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A work jerk isnt just someone who expects perfection. Its the high achiever whose nervous system runs at lava-like temperatures, whos chronically stressed, and demonstrates urgency as a personality trait. It looks like hair-trigger impatience, micromanaging, sharp feedback, and an automatic reflex to see others as obstacles rather than partners. Work jerk behaviors teach people at work to focus their energy on managing you and your reactions instead of doing good work. People act out for countless reasons: a toxic work culture, impossible standards, or private stress that bleeds into work (an article for another day). None of those reasons makes treating others poorly acceptable. If youre a work jerk who is also a leader, the impact can be huge. Your tone and word choice signal risk levels to your team because you control performance evaluations, if they get promoted, project access, and sometimes even professional standing. Being the leader work jerk harms two things at once: Your mental health as a leader: because youre stuck in chronic activation mode Your teams psychological safety: because they self-protect for survival around you The crush it approach may produce short-term results, but it often drives burnout, turnover, and severe erosion of trust. Emotional Self-Management Decreases Work Jerk Behaviors If you are a work jerk these daily shifts can help protect your mental health as a leader and how your team experiences you, too, without lowering management standards. 1. Be precise, not urgent: When youre overwhelmed, everything feels equally important. How you address that ends up being your brain trying to reduce uncertainty, not effective delegation. The mood then becomes urgency, and everything is a five-alarm fire. Try this 60-second reset before an important interaction (i.e., 1:1, standup, client call): Do two rounds of deep belly breathing (i.e., in through the nose for four seconds while inflating the belly, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds through the mouth). Then ask yourself: What specific outcome do I need or want from this conversation? What can I say to increase clarity and understanding, not pressure? This will help mitigate worry, prevent misalignment, and signal to others that calculated execution is valued more than frantic reactivity disguised as responsiveness. 2. Treat emotions as information, not an action plan: just because we have a feeling doesnt mean we need to immediately act on it, even if it makes us feel better. Being immediately honest about how you feel isnt just being direct, its destroying psychological safety for others without context or a next-steps game plan. Before sending a response to an email that may want you to flip a table, name the emotion youre feeling and use an I statement with it (i.e., I am annoyed.). This creates space between stimulus and response. Try this feedback process: Draft, but dont send: Write what you want to say, then wait five minutes (distract yourself with another task if you need to). Rewrite and give feedback in this format: Share your observation: It seems like . . . Explain the impact: Im concerned about . . . Make a request: Next time, what would be helpful is . . . State your intention: Im saying this because . . . This approach is a great example of pairing accountability with care. It helps you understand what you need to feel and figure out what youre really trying to say in a way thats useful to others. Providing effective feedback that leads to results, preserves your sanity, and helps teams realize they can and should approach you earlier instead of hiding issues until they turn into crises. 3. Make emotional self-care part of leadership, not a secret hobby: Many work jerk behaviors are symptoms of depletion. Sustainable leadership requires actual maintenance and recoveryyou cant mindset your way out of chronic unmanaged stress. Identify and practice one to two Mental Well-being Non-negotiables: Show that your mental health matters: you cant lead if you dont care for yourself. Do what you enjoy: do what you actually likenot what the wellness industry prescribes. Be realistic: do what works for your scheduleget it on the calendar. Be consistent: the goal is a cumulative effect over timeand adapt as needed. Normalize it with others: it may inspire them to build recovery into their workday too. What Leaders Should Ask Themselves in 2026 People can become work jerks when their mental health carries more strain than their everyday coping habits can absorb. If you want to determine if your professional drive as a leader is harming your mental health and relationships at work, ask yourself these questions weeklyand answer them honestly every time: When Im stressed, do I become clearer or just forceful? Do my team members bring problems to me early onor when theyre unavoidable emergencies? This week, did my team seem like they were learning or self-protecting from me? The answers to these questions will tell you if youre showing work jerk behaviors, who its impacting, and why that needs to change. The answers will tell you whether and how you need to shift how you regulate work pressure, communicate under stress, and emotionally recover as a leader. In 2026, high performance shouldnt come at the expense of your teams or colleagues sanityor your own. The good leaders who excel wont be the most intense, results-driven machines. Theyll be the ones who focus on steady mental health self-care maintenance as a form of effective, sustainable leadership.
