareness, the recent launch of DeepSeek has added a new element of competition for what AI tools will be in peoples pockets.
Given its head start, Rouchs focus is on talking to the 400 million people who have been using ChatGPT about what exactly it can do. While we all worry about the impending robot apocalypse or hail a new technological age, theres a massive gray area between that existential level and using generative AI to help you write a better email. The brands job is to bridge that divide.
What we’re attempting to do here is two things, says Rouch. Find that middle ground, which is to say, on one hand it is important that people understand this isn’t status quo. This is the dawn of the intelligence age. There’s something important happening historically here that you should know about. But also that this is a tool in your pocket right now that can do tons of interesting things for you.
Thats where the Super Bowl ad comes in.
Connecting the dots
To create OpenAIs first major brand ad, Rouch enlisted Accenture Song CEO David Droga and his agency, which have created many Super Bowl ads for brands. The agency’s approacha peppy, product-first narrativehas a familiar connection to work Drogas namesake agency Droga5 made for the original Google Pixel back in 2016. Back then, it was the search bar transforming into a phone. Here, its the dots illustrating the historical context of these new AI tools. In both cases, the message comes through loud and clear: This technology is about to change your life.
Droga and Song have long been bullish on AI. In 2023, Song parent company Accenture announced it would spend $3 billion on AI over three years, and Droga has talked about the impact generative AI would have on advertising creative, emphasizing these tools would allow humans to create better ideas quicker and more often.
Many brands start thinking about their Super Bowl work in the summer. Rouch started her job in December. She says the ad itself was created with humans, but the concepting and experimentation on ideas did utilize AI tools like OpenAIs video GenAI tool Sora. We use it as a concepting tool, so nothing you see in the ad was created by Sora, says Rouch. But because we made this on a pretty compressed timeline, it really helped the creatives prototype, experiment with camera angles, and things like that, all to speed up the process.
For OpenAI, the Super Bowl is an announcement of its ambition to go beyond a ubiquitous product and become the next iconic tech brand. Its got the hype, now Rouch is looking to add the emotion to its brand.
At OpenAI, the mission is to create safe AGI, or advanced artificial intelligence, that benefits all of humanity, says Rouch. That’s a very intentional mission, so you will see that in our ambition and approach to build the brand and interact with people.
If the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl on Sunday, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the rest of their teammates will have bragging rights as the National Football League (NFL)s first three-peat winners. Theyll also bag a cool $171,000 for the game, each.
Before Philadelphia fans accuse the Chiefs of getting special treatment, yes, Eagles players will earn the same amount if they win. And whichever team leaves New Orleans without the Lombardi Trophy will still get a decent consolation prize: A $96,000 paycheck per player.
Super Bowl contenders are receiving a better pay raise than most Americans did this year; the game paycheck is about 4.3% higher for the winners than in 2024 and about 7.9% higher for the losers.
Still, those paychecks mean that many players, not just the stars, may take a pay cut to get knocked around on the field. And the amounts start to look downright paltry, especially considering how much money is shelled out for all-things Super Bowl each February. The price of entry is steep, no matter how you participate.
While ticket sales plummeted in the week leading up to the Chiefs-Eagles matchup, the cheapest seats still cost more than $3,000. Meanwhile, some companies have reportedly spent $8 million or more for 30-second spots that will be among a broad variety of ads playing during breaks in the action. And Americans are projected to legally wager a record nearly $1.4 billion on the big game this year.
How Postseason Paychecks are set
Even as more money will be shelled out ahead of Sundays gamefrom beer to snacks to new TVs to jerseysthe paychecks for the players wont budge. Rather, the compensation rates for the winning and losing teams were set back in March 2020 as part of the NFLs Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is effective through the 2030 season.
The way players are compensated for postseason action is one of a few key differences from the regular season. Players are generally paid their annual salary on a weekly basis over the course of the regular 18-game season, but those paychecks stop once the postseason begins.
Instead, the league specifies how much players are compensated for each of the playoff gameswin or losewhich ranged from $49,500 to $54,500 for this years wild card and division playoff games, then bumped up to $77,000 for the conference championship games. The league has up to 15 days to pay players for each postseason game.
All told, the postseason amounts to more than $350,000 in additional compensation for players on this years winning Super Bowl team and $275,000-plus for those players on the losing team. And even players on the teams who dont see any playing time are due a paycheck, so long as they are on the official 53-player roster, active/inactive list or reserve/injured list.
The league’s billion-dollar enterprise
Meanwhile, the NFL is on the hook to pay some $75 million-plus to the hundreds of players across the 14 teams that were in the playoffs this season, including more than $14 million to the Chiefs and Eagles players after Sundays Super Bowl game alone.
That may seem like a lot of money, but its a small droplet in one of those massive Gatorade coolers. The NFL now generates more than $20 billion in annual revenue and is on track to achieve the $25 billion revenue goal that Commissioner Roger Gooddell targeted by 2027.
With so much money flying around, the leagues current crop of stars are also cashing in. Mahomes, the Chiefs quarterback, signed a 10-year, $450 million contract back in 2020, which means he earns an average annual salary of $45 million. Jalen Hurts, quarterback for the Eagles, signed a five-year, $255 million contract extension back in 2023, which sees him earning an even higher average-annual salary of $51 million.
Thanks to their contracts, the quarterbacks could earn more than $2.5 million each week of the regular seasonand that doesnt include lucrative endorsement deals.
Losers losing out less
Of course, for every Mahomes and Hurts, there are dozens of players who dont share the limelight, nor those lucrative paychecks. The league minimum is currently $795,000, so the postseason paychecks represent a pretty considerable bonus for these players.
While Super Bowl winners get even more perks, including the famously blingy ring, theres an interesting quirk to the Collective Bargaining Agreement: Super Bowl losers are actually earning a higher share of the winners paycheck as time goes on. When the Chiefs lost the 2021 Super Bowl, those players took home exactly 50% of the pay of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers players. By 2031, the losing team will earn about 67% of the winning teams payout.
Turns out, even the losers get lucky sometimes.
