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Meetings are breeding grounds for three highly toxic power moves: AMPLIFICATION: The boss speaks, and suddenly its gospel. People start self-censoring, sugarcoating bad news, and swallowing their dissenting opinions. INCOMPETENCE: When a leader cant run a meeting, it drains the rooms energy. People leave annoyed and wondering why they bothered to show up. JERK BEHAVIOR: Bullies, interrupters, and blowhards hijack the room. Collaboration isnt just stifledits publicly executed. These power moves reduce meetings to lifeless, performative rituals where the people who hold the most power call the shots and everyone else plays defense. But it doesnt have to be this way. Design your meetings to defang these power moves, and youll create a space where people speak up, push back, and bring bolder and better ideas to the table. Amplification: When Power Overpowers Jade Rubick, former VP of engineering at New Relic, remembers the exact moment he became brilliant. It wasnt because of a sudden surge in IQ or creativity. It was his promotion to senior director, accompanied by a glowing speech in front of his peers. Overnight, everything changed. In meetings, people went out of their way to praise his ideas. Person after person would go out of their way to say why my suggestion was the right approach, Rubick recalls. All of a sudden, my ideas were BRILLIANTAll of a sudden, I was a different person, a Very Important Person. What Rubick experienced was a classic case of what Professor Adam Galinsky calls amplification: the invisible megaphone leaders inherit when they step into a position of power. A passing comment becomes a marching order. An offhand suggestion rockets to the top of the teams priority list. A poorly timed yawn during your presentation plunges you into a spiral of self-doubt: They hate this. They hate me. Instead of focusing on the work, people start decoding every glance, sigh, or eyebrow twitch as part of a high-stakes game of corporate charades. When amplification takes over meetings, people start filtering their ideas or stop sharing them altogether. They nod along like bobble-heads and, before long, the room turns into an echo chamberparrots squawking back the leaders words instead of expressing their own. Heres how you can address it. 1. Dial down the talking Research shows that high-performing teams share airtime more equally. In a perfect world, leaders would recognize that and adjust accordingly. But self-awareness isnt always their strong suit. And the more power they hold, the less likely anyone is to tell them theyre hogging the mic. If youre dealing with a leader who cant stop steamrolling the room, there are ways to take back the room. At one organization, team members came up with a creative solution: a miniature stuffed horse. If someone is too long-winded, anyone can toss the horse in front of that person as a signal to stop beating a dead horse, one team member explained. Now, chucking stuffed animals at your coworkersespecially the powerful onesis probably a career-limiting move. But the spirit of the idea is sound: Find a way to flag the airtime hogs. Fortunately, technology offers a safer option. Today, tools like Fireflies.AI and Equal track metrics like talk-to-listen ratios and flag monologues. Some even analyze gender dynamics, surfacing when women and nonbinary participants are getting drowned out. Another way to stop people from hijacking the conversation is to get them to speak last. At Pixar, cofounder Ed Catmull understood the risks of speaking first. In brainstorming meetings, he deliberately held back his input until the end so his team could explore ideas without the gravitational pull of his amplified words. Catmull understood what many leaders overlook: New ideas are fragile. As he put it, they need protection from getting pancaked by heavy-handed forces like a leaders amplification. Thats also why Catmull struck a deal with Steve Jobs when Jobs was CEO of Pixar. They agreed that Jobs would sit out of Pixars legendary Braintrust meeting, where senior creatives critiqued early-stage films. As Catmull put it, Jobss bigger-than-life presence would make it harder to be candid. 2. Don’t amplify ambiguity Weve all been there: Your boss drops a cryptic meeting invite on your calendar and your brain immediately spirals. Am I in trouble? Is this about that thing I said in Slack? Am I getting fired? Amplification kicks in, and that vague invite snowballs into employees worst-case scenarios. This kind of ambiguity is the second type of communication that Adam Galinsky, a social psychologist and Columbia business school professor, says is prone to amplification. When leaders say or do something vague, employees fill in the blanksoften with their own worst fears. Galinskys advice for leaders prone to amplification is simple: Be transparent. A quick message like Hey, I need to see you laterits nothing to worry about can save your team from hours of anxiety. And if your calendar is public, dont leave room for speculation. Trust me, your team is watching your calendar if its public, and theyre overanalyzing every entry, especially the vague ones. Dont give their imaginations room to fill in the blanks. Because theyll assume theyre the blanks. Incompetence: The Accidental Power Move Some of the most destructive power moves arent malicious. Theyre the result of sheer incompetence, which is amplified by a leaders position of power. Its like handing a megaphone to someone who doesnt know how to use it. They shout into the wrong end, and the whole room winces at the ear-splitting feedback. Leaders who dont know how to effectively design and deploy meetings end up scheduling them for every problem, real or imagined. According to Neil Vyner, VP of growth and go-to-market at Worklytics, just 5% of employees schedule 60% of all meetings. These serial schedulers tend to be the most powerful people in the company (or their assistants acting on their behalf). New managers are some of the worst offenders. Theyre promoted because they excelled in their previous roles, not because they know how to facilitate productive discussions, navigate hairy decisions, or avoid letting their new dinosaur tail knock over their teams ideas. Theyre handed a packed calendar of high-stakes meetings and a megaphone, but no user manual. Meanwhile, their employees watch their boss bumble through bad meetings and assume, Well, I guess this is how its done. Inefficiency gets institutionalized, and before long, the entire team is trapped in a cycle of toxic meeting mediocrity. Or worse, full-blown dysfunction. 