Category:
E-Commerce
Batteries are powering a significant shift in how we go about our daily lives, ranging from the devices we carry to electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Batteries play a critical role across key sectors from data center infrastructure, military, and microgrid applications to consumer electronics and more. But as demand surges, so does end-of-life material that needs to be managed. Beyond serving as compact energy sources, batteries also represent a domestic source of essential critical minerals. To fully realize their value, it is crucial to close the loop at end-of-life by recovering these minerals and strengthening the supply needed to support a rapidly expanding battery market. To responsibly manage battery materials at end-of-life, extended producer responsibility (EPR) for batteries becomes essential. BATTERY RECYCLING INDUSTRY: GROWTH TRAJECTORY In the U.S., battery EPR laws are being enacted at the state level, leaving battery producers, automotive original equipment manufacturers, and energy storage operators to navigate complex regulations, which vary by state. In states that have passed laws and those with active legislation, jobs will be created to manage these requirements, and we will see an increase in economic activity through the creation of closed-loop supply chains.The battery recycling industry will continue to grow, and battery EPR regulation will only fuel that growth through the creation of a more responsible system to ensure batteries are recycled.When systems are in place that require companies to recover batteries at end-of-life, we will significantly improve our ability to reclaim valuable materials. This applies to all battery chemistries, whether lithium-based or alkaline batteries containing zinc and manganeseyes, alkaline batteries can be recycled, and the recovered minerals from those alkaline batteries can be reused as micronutrients in fertilizers. The groundwork has already been laid, and when you look at battery recycling as a whole, the value of recovering these materials is substantial. That value extends beyond financial benefits to include reduced geopolitical risk, improved logistics and supply chain resilience. THE NATIONAL CHALLENGE The country must address what happens to a battery when its no longer usable. Ultimately, through EPR legislation, we can make it a priority to recover critical minerals and increase the nations ability to produce battery-grade materials. In 2024 alone, the U.S. imported more than one billion batteries. These batteries are made of valuable materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese. EPR laws are designed to track a batterys life cycle and, if done right, can help us take advantage of these materials once they are in the U.S. by recycling and reusing the minerals domestically to produce new batteries. STATE LEADERSHIP Battery recycling benefits everyone. Recyclers, producers, legislators, consumers, and the nation must work together to strengthen domestic supply chains, enhance national security, and keep batteries and the critical minerals they contain within U.S. borders. When states introduce EPR bills, they will vary based on battery format or size, but several core principles should remain consistent: Collection: In addition to standard collection sites, expanding to independent collection points increases accessibility. Recycling opportunities must be available to everyone, not limited to a specific group or location. Avoid forfeiture requirements: The battery industry functions as a unified ecosystem, and the goal is to build a closed-loop supply chain. Restricting who can recycle and process the batteries after they are collected jeopardizes existing business models and risks harming the broader industry. Transparency: Full visibility across the entire process from initial recycling through to metal recoveryis essential. Without transparency, innovation within the industry will stagnate. EDUCATION & ACCESS To better implement battery EPR laws, we must enhance consumer education on battery recycling. Many people do not understand how to handle and dispose of used batteries properly. For example, a recent study focused on lithium batteries found that nearly 40% of people do not know they can be recycled, and more than 60% do not know where or how to recycle them. Lithium batteries are far too prevalent in our daily lives for consumers not to have resources and access to responsible recycling. FINAL THOUGHTS I am hopeful that as battery recycling becomes more mainstream and visible to consumers, a larger collection network with increased access will be available, and end-of-life batteries can be properly recycled and processed to recover the critical minerals effectively. And not only is battery EPR a foundation for this and a stronger, more sustainable supply chain, it supports national security and ensures that we in the U.S. increase our global competitiveness through innovation and the domestic sourcing of critical minerals. David Klanecky is the CEO and President of Cirba Solutions.
