On March 1, hundreds of people gathered in Gardiner, Montana, at the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The crowdwhich included residents from across the state and current and former public lands employeeswas part of a nationwide protest against the layoffs of federal workers.
Roughly 5% of National Park Service workers have been caught up in the sweeping layoffs carried out by Donald Trumps administration and Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency. This isnt counting the hundreds of others who are taking the fork in the road offer to resign from their positions. The staffing crisis facing national parks is felt not only within the federal workforce itself but also in gateway towns like Gardiner, where the economy depends heavily on Yellowstone.
There, under the Roosevelt Archnamed for President Theodore Roosevelt, who laid its cornerstone and is known for preserving over 230 million acres of public landprotesters shouted chants like Public lands in public hands! and Hey, ho, Trump and Musk have got to go. Organizers talked about what public lands mean to the local economy. The crowd even harmonized to Woody Guthries This Land Is Your Land.
The chaos and uncertainties that have come with Trumps executive actions reach all corners of the country and, as with the case of cutting funding to USAID, around the world. But Gardiner, perhaps like no other place, can be seen as an epicenter of loss following Trumps decisions. Shutting down federal funding through the Park Service could cripple the town.
Gardiner was established shortly after the park opened in 1872 to foster a symbiotic relationship that continues today. Yellowstone and Gardiner are inextricable. The western part of the towns public high school is technically inside the park, with local businesses, the Gardiner community library, and the chamber of commerce building all abutting the park boundary.
Gardiner is a company town and Yellowstone is the mill, said Richard Parks, who serves as the chair of the Gardiner Resort Area District. If somebody starts screwing with the mill, we have no choice but to be concerned.
In 2023, Yellowstone hosted 4.5 million visitors, contributing an estimated $828 million and 8,560 jobs to surrounding townships like Gardiner. Industries like rafting, horseback riding, guiding, and hospitality services are all booming subeconomies that depend on tourism to the park. Yellowstones foot traffic also provides bedrock funding to town infrastructure and community development through its resort taxa 3% charge on reservations during peak season, which has helped raise public dollars for things like updated water and sewer systems, bear-proof trash cans, and new fire engines.
The full extent to which federal firings, hiring freezes, and funding cuts will ripple throughout communities like Gardiner is still unclear, Parks said. We cant gauge the magnitude yet.
With more than 60% of the area surrounding Gardiner controlled by federal land management agencies, deficits to entities like the National Park Service, or NPS, and U.S. Forest Service are felt acutely by the community.
To Parks, the biggest question is whether Gardiner will have the traffic it needs to sustain itself this peak season. Removing hands, and expertise, from the entities that support and manage the park could degrade the experience for visitors, while news of the struggles could be enough to keep some travelers away entirely.
Its like playing Whac-a-Mole, said Parks. The uncertainty is a massive problem because you just dont know what kind of disaster to prepare for.
For Parks and other community members, the memory of 2022s devastating flood stokes worst-case scenario fears for what life could be like without the driving economic force of the park. The flood washed out 3 miles of road from Gardiner into the parks interior, severing the community from the park and barring public access for the entirety of peak season.
The slew of cancellations from the parks usual large volume of visitors caused cascading damages to locals who had already invested in the season. A study conducted after the flood found that communities like Gardiner whose park access was cut off lost 75% of their income on average. The findings, corroborated by a survey of townspeople, indicated that the flood exceeded the economic losses from the COVID-19 shutdown two years prior, resulting in a net loss of $156 million.
Cara McGary, a local wildlife guide who has been in Gardiner for over 10 years, said the flood significantly impacted her business. Now she is trepidatious about the money she has invested in permits and bookings for the upcoming season.
In Gardiner, everyone in some way is directly or indirectly dependent on the NPS, said McGary. I need federal workers on federal lands for my business to function.
McGary also underscored trickle-down effects that occur when the community is cut off from the park, like during the 2022 flood and another partial closure in 2018 and 2019 due to the 35-day government shutdown. Lack of access meant a lack of attendance to basic public lands infrastructure, leading to what McGary called a shituation, evoking scenes of overflowing pit toilets and trashed campgrounds. When that happened, volunteers throughout the community pitched in to maintain the integrity of the park that is their bread and butter.
Having a love for this place, whether that is working the land as a producer, ranger, hunter, visitor, or hikerits a value you cant put money on, said McGary. This place is held together by people who give a damn and everyone plays a critical role.