1. One-on-ones aren’t for you, boss Incompetent managers often treat one-on-ones as their meetinga chance todownload updates, deliver monologues, or check a box. But thats not how they should be treated. As Ben Horowitz puts it, The key to a good one-on-one meeting is the understanding that it is the employees meeting rather than the managers meeting. A leaders job is to create space for whatever employees need to move their work forward, whether its advice, a pitch, or just a chance to vent. According to research by Gallup, just one meaningful one-on-one meeting each week does more to build high-performance relationships than any other leadership activityand meetings as short as 15 minutes are enough to make a difference. 2. Stop hosting meetings just to spoon-feed the boss One of the most commonand costlysigns of incompetence is the boss briefing: a meeting held not to collaborate or solve problems, but to spoon-feed status updates to a leader who cant be bothered to check the project tracker. If you just need updates from your team, dont drag them into a hostage situation. Ask for a written summary or a short video update instead. The same goes for updates that youre pushing out to your team. Skip the meeting and record a quick video instead. Film it from a real-life backdrop: a home office with kids barging in, or post-run and still dripping with sweat. That kind of raw, unfiltered communication hits differently. It satisfies the TikTok generations appetite for authenticity and transparency. Jerk Behavior: When the Boss Is the Bully Unlike amplification or incompetence, jerk behavior isnt an accidental or inevitable side effect of holding a position of power. Its a deliberate abuse of it. And unfortunately, its disturbingly common. Research by Simon Croom, a professor at the University of San Diego, found that 12 percent of corporate senior leaders exhibit psychopathic traits, up to twelve times the rate found in the general population. Yikes. Jerk behaviorinterrupting, nitpicking, steamrolling, humiliating, or straight-up bullyingsucks the oxygen out of the meeting. And the damage doesnt stay neatly contained at the top. It spreads. Employees who cant push back against a jerk boss dont just absorb the blow, they pass it along to the next person in line. Sure enough, supervisors who report to abusive bosses are more likely to engage in abusive behavior themselves. 1.Shine a light on jerk behavior Sometimes, the fastest way to shut down jerk behavior is to bring it into the light. Set up an anonymous feedback form so employees can report toxic behavior without fearing retaliation. But thats just step one. Dont let feedback languish in a forgotten Google Doc. Act on it. Prove youre serious about creating a jerk-free culture. Because doing nothing is worse than not asking for feedback in the first place. It sends a clear message: Were going to pretend that your voice matters, but it really doesnt. And thats just another form of jerk behavior. 2. When all else fails, protect yourself Some jerks are beyond redemption. If youre stuck with one of these un-fixable types, your best move is self-preservation. Dont let their toxicity take up space in your head. Or on your calendar. Start by limiting your exposure to them. Avoid meetings with them if you can. If thats not an option, move the conversation to email or chat to contain their toxicity behind a digital firewall. This will also generate a handy digital paper trail if you need to file a formal report with HR. And whatever you do, dont feed the beast. Jerks thrive on attention, so starve them of yours. Keep your responses short, flat, and factual. The less entertaining you are as a target, the faster theyll lose interest. Your goal isnt to win them over. Its to bore them into submission. Excerpted from Your Best Meeting Ever: 7 Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done. Copyright 2026, Rebecca Hinds. Reproduced by permission of Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved
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E-Commerce
The U.S.’s population growth is slowing as immigration has declined amid President Donald Trump’s deportation push and stricter border policies. According to new Census Bureau data, the drop-off is the biggest since the COVID-19 pandemic. From July 2024 to July 2025, the population of the United States grew by 1.8 million people (about 0.5%). This was mostly driven by immigration: During that period, the U.S. added 1.3 million immigrants. This is a steep decline from the previous year, in which 2.7 million immigrants arrived. The Census Bureau predicts that by July of this year, the number of immigrants could drop even more, to just 321,000. Meanwhile, the number of deportations, including self-deportations, totaled nearly 3 million as of January 20, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Previously, immigration in the U.S. had been growing for over 50 years until new policies enacted by the Biden administrationsuch as tightened border security measures and restricting asylum for those crossing between ports of entrytook effect in 2024. “The big takeaway is, wow, the Trump administration, and even the end of the Biden administration, made a big difference,” Steven Camarota, the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, told CBS News. “It sure looks like we’re seeing a fundamental change that reflects policy.” Aside from a decline in immigration, population growth has already been slowing for decades due to declining birth rates in the U.S. Impacts across the labor force will be undeniable, experts say. Juan Carlos Rivera, an immigration attorney based in Miami, has seen the effects of the U.S.’s new policies firsthand, given the uptick in deportations. Rivera says most of the individuals in the deportation cases hes seen were working and contributing to the country’s economy. Needless to say, deporting employees will come with hefty consequences, according to Rivera. “When fewer workers are available, businesses face higher labor costs, reduced productivity, and slower expansion,” he says. “That pressure shows