Category:
E-Commerce
Gen Z is aging into the life moments that define entire industries. As this generation moves through milestones like marriage, homeownership, and family planning, theyre quickly becoming a core target market not just for weddings, but for a wide range of service-based businesses. What matters for these small businesses is how Gen Zs arrival, set against todays economic backdrop, is reshaping expectations for how they serve their customers.While about one in three couples on The Knot in the U.S. are Gen Z, the majority are still a few years away from the peak marrying age of 33. We do know, however, that they are interested in doing so, with 69% of unmarried adults ages 1834 saying they want to get marrieda nearly 10% increase since 2017. As this new generation prepares to celebrate one of lifes most meaningful moments, there will be a major shift in how small businesses are expected to deliver. We are seeing that Gen Z consumers expect more personalization, deeper authenticity, and faster digital-first communication, often alongside less flexibility in spending. Gen Z might be working with smaller budgets, but its not because they lack the desire to invest in their weddings. Rather, it is most often attributed to their current earnings potential. Due to their age, they have not had time to acquire the same amount of funds as millennials. Many Gen Z couples are being intentional about where they spend, investing in the parts of their day that matter most to them and finding creative ways to simplify or scale back elsewhere. For wedding professionals, this shift is already changing the reality of their work. Vendors are serving clients who want thoughtful, high-touch experiences, quick responses, personalization, and visuals that feel Pinterest-worthy, even as overall budgets are more constrained. That often means finding new ways to package services, streamline processes, or rethink how value shows up for each couple. For businesses looking to serve this shifting clientele, intentional adaptation is key. Small businesses should make these four moves now to navigate this market shift. 1. Embrace AI to help with productivity, core processes, and content AI and automation tools are table stakes for productivity and core processes, helping streamline communication, scheduling, content, and lead management. In fact, 77% of customers say they expect to interact with a business immediately when they reach out. For Gen Z customers especially, responsiveness is part of the experience, and falling behind on response time can mean losing business before a conversation even begins. Businesses that use AI thoughtfully to handle administrative work free themselves up to focus on what drives loyalty: creativity, care, and human connection. AI-assisted replies can help you respond quickly with personalized recommendations to start the conversation and save time. 2. Keep pace with trends and provide personalization When it comes to weddings, couples want celebrations that feel of-the-moment, yet deeply personal. For wedding vendors, this means being aware of the trends that are impacting planning decisions and simultaneously translating them in a way that feels truly unique and personal to the couple. No matter what your industry is, its important to maintain a balance between being trend-forward and creating personalized experiences. 3. Dont go it alonelean into community and upskilling Change can feel isolating for small business owners, especially when customer expectations are shifting quickly. The business owners who seem to navigate these moments best are rarely doing it alone. Theyre talking to peers, comparing notes, and staying open to learning new tools and approaches. In weddings, we see this play out every day. Vendors share templates, swap tips on using AI to save time, and openly talk through whats working when it comes to pricing, packages, and client communication. These conversations arent just about support, but also perspective. Learning from others who are facing the same challenges makes it easier to adapt with confidence. 4. Make your understanding of Gen Zs values your competitive advantage Gen Zs expectations are high, but theyre also thoughtful and values driven. They care about authenticity, transparency, and purpose, and are often willing to spend on things that feel meaningful to them. For small businesses, this means storytelling and customer relationships matter more than ever. Businesses that do this well tend to connect more deeply with younger customers. When customers understand the why behind what you do, price becomes part of a larger story, one thats more closely connected to value. This matters because younger consumers arent brand-agnostic; theyre increasingly intentional about where they spend. In recent consumer surveys, Gen Zers say theyre willing to shop locally more often, signaling that values and community can meaningfully influence purchasing decisions alongside price and convenience. In other words, when business leaders feel budgets tightening amidst high expectations, leaning into what makes your offering distinct can turn pressure into loyalty. WHY THESE LESSONS EXTEND FAR BEYOND WEDDINGS Whether you run a salon, creative studio, catering company, or consulting practice, you may already be seeing similar patterns. After many years of working with small businesses, one lesson stands firmly in my mind: Adaptability is one of the greatest advantages an entrepreneur can have. The businesses Ive seen thrive do so because they stay curious, embrace new tools, and meet clients evolving needs with empathy and creativity. If you are a small business owner, take this moment as an opportunity to reimagine how you deliver value, connect with clients and your community, and build a business that can grow with the next generation. Gen Z may be shifting expectations, but with the right adjustments, they just may become the next area of growth for your business. Raina Moskowitz is the CEO of The Knot Worldwide.
Category:
E-Commerce
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