Disasters like that 500-year flood wont be so few and far between in the future, according to a Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment led by researchers at Montana State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the University of Wyoming. The assessment was a first of its kind focusing on climate change impacts on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Cathy Whitlock, a co-author of the report, emphasized the ways in which climate change and its impacts will influence Yellowstone in years to come. She highlighted the increasing likelihood of high-profile disasters, but also the more gradual changes that could disrupt the ecosystem balance. In Yellowstone, projected changes are largely driven by rising temperatures and the reduction in snowpack, she said. Current trends including warming, less snow, more rain, earlier snowmelt, and drier summers are expected to continue.
According to Whitlock, every resource management decision for Yellowstone should consider the potential effects of climate change. The parks vegetation, lakes, streams, fish, and wildlife are all vulnerable.
The ecosystem will continue to experience climate change no matter who is in the White House. But our ability to monitor, adapt, and plan for environmental consequences will beat risk without sustained funding, Whitlock said.
On March 20, Mike Tranel, deputy superintendent for Yellowstone, gave an updated forecast for the season to the Gardiner Chamber of Commerce. He highlighted concerns over staffing, with layoffs resulting in a shortage of equipment operators, and people taking severance package offers leading to delays in hiring seasonal positions like entrance station workers.
Those are key people, said Tranel. The positions pay for themselves.
Although he did not specify, he also noted that the federal workforce reduction would likely cause effects behind the scenes, especially pertaining to scientific work on species like bears and wolves. Tranel said that the park was getting its full complement of seasonal workers, howeveran exception to the current federal hiring freezeand that the NPS remains confident it can pull off the upcoming peak season.We will do our best with the circumstances for the 4.75 million visitors, Tranel said.
Tourism to Yellowstone typically starts in March for the north entrance and ramps up by mid-April, when the west entrance road into the park opens. So far, Gardiner is experiencing a worrisome start, according to Chester Evitt, the owner of Mama Bears Armory, a local gunsmith and outdoor gear shop. Evitt said he has had only a handful of customers since January, forcing him to use his disability checks from his time as a combat veteran to pay the shop rent.
Evitt said that he and his family voted for Trump, but if he could take his vote back now he would.
Ive been alive for 11 presidents and I havent seen one that has been as destructive as this one, said Evitt. These cuts are affecting our little town more than the 500-year flood.
Evitt said that he tried to go to the local bank to get a loan to help him make it to May, but when he arrived, there were several other business owners there for the same reason. The bank told all of them that it couldnt offer any monetary assistance until things were more certain.
Back at the Roosevelt Arch, three weeks after the first protest, a committed band of locals again gathered to make their voices heardthis time braving sheets of wet snow and 30 mph winds. Richard Midgette, one of the protest organizers, was recently hired back as an IT specialist for Yellowstone after being let go as part of the probationary firings. But he remains frustrated and fearful, as NPS employees anticipate further payroll cuts.
Meanwhile, as Gardiner begins to wake up this spring, locals say they are open and ready for the season. The community is working diligently to navigate the chaos handed down to them from afar the best way they know howcontinuing to serve in the best interest of the park whose vitality is so closely tied to their own.
Its not about the money, its about the communitys psyche, said Evitt. Were hoping that despite the odds, we can survive.
Emily Senkosky, Grist
This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here.
QVC’s bringing its always-on home shopping network to a TikTok livestream near you.
The company announced Wednesday that it would host nonstop shopping livestreams on the app, the first of their kind on TikTok in the U.S. and part of a strategic agreement with the video-sharing platform, which is itself facing a critical moment. Its once-delayed ban is looming. But broadcast TV shopping needs to pivot to survive, and QVC sees TikTok as one of the best avenues to do that.
“QVC and HSN hosts have mastered live shopping moments for decades and we’re thrilled to bring this entertaining shopping experience to TikTok’s community,” TikTok Shop’s head of U.S. operations Nico Le Bourgeois said in a statement.
QVC Group, which runs the home shopping channels QVC and HSN, launched on TikTok Shop in 2024, but 24/7 live social shopping experiences represent a deeper push onto the app just days before it could go offline. TikTok could again be banned in the U.S. on Saturday if it doesn’t find a new American owner.
QVC Group says on television it reaches more than 200 million homes, but with live TV viewing in decline, it’s had to invest in other platforms to reach a new generation of shoppers. The company has its own QVC+ and HSN+ streaming services as well as accounts on social networking sites like TikTok, where it has nearly half a million followers. QVC says more than 74,000 creators on TikTok have featured their items in shoppable videos or livestreams since last August.
In some sense, TikTok and QVC’s UX are completely synergistic. The partnership retrofits the live, long-form linear tv format that made QVC famous in a context that’s familiar with young people today: an endless feed of people hawking goods. (TikTok videos are a less bite-sized as it is: uploaded videos can be up to 60 minutes long.)
