Call off your Paul vs. Tyson fight, Netflix. That Altman vs. Musk showdown? Boring. The only battle that truly matters is paleontologists jousting over Spinosaurus, an even beefier carnivore than T. rex, and whether it could swim underwater. All agree the dino ate fish, but the âYeah, it swamâ and âGet outta here with that BSâ contingents keep dropping scientific journal articles like diss tracks. Thereâs only one move: drop all your work today, become an expert on bone density, and join the fray.
In todayâs email:
Workplace etiquette: Companies move to squash bad habits.
Digital diet: Avoiding Big Tech online is nearly impossible.
Weird patents: Show off your fashion sense and your hamster.
Around the web: A new word game, stroll through a digital garden, and more.
đ Listen: Do we really need our employers teaching us how to make polite conversation?
The Big Idea
Mind your pâs and qâs: Workplace etiquette classes are coming
After four years of remote work, employers are cracking down on office etiquette.
2024-03-13T00:00:00Z
Sara Friedman
Want to hear something disturbing?
This month marks four years since covid was declared a pandemic and our lives changed forever.
One of the biggest changes was to the way we work: Before the pandemic, in 2019, ~6% of Americans worked from home. In two years, ~18% â ~19m additional workers â were working from home.
With many employees thriving remotely, return-to-office mandates caused an uproar. Many workplaces have since settled on hybrid structures, bringing employees back to the office some of the time.
But as employees swapped their sweatpants for slacks and their couches for cubicles, companies realized some bad habits had followed them back.
Now, to get employees office-ready, a workplace etiquette industry has emerged, perCNN:
A Resume Builder survey of 1.5k+ business leaders shows that 45% of companies already offer etiquette training to employees, and an additional 18% plan to implement it in 2024.
New York-based firm Beaumont Etiquette has seen a 100% increase in training requests from employers over the last two years.
As for what skills employers want taught in these training sessions, 78% of survey respondents said âmaking polite conversation,â 75% selected âdressing professionally,â and 69% said âwriting professional emails.â
Missing manners
While we know (all too well) that employees of any age can act out in the workplace, younger professionals have had a uniquely challenging time.
Gen Zers, many of whom entered the workforce during the pandemic, have had to adjust to full-time jobs and corporate intricacies over Zoom and in half-empty offices.
To help, some employers have begun offering training solely for entry-level employees. The Big Four consulting firms â Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, and EY â offer incoming junior hires training in soft skills.
Colleges and universities are also adding coursework to prepare undergrads for the workplace.
Workplace etiquette is certainly not a Gen Z-exclusive issue, though: Just 10% of respondents from Resume Builderâs survey said theyâre only requiring training for Gen Z, while 60% said it will be required of all employees.
Our ask: add a section about which foods are â and are not â appropriate for microwaving in the office.
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The latest US inflation data is in. The numbers were higher than expected in February, up 3.2% YoY, and if you want to feel OK about them, stop with this sentence: Food prices held flat. If you can handle a little pain: Gas prices soared, as did airfare, clothing, and the general price of living with a roof over your head.
SNIPPETS
Ray-Banâs Meta sunglasses are beta testing a new AI feature that turns your sunglasses into a tour guide, narrating fun facts and information about landmarks as you view them.
Deepgram, a voice recognition startup, launched Aura, a real-time text-to-speech API that developers can use to build AI customer service bots.
Probably a good thing: Google wonât let Gemini, its AI chatbot, answer election-related questions in any country where one is taking place.
More bad news for Boeing: A technical issue caused a Boeing 787 Dreamliner to plummet midflight, injuring ~50 passengers before the pilot regained control. Boeing remains under investigation over a door plug that blew off midflight in January.
Stella Artoisannounced David Beckham as its new brand ambassador. The launch comes at a pivotal time for parent AB InBev, which reported record 2023 revenue, but saw its North American revenue decline $1.4B+ over sinking Bud Light sales.
Liquid Death is at it again, raising $67m in new financing for a $1.4B valuation. The beverage brand will use the funding to meet increased demand and create new products.
Roman Sterlingov, founder of crypto mixing service Bitcoin Fog, was convicted of laundering $400m+, including $78m from darknet drug markets. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Lego sales increased 4% last year, bucking the larger downward trend of the global toy market, which dipped 7% in 2023. The toy-brick empire credited its growth to new Harry Potter sets and a co-branded âFortniteâ video game.
Don’t miss this…
Would you say yes to 1B+ potential customers? How about $600B of spending power? Check out opportunities in this underfunded industry in this weekâs Trends.
Tangled web
One manâs experiment with digital veganism
There are many ways to describe the internet, but âquietâ would have never come to mind for us â at least not until this story came around.
For three weeks, a tech journalist put himself on a Big Tech diet for us, AKA a full-on digital cleanse to cut out anything developed by, or supported by, Alphabet, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.
It didnât go well.
All of his usual online haunts were off limits â Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Reddit, Slack, Wikipedia, and more â and that was just the beginning of the isolating journey.
As long as you think Big Techâs tentacles spread, be assured they stretch far longer. So, if you want to cut them loose, hereâs your warning: Itâs a lonely, lonely world without Big Tech.
There are thousands of companies valued at $1B+. How many clues do you need to identify todayâs billion-dollar brand?
Clue 1: Listen, growing a company is hard â this oneâs grown to 602m+ users, and it still needed three rounds of layoffs last year to edge it back to profitability.
Clue 2: If you grew up pirating files on LimeWire, you probably find it comforting that youâre still clicking on a green circular logo to access tunes. This Swedish companyâs not much better at paying artists, though.
Clue 3: Before you make your guess, one more hint: This company goes viral every December. OK, now weâve Wrapped.
đ Scroll to the bottom for the answer đ
Weird Patents
Haute hamster: If youâve ever tried to take your tiny pet for a walk while also making a fashion statement, you know how hard it is to do both. Luckily, Brice Belisle of Brooklyn, New York, patented âpet display clothingâ in 1999. What exactly does that entail, you ask? A vest and belt made from plastic tubes that allow your gerbils to run amok while you show them off to everyone at the bar. In place of pockets, chambers to feed your furry friends or give them a quick pet are cleverly hidden. Is rattling your hamsterâs tiny brain around a good idea? Probably not. But would you be the coolest person at your next work conference if you wore this? Also probably not â depends where you work.
AROUND THE WEB
đ On this day: In 1781, astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus and called it Georgium Sidus in honor of King George III. Another astronomer, Johann Bode, suggested the name be changed to align with the other planets, all named after mythological figures.
đ§ Game: In this word game, players move rows of letters to form real words until all the letters have been used.
đ§ Podcast: On Mistakes That Made Me, self-made millionaire Jordan Gill opens up about her biggest mistake â overhiring for her coaching program â and how her business recovered.
Yesterday, we asked if youâd be down to visit Saudi Arabiaâs Neom region if the plans ever actualize.
For 57% of you, the answer was a resounding âabsolutely not.â Others could be swayed by a bargain (28%) or by the allure of bringing back an epic story (8%). Only 7% would excitedly pack their bags for the desert.
So, it seems building a ~105-mile-long city isnât the only tough project ahead for Neom â they might need to up their PR budget, too.
As one undecided reader put it: âThis is gaudy. I hate gaudy. Yet I love tech, creative thinking, and being car-free⌠so if they execute this, then well, damn, I guess I gotta check it out.â
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