Having a helicopter manager can bring you down. Its exhausting to have a boss who constantly monitors you, requires you to check in all the time, and takes away your authority to make decisions. This sort of micromanagement can lead to decreased employee morale, lower productivity, and reduced job satisfaction, according to experts.
Whether intentional or not, helicopter managers send clear signals that they do not trust their direct reports and are concerned about the work getting done correctly, says Matthew Owenby, chief strategy officer and head of human resources at Aflac. Helicopter managers can often exacerbate burnout by making employees feel that they are not respected, their time is not valued, and they are not given any autonomy at work. This can quickly lead to demoralization and disengagement.
Its a growing problem, as many leaders appear to be increasing monitoring in the workplace. Owl Labs’s 2024 State of Hybrid Work Report found that 46% of workers reported that their company added or increased employee productivity and monitoring software in the past year. This has, in part, contributed to the rise in workplace anxiety as 43% of employees say their stress levels increased compared to last year, while 55% of managers say they are more stressed than ever, says Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs.
If youre dealing with a helicopter manager, here are a few things experts suggest you can do:
Create an accountability plan
The first step is to have a direct conversation about expectations and deliverables. I recommend focusing on establishing clear goals and metrics to shift the conversation from hours worked to results achieved, says Weishaupt. The goal is to shift the focus from constant surveillance to a results-oriented approach.
Its important to set outcome-based benchmarks that give both employees and helicopter managers confidence that expectations are being met or exceeded, he explains. This framework outlines key deliverables and success metrics that are agreed upon, continues Weishaupt. With this understanding in place, your manager may reduce the need to hover.
To start this conversation, Weishaupt suggests saying something like: I’m committed to our team’s success and wonder if we might explore setting outcome-based benchmarks that would give both of us confidence that I’m meeting or exceeding expectations. I’d be happy to draft a proposed framework for my role that outlines key deliverables and success metrics we could review together.
Ask for feedback
While your boss may have good intentions, their attitude is likely giving their reports the impression they are not trusted, or making them insecure about their abilities, says Vanessa Matsis-McCready, associate general counsel and vice president of HR Services with Engage PEO. Directly asking your boss for feedback can strengthen the accountability dynamic and cause them to lighten up. During your next check in, try asking for feedback on areas where you can improve, says Matsis-McCready.
Its also important to demonstrate that you are open to feedback. When you ask good questions, your manager may not feel the need to hover as much, explains Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and the author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Dont Do.
A sample script, per Morin, could sound like this: I want to make sure that I meet your expectations with this task. Can you share any feedback you have so far so I can make sure Im on track and so we can address any concerns up front? Id also like to hear your input on how youd like to devise a plan for me to keep you updated moving forward.
This exchange may facilitate a calmer approach. Avoid pushing back on their management style, cautions Morin. Instead, show that youre looking for guidance and youll alleviate a lot of their fears.
And when you do get criticism, its important to remain diplomatic. Avoid disagreeing with feedback even if it doesnt sound quite right, says Morin. If you argue, youll appear defensive and theyre more likely to hover.
Proactively communicate
If you take a preemptive approach to keeping your boss in the loop on your progress, this could lead to less monitoring. Increasing the number and frequency of status reports or creating a weekly meeting, followed by a written summary of the discussion with action items and focus areas, will demonstrate to some helicopter managers that the direct report is getting their work done and managing their time successfully, says Owenby.
Seek out additional training
Another thing to discuss with your boss is whether there are additional training opportunities you can pursue. Not only can these classes or training sessions boost your career, they can help increase your bosss confidence in your skill set. Approach the training with enthusiasm, and your manager may allow more autonomy and independence.
By January 2018, Vanessa Dominguez and her husband had been flirting with moving to a different neighborhood in El Paso, Texas, for a few years. Their daughter was enrolled in one of the best elementary schools in the county, but because the family lived just outside the districts boundary, her position was tenuous. Administrators could decide to return her to her home district at any moment. Moving closer would guarantee her spot. And when their landlord notified Dominguez that she wanted to double their rent, she and her husband felt more urgency to make their move.
Finally, the opportunity came. Dominguezs boss owned a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Ranchos del Sol, an upper-middle-class neighborhood in east El Paso, and was looking for a new tenant.
With a kitchen island, high ceilings, and a park across the street where kids often played soccer, the house was perfect for the young family. Most importantly, the property was within the school districts boundaries.
The property as a whole seemed attractive, and the neighborhood seemed pretty calm, Dominguez recalled