The company claims that bringing its approach to sales on social at this scale will revolutionize the space. Citing its expertise putting on “large-scale, high-volume, live social shopping,” QVC Group president and CEO David Rawlinson II said in a statement the company will bring to the endeavor its lineup of celebrities, hosts, brands, and products.
“Our agreement will be a catalyst to transform shopping and discovery, not only for QVC Group and TikTok Shop, but also for social shopping at large,” he said. But first, they have to break-even. QVC Group ended Q4 with an almost $1.3 billion operating loss, and ended its year with an 8% drop in total revenue.
Social media companies have worked to grow their shopping capabilities, but social shopping hasn’t taken hold in the U.S. to the extent that it has in other countries. Social commerce accounted for nearly 30% of all e-commerce in China last year, compared to less than 6% in the U.S., according to data from eMarketer. If QVC can successfully translate its experience selling products on TV to a smaller screen, though, that figure could grow.
As of this year, EV chargers now outnumber gas pumps in the state of California.
The state has an estimated 178,000 shared chargers for electric carsnot counting another 700,000 private chargers that are installed in single-family homes, according to the California Energy Commission. Thats compared to roughly 120,000 gas pumps across the state.
The number of EV chargers nearly doubled since 2023, though part of the increase came from identifying charging stations that hadnt previously been counted. The official stats include both public chargers and those that are shared at workplaces or in apartment buildings.
Its still only a fraction of the number of chargers that are coming. By the most recent estimate, California will need around 1 million public and shared private chargers by 2030, enough to support the estimated 7 million light-duty electric vehicles that may be on the road by then. By 2035, when a rule requiring new vehicles to be electric will go into effectthe state could need more than 2 million shared EV chargers. (That’s assuming the rule survives Trump’s attempts to kill it.)
For drivers who own a house with a garage, charging overnight at home can easily cover most needs. Still, those drivers obviously need access to public chargers for longer trips. And around 45% of Californians are renters who dont have garages of their own. New building codes require new apartment buildings to make parking spaces EV ready, and also apply to existing parking spaces when older buildings are renovated or expanded. Renters also have the right to install chargers themselves when they have a designated parking space. The rules also require a certain number of parking spaces at motels and retail and commercial parking lots to be EV ready. “Retrofitting the existing stock of multifamily dwellings with chargers is a substantial challenge,” says Esther Conrad, a research manager at Stanford University who has studied the rollout of EV chargers.
Charging EVs takes substantially longer than filling up with gas, which is the main reason so why more charging ports are needed than gas pumpsboth in order to prevent bottlenecks at charging stations and because chargers are used in different places, from parking lots to street parking in cities. But as charging tech and vehicles improve, the total number of chargers that are needed is likely to shrink from current estimates, says Harrison Reilly, a spokesperson for the California Energy Commission. (In China, tech is already much farther ahead, with some new cars capable of charging in roughly as quickly as it takes to pump gas.) The state will publish a new estimate of charging needs later this year.
For the moment, Reilly says, there are enough chargers to support the number of light-duty EVs that are on California roads. That’s a major milestone; with nearly 2 million electric cars and light-duty trucks, California also has more EVs than any other state. Last year, around 25% of all new car sales there were electric.
Other states can learn from California’s policy. “First, states should be developing clear and ambitious EV targets, especially as the federal government pulls back on some of the targets for the transition,” says Jeff Prosserman, CEO and cofounder of Voltpost, a company that converts streetlights so they can double as curbside EV chargers. “They were leading the charge by looking to have as a mandate 100% of new car sales to be electric by 2035.”
The state’s requirement for new apartment buildings to add EV chargers is critical. It has also provided important financial support, including grants to add chargers in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and has pushed to help streamline permitting so projects can be built faster.
There are still obstacles as it moves forward. “One of the big challenges is the need for additional grid capacity to handle all of the charging,” says Conrad, though the state is trying to help address that. She says that even more funding is needed to add chargers in some locations where private developers might not otherwise build them. As the Trump administration tries to cancel promised support for EV chargers, it puts more financial pressure on the state.
But the network is still quickly growing now. Voltpost, for example, is moving forward on a project to add curbside EV chargers in some neighborhoods in San Francisco. “It’s in no way impacted by federal policyit’s state and city-driven,” says Prosserman.
“From what we’ve seen at Voltpost, progressive states like California are going to continue providing funding opportunities to meet their climate targets with or without support from the federal government,” he says.