up in higher prices for consumers and weaker overall economic growth.” Rivera also believes that the current immigration enforcement tactics will impact the nation’s ability to stay competitive with the rest of the world. “Other countries are actively competing for workers and talent as their populations age. If the United States does not maintain a legal and reliable immigration system that supports workers across skill levels, it risks losing ground in innovation, supply chain stability, and long-term economic leadership,” Rivera explains. According to a new report from Sedgwick, an HR administration company, immigration enforcement is already creating some of those broader economic issues. Per the 2026 report: “Immigration-related labor disruptions affect three-quarters of organizations to varying degrees,” which it calls “a chronic operational drag rather than an acute crisis.” Dave Arick, managing director of global risk management at Sedgwick, tells Fast Company that certain industrieslike healthcare, technology, and hospitality, which “rely more heavily upon scientific and technical qualifications for key roles”are already navigating “a highly competitive environment for attracting and retaining people with specific expertise and experience, especially when coupled with high market growth.” Therefore, Arick says that new immigration changes, such as those that “restrict immigrant higher education and employment,” will further “shrink the available talent pool”which will, in turn, “drive up costs to acquire the highest-qualified available candidates.”
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E-Commerce
Following last week’s anti-ICE economic blackout in Minnesota and national Free America Walkout, organizers are once again urging Americans to stop working, attending school, and spending money to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown surging across the country. The fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alexi Pretti by federal officers only increased the public outcry against the Trump administrations hardline immigration and border policies and aggressive tactics used by swarms of masked agents. Here’s what to know. What is National Shutdown Day? National Shutdown Day on January 30 is a call to striketo disrupt business as usualas a way for Americans to register their mounting anger at the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis and other cities nationwide. (Some 69% of Americans say President Trump is trying to exert more power than previous presidents, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center.) With the tagline No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE, the nationalshutdown.org website reads, The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole countryto stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN. The entire country is shocked and outraged at the brutal killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Silverio Villegas González, and Keith Porter Jr. by federal agents. . . . It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough!” Organizers are also calling on Congress to cut funding to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, when it votes on the current funding package ahead of a possible federal government shutdown. Walkouts, events, vigils, and protests are set to take place in all 50 states, including in New York City, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphiafrom state capitals (Honolulu) to federal buildings and courthouses (Tucson, Arizona, and Cincinnati), universities (Stanford, Santa Clara University, the University of Washington, Northeastern University), and even some high schools (in Miami). On Friday, a number of student groups at the University of Minnesotaincluding the Somali Student Association, Black Student Union, and Graduate Labor Unionwill lead a walkout on campus. Students are always at the heart of movements for justice across the world, they said in a statement. Students are encouraged to participate in [the] protests after walking out.” Businesses nationwide to close for general strike Following Minnesota’s recent statewide strike, local businesses in the Twin Cities and across the nation are planning to close on Friday. They include 50 businesses and shops in Portland, Maine; several restaurants in Denver; bookstores, coffeeshops, and retailers in Rochester, New York; businesses in Omaha, Nebraska; a Las Vegas pizza shop; and numerous Los Angeles restaurants, to name just a few, according to local news reports. It has been increasingly difficult to watch what is unfolding in our country, the owners of Denver restaurant Sp Sa told television station KDVR. We have felt so helpless and alone, and its abundantly clear that no one will come to save us, so it is our civic duty to unite as a community in support of the most vulnerable. Grassroots organizers 50501 are calling for additional “ICE Out of Everywhere protests on Saturday, January 31, at ICE detention centers and offices; at airports to target airlines that are transporting ICE detainees, including Global Crossing Airlines and World Atlantic Airlines; and at some Congressional offices, according to The Guardian. Who is organizing the National Shutdown? National Shutdown Day, like many of the previous national walkouts and protests over the past year, lists a broad coalition of grassroots partners, including: 50501, local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, Defend Immigrant Families Campaign, Council on American-Islamic Relations, North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, student groups, labor unions, and immigrant rights organizations. In addition, the strike has garnered the attention of a number of Hollywood celebrities, including Pedro Pascal, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Edward Norton. “We cannot act like this is not happening,” Norton, a longtime political activist, said at a recent Sundance Film Festival panel discussion. What theyre doing in Minnesota with the strike needs to expand. I think we should be talking about a national, general economic strike until this is over. New York University professor Scott Galloway has also called for a prolonged general economic strike.
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E-Commerce
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