Four years ago, if you found yourself at one particular intersection of Buenos Aires, you would see a nondescript, three-story parking garage with no cars inside. That building still existsbut its completely unrecognizable. Today, that structure looks like a stubby, UFO-like tower mushrooming from a concrete pedestal with a landscaped ramp curving upward. The metamorphosis is thanks to a multiyear project by New York architecture firm ODA. Ola Palermo, as the reimagined structure is known, has become a mixed-use building with cafés, restaurants, and Class A office space. The cherry on top of this (concrete) cake is an open-air promenade that peels off the sidewalk, winds up to what used to be the roof of the garage, blossoms into a rooftop park, then winds back down to the other side of the building. In a structure once defined by cars, the ramp is now be synonymous with people.[Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]To demolish or not to demolishODA (ranked among the Worlds Most Innovative Companies of 2025 by Fast Company) has a history of working on adaptive reuse projects, including Detroits Book Tower and 10 Jay Street in Brooklyn, but when founder Eran Chen first heard about the project from real estate firm BSD Investments, it was presented to him as an empty site.The building, which had been vacant for years, sits on a tricky plot sandwiched between two busy roads and an elevated train line. It is very close to the edge of Tres de Febrero Park (also known as Bosques de Palermo, or Palermo Woods), but before ODA got involved the two were not connected. [Image: courtesy ODA]Before arriving on-site, Chen had considered demolishing the parking garage, but when he saw the building, the idea just clicked. The building immediately captured my imagination, Chen says, noting the first thing that surprised him was the structures ceiling height. Most parking garages have low ceilings, which makes them challenging to convertthis one had a 14- to 15-foot ceiling. (For perspective: Most homes have 8- to 9-foot ceilings.) The ceiling had a waffle design, which looks like a grid of intersecting beams that create a pattern of recessed squares. This helped distribute the weight of the ceiling evenly, allowing it to span large areas without the need for additional columns for support, and creating a more open and flexible space for the buildings use. [Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]To top it all off, the roof afforded a clear 360-degree view. On one side, you could see through Palermo Woods, all the way to downtown Buenos Aires. On the other, theres a private racetrack and polo fields that people can visit only if they have exclusive memberships. On one side you have the haves, and on the other, you have everybody else, and this is smack dab in between the two, says Chen. He saw the rooftop as an opportunity to turn the tables and allow the parks visitors to look down on the exclusive grounds and catch a (free) glimpse of any events that take place there.[Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]Form follows experiencesODA kept 80% of the original structure to create a 160,000-square-foot building. A quarter of this surfaceabout 40,000 square feetis dedicated to public terraces, green spaces, and the open-air promenade. The rest is taken up by restaurants, cafés, and retail spaces. Parking for 250 cars is also available on the ground floor. But the program, or function, of the building wasnt always clear. The area isnt zoned for residential use, and commercial use wasnt the obvious choice, says Chen, as most companies who could afford rent for a modern office building would opt for a space in downtown Buenos Aires. Retail, which thrives on heavy footfall, wasnt obvious either since the site is so isolated and on the edge of the city.[Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]But for many years now, Chen has ben honing a new mantra. Form should not follow function anymore. Form should follow experiences, he says. If we design buildings for the human experience, people will visit these buildingsand enjoy themregardless of the program. In other words, build it and they will come? I ask. Build it well and they will come, he says. An important distinction. To turn the building into an irresistible destination, ODA made four incisions. They carved out one courtyard to let light into the widest part of the building, and shaved off slivers of the facade to make room for two sets of stairs and the ramp.These incisions amount to 20% of the floor area, but the architects didnt lose that space; they redistributed it. At one end of the building, there once was a water tower that rose above the areas height restrictions. The tower was obsolete, so Chen convinced the city to remove it. In its place, Chens team built a four-story tower based on the memory of the water tower. This concrete mushroom as he calls it, now rises above the rest of the structure, holding its most premium office spaces.[Photo: Alan Karchmer/courtesy ODA]A blueprint for the U.S.The resulting building is what Chen calls a win-win-win. It benefits city agencies because it makes a meaningful contribution to the public realm. It benefits the local community, which now has access to a public rooftop park. And it benefits the developer, who saved on construction costs (no new foundations were required) by not demolishing the building.It also benefits the environment, since giving buildings a second chance, as Chen puts it, can help lower the environmental footprint associated with building anew. (Though there could be costs associated with bringing an old building up to code.) Cities are filled with structures that are either dated or unnecessary, and of course, a big chunk of it is parking garages, Chen says.Already, architects are starting to build future-proof parking garages like this multistory car park in Calgary, Alberta, that was specifically designed to transform into a 600-person office or 50-unit residential building if (and when) the need arises. But Chen believes that residential and commercial are not the only options, especially if the buildings ceilings are low, as they often are. He includes indoor/outdoor sports venues, like pickleball courts; urban farms; and even open-air markets among the possibilities. The key, he says, is not to be fixated on the obvious programs that people might think of.
Job searching can feel like a full-time job in and of itself. Endless networking coffees and cover letter drafts can make it easy to get discouraged. And while its helpful to get support from family, friends, and your significant other, they may not truly grasp the day-to-day grind thats needed to keep the momentum going.
In fact, for many, searching for a job is an isolating experience. According to a recent American Staffing Association/Harris Poll Workforce Monitor survey, 72% of Americans say applying for jobs can feel like sending résumés into a black box. And four out of 10 unemployed U.S. job seekers revealed they didnt land a single job interview in a year.
This cycle of applying for jobs and not hearing back can lead to frustration, hopelessness and loneliness, says Richard Wahlquist, chief executive officer at the American Staffing Association.
One way to keep up a productive job search is to find a job-search partner. Experts say this support can help keep you motivated and feeling supported.
Heres how to best work with another job searcher to both secure new roles:
1. Youll gain an extra set of eyes and ears
Theres only so many hours in the day and so many networking channels one can explore. So, having a job partnerespecially one searching in the same industrycan double your outreach. They can identify job openings you missed, says Wahlquist.
2. They can help you polish your materials and prep for interviews
A job search partner can not only assist with proofreading, but they can also offer you a fresh perspective on your cover letter, and provide suggestions on how to customize your résumé for each position you apply for.
Interview prep is also paramount, and Walhquist says a job search partner can provide very helpful roleplay as you practice answering challenging interview questions. These exercises can improve your communication skills and boost your confidence.
3. They can help you stay motivated
Knowing that someone depends on your support can be motivating. Theres an extra layer of accountability on days when the last thing you feel like doing is applying for another job, says Wahlquist.
How to choose a job search buddy
Its a personal decision whether to partner with a job seeker in your same industryand of course depends on who you know who might also be searching for a job at the same time. Here are a few reasons why picking someone in the same field can be helpful:
They understand the industry. Jenny Wood, a career-development expert and author of the new book Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It, says picking a person in your field can be a good move, even if youre worried about potential competition. There are hundreds of thousands of jobs out there, says Wood. They only need one and you only need one. There are enough to go around.
They can give real feedback. Not only can they help you choose winning résumé keywords and bullet points, an insider can also help you grasp what a solid versus mediocre answer is to an interview question, says Wood. Theyll also better understand what certain role descriptions mean when you are both searching and applying.
How to be sure a job search partner adds value
Gaining support can only help you on your employment journey. Job seekers who end up with the most options and, eventually, the best jobs are the ones who enlist as many people and resources as possible to support their job searches, says Walhquist.
But be sure to keep an eye on the prize of getting a job, and keep the interactions productive. While it may be comforting to constantly touch base with your job search partner, make sure the relationship is not getting in the way of your actual search, says Wahlquist. Sitting in a café with your friend may be fun, but at the end of the day, you have to actually do the work to apply for jobs.
How often to check in
The frequency of check-ins depends on the individuals involved, says Matthew A. Solit, LMSW, executive clinical director with LifeStance Health. Weekly may work for some, but for others, higher frequency can increase accountability. Its all about what works for you and your accountability partner or partners. Mutually agreed upon communication patterns and a framework for accountability is key to a good working partnership, adds Solit.
What to do when one of you gets a job
There is a high likelihood that one member of the partnership will be offered a position before the other. And, says Solit, when one member of the team succeeds, everyone succeeds. Its not a race, and its not about winning or losing, says Solit. It is important to continue to support your job-search peers even if you are hired first and to see the mutual commitment to accountability through to the end for both members.
For those tired of waiting in line to buy a new smartphone or anxiously refreshing a delivery tracking site to make sure a new phone arrives intact, Verizon’s Straight Talk Wireless brand is offering another option: phones from a vending machine.
Straight Talk, a Verizon prepaid brand exclusively available at Walmart, has launched vending machines that dispense packaged iPhone and Android devices, similar to the tech vending machines often seen at airports. Customers can browse phones and plans via a touchscreen interface, then pick and pay for what they want, all without needing to wait for a salesperson.
And when they take their new phone out of the box, it’s already activated and ready to make calls. That saves a potentially complex step for customers who would otherwise have to go home and figure out how to activate the device and add prepaid credit to it.
[Photo: Straight Talk]
“A lot of our customers, they get confused with what to do at home,” says David Kim, chief revenue officer at Verizon Value, which includes the telecom giant’s prepaid brands. “It drives calls to care. It drives customer dissatisfaction.”
Even if potential customers aren’t ready to buy, they can use the machines to see what phone and plan deals are available without needing to wait on a sales rep, Kim says. And if they do have questions they’d want answered by a human being, the wait time will likely be shorter, since other customers can conduct their business with the machine.
So far, the new machines are installed in five Walmart stores, where they’ve sold hundreds of phones after thousands of interactions. Verizon plans to add them at nearly 100 more Walmart locations over the course of the year. In some cases, Verizon is testing the machines near the department in the rear of the store where phones are normally sold, but the company is also testing other locations, including near the checkout, where customers can easily browse the machine to see what’s available.
[Photo: Straight Talk]
“As customers are checking out, they’re interacting with the machine just to see what’s the latest and greatest,” Kim says.
The company is also testing payment methods, including cash and card. So far, most people are paying by credit or debit, with some signing up for monthly autopay via the machine. But the machines are likely to continue to support cash as they expand to more stores, Kim says.
After developing the technology to ensure phones can be uniquely identified, tracked, and activated within the machine, the company continues to optimize how to highlight different phones for customers, including making them aware of various brands, price points, and special offers.
And in addition to expanding at Walmart, Verizon Valuewhich offers eight brands at more than 100,000 locations across the United Statesmay also roll out vending machines to support its other lines at both other national retailers. While the company does need to ensure machines have internet connectivity and staffing to keep them stocked, selling no-contract prepaid phones is in some ways easy compared to selling phones on a contract, since there’s no need to check customer IDs or conduct a credit check.
Expansion possibilities may also include smaller devices offering other services, like letting people pay for a month of service without needing to purchase a prepaid card, Kim says. Other options being considered include machines at airports, which could offer prepaid phones or SIM cards to international travelers, and at existing retail locations for various Verizon Value brands.
“It’s just a matter of picking the right locations,” he says.
Catfishing. Once a trend confined to the realm of online dating. Now, like other relationship phenomena including ghosting, career cushioning, and quiet quitting, its infiltrated the workplace. This is bad for employers and employees alike.
Corporate catfishing is when employers make false or misleading claims about their working culture in job ads or interviews in a bid to attract top talent, and its a big issue. Research shows that 70% of hiring managers have lied to candidates during hiring processes. A separate study also found that 72% of workers have experienced shift shock, where the reality of a new job doesnt live up to what you were sold.
The reason its happening is simple. Companies want to attract the best talent to fill skills gaps and drive performance. Yet presently, employers and employees have conflicting preferences over ideal working environments. The return-to-office movement is a prime example.
In fact, our data shows that demand for fully remote jobs rose by 10% across last year, and by the end of 2024, almost two-thirds of workers sought remote roles. Yet, only 4% of employers advertised fully remote roles last year. The lack of remote roles on offer is unsurprising given that weve recently seen a spate of return-to-office mandates issued by companies including Amazon and JP Morgan.
In comes corporate catfishing: a half-baked solution some companies use when they cannot (or will not) offer what workers want. Maybe the hiring manager lies about how often employees are expected to show up to the office, or tells an applicant that the company is deeply committed to environmental efforts, when its actually been scaling back on its sustainability goals. Like with all lies, the truth will eventually come back to bite them.
While corporate catfishing may widen your talent pool, theres no guarantee that this pool will be filled with the right talent. Workers are looking for certain working setups for a reason. For example, they could be looking for a remote role because they have a health condition that makes it tricky to go into the office every day, or need working hours that they can flex around the school run. Job seekers lured in under false pretenses are likely to be a poor cultural fit for the companys working environment.
Plus, if workers do fall for corporate catfishing and are hired, they certainly wont trust or feel loyal to that employer once they discover the truth of the working environment. This wont be good for staff retention and could be costly for businesses, given that replacing a single employee can cost up to twice their annual salary.
Theres also the reputational risks to consider. Smart job seekers will do a deep dive and look at online reviews from former employees before they accept roles. When the secret gets out (and it always does), the companys reputation for lying to candidates will likely impact job offer acceptance rates and deter future prospects.
Businesses will be far better off if theyre transparent about their benefits and working environments from the outset. But the smartest employers wont stop there. More than ever, workers care not only about where they work, but how, when, and who they work for. So if employers really want to build job seekers’ trust and set themselves apart in the war for top talent, they need to go one step further. They need to build a strong, genuine employer brand, which actively showcases everything from the companys working setup and benefits to its mission and values.
To do this, employers should identify three core themes, which encapsulate the companys unique value as an employer (be that a commitment to diversity and inclusion or an industry-leading vacation allowance). More than three, and your core identity can get lost in the noise. Sticking to these themes will help keep messaging feeling authentic and consistent across job ads, the companys website, and social media. Having guidelines around tone of voice can complement this well, too.
Showing, not just telling, workers what its really like to work for the company also helps build job-seekers trust in the employer brand. So, share pictures from team days and events on the companys social media. Featuring posts from employees from all levels of the businesses, where they share their typical work day or professional achievements facilitated by company training programs or mentorship, can be a great way to do this. The content will feel more authentic to job seekers when it comes from their peers.
You should also post about things which reflect the companys core values on LinkedIn. This helps demonstrate to job seekers that the values the company shouts about really are embedded into its DNA. For instance, if sustainability is important to you, you could post about another companys new climate initiative.
We already have enough catfishing to dodge in the dating world. Its time for employers to leave false promises behind and put transparency first. Theres someone out there for everyone, and getting more candid about workplace culture means everyone winsboth workers and employers can find their ideal match.
Work is full of potential rejection. Ask a colleague for a favor, and they may refuse. Apply for a job, and you may not get it. Seek a promotion, and you may be passed over. Submit a proposal to a client, and it may not be accepted.
One key part of success is to be willing to learn from these failures, rather than to be paralyzed by them. Yet, you may find it hard to get over a rejection. Before you can learn anything from a failure, you first have to get beyond the emotions associated with rejection.
Dealing with rejection sensitivity
The first question you have to ask is whether a particular rejection is bothering you, or whether rejection in general is a problem. A long line of research suggests that some people have a high level of rejection sensitivity. There is even a measure of rejection sensitivity called the Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire.
This measure asks you to consider a variety of situations in which you ask for something from another person. You rate both the level of anxiety or concern you might experience in that situation as well as the degree to which you expect someone would accept or reject your request. People high in rejection sensitivity get quite anxious when faced with the possibility of rejection and may also expect that their requests will be rejected. Rejection sensitivity may be a reaction people develop to feelings of rejection by key loved ones when growing up.
If you generally have anxiety about rejection, then it can hamper you in the workplace. You may avoid asking for things you need or pursuing new opportunities. You may also react with fear or anger when you feel like others are rejecting you. You might also take criticism of a project or your performance as a personal rejection rather than as feedback that provides an opportunity for you to improve.
If you’re sensitive to rejection in general, then you have ingrained a set of habits that probably will not go away on their own. This sensitivity is going to affect both your work and personal life, and so it’s worth addressing. A good therapist can be a valuable part of the process of understanding the source of your anxiety and expectation of rejection and help you to develop strategies to help you handle future situations more effectively.
Dealing with a specific painful rejection
Even if youre not a rejection-sensitive person, you may still find a particular rejection at work hard to handle. Perhaps you had a trusted friend or colleague who has now turned your back on you. Maybe a longtime client has decided to work with someone else. You might have applied for a job that you really wanted and lost out to another candidate.
Of course, nobody should expected to get over a rejection immediately. Rejection stings, and that pain can last for a while. Sleep is an important part of your ability to deal with difficult emotions, so getting several good nights’ sleep can help you move past a painful rejection.
If there’s a specific rejection that stays with you, it probably reflects a significant loss for you that is worth understanding. You might be prone to avoid thinking about rejections, but it can be helpful to write about them. That writing can help you to get the thoughts outside of yourself, which can be healing. In addition, it may help you to understand the source of the loss.
Perhaps you feel betrayed by someone you trusted. It might be that the rejection affects something that is part of your self-concept. The rejection might feel like it is closing off a career or life path that you were invested in. If writing about the rejection doesnt help, you might benefit from working with a counselor or therapist.
Career success ultimately requires that you put yourself in situations in which you could face rejection. Not only that, it’s virtually impossible to do anything of significance without being rejected often. That means you must develop strategies to learn to accept rejections, to analyze them so that you learn how to be more effective in the future, and to continue to try difficult things that might lead to additional rejections in the future.
Rumors of a Tumblr comeback have been bubbling for a couple of yearsthink a pair of Doc Martens here, a splash of pastel hair dye there. Now, Gen Z is embracing the platform as a refuge from an internet saturated with influencers and algorithm fatigue.
Launched in 2007, just ahead of Instagrams 2010 debut, Tumblr, with its blog-style format, encouraged users to craft personal aesthetics and immerse themselves in niche communitieswhere American Apparel tennis skirts, oversize flannels, and black wire chokers once reigned supreme. At its peak in early 2014, the platform had more than 100 million users and was often mentioned in the same breath as Facebook and other rising social media giants.
But Tumblr struggled to monetize, even after Yahoos $1.1 billion acquisition in 2013. As competitors leaned into the creator economy with sponsored posts and digital storefronts, Tumblr faded into millennial nostalgia.
Thanks to Gen Z, the site has found new life. As of 2025, Gen Z makes up 50% of Tumblrs active monthly users and accounts for 60% of new sign-ups, according to data shared with Business Insiders Amanda Hoover, who recently reported on the platforms resurgence.
User numbers spiked in January during the near-ban of TikTok and jumped again last year when Brazil temporarily banned X. In response, Tumblr users launched dedicated communities to archive and share their favorite TikToks. Meanwhile, progressives disillusioned with the political shifts of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are fleeing Facebook and X in favor of Tumblrs more independent, chaotic charm.
To keep up with the momentum, Tumblr introduced Reddit-style Communities in December, letting users connect over shared interests like photography and video games. In January, it debuted Tumblr TVa TikTok-like feature that serves as both a GIF search engine and a short-form video platform.
But perhaps Tumblrs greatest strength is that it isnt TikTok or Facebook. Currently the 10th most popular social platform in the U.S., according to analytics firm Similarweb, Tumblr is dwarfed by giants like Instagram and X. For its users, though, thats part of the appeal.
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A beautiful object, expertly designed, can bring you joy throughout your busy day, unless you are unable to use it because of a permanent, temporary, or situational disability. How does design fail or succeed in creating an inclusive experience for all?
As CEO of Michael Graves Design, I am deeply committed to advancing the functionality and accessibility of everyday products, with a special focus on enhancing the lives of those with disabilities. Our mission is to improve quality of life beyond aesthetics, addressing real-world challenges faced by individuals with temporary or permanent disabilities. What drives this commitment? A profound conviction in the transformative power of design to simplify daily tasks and infuse them with dignity and delight.
Imagine if every aspect of your daily routine, from waking up to going to bed, was designed with your needs in mind. Activities of daily living (ADLs) such as eating, bathing, dressing, and moving around are foundational to our independence. Yet, for individuals facing temporary or permanent disabilities, these essential tasks can pose significant challenges. This also happens due to situational disabilities that we all experience as we go through our day: full hands, loud environments, low lighting, etc. Design can address these challenges head on, transforming everyday activities into seamless experiences, while enabling us to target the widest audience possible.
Focus on consumer experiences over tasks
This design philosophy empowers brands to tackle everyday challenges by transforming routine tasks into seamless experiences for consumers. We’re eager to share our approach, helping you broaden your reach and enhance how you connect with the widest audience possible.
Take, for example, our latest collaboration with Pottery Barn. We introduced bedroom furniture that embodies our design for all ethos. At first glance, the furniture collections looks like any other Pottery Barn furniture in its catalogue, relaying an aspirational lifestyle that resonates so well with consumers. But a closer look reveals how dignity has been woven into each piece. Beds come with integrated armrests for easier mobility, and nightstands feature enhancements to store CPAP machines and prevent items from tumbling offjust a few of the many simple, yet profound modifications that make independence both accessible and delightful. The twist here is that while these novel functional enhancements were designed around the needs of those with various disabilities, they were designed to be attractive and useful to everybody. A true embodiment of universal design, equal measure is given to the emotional and functional desires of consumers, essential to design for all.
This product development strategy is underpinned by decades of research into the needs and preferences of aging adults and those with disabilities. This is not just designit’s empathy in action. You must be able to identify real-world problems that need solving, guided by a deep understanding of what people truly desire. Our roadmap is centered on the various ADLs, which are crucial for independent living.
The future of design
The future of design must be proactive, not reactive. The brands that take this approach will be the leaders of the future. What challenges lie ahead? How can design continue to evolve to meet the unmet needs of our society? To do this successfully, design must merge todays common expertise in the emotionally driven aspects of a product’s personality and purpose with the less incorporated ability to include and translate various ability levels as creative constraints in the product development process. In short, new products must be alluring, but push their usefulness to a broader audience. We believe the future is in the merging of these two approaches.
To have a pioneering brand today, you need to exceed customers expectations for enhanced independence, empowering them with the dignity we all deserve. This is the true power of thoughtful design. It goes beyond making daily tasks possible; its about transforming how theyre experienced. Anyone living with a disability knows that interruption, modification, and adaptation become part of the daily habits and rituals. Designing with dignity in mind means designing habits and rituals that can be enjoyed for the long term, through shifting conditions.
As we look forward, we must ask ourselves how our work as designers and creators of experiences can continue to break barriers and open doors for all members of society. Challenge yourself to think beyond human-centered design and instead widen your aperture to focus on society-centered design. Let’s not just design for some; lets design for every body, and make every interaction with our products a reaffirmation of our shared humanity.
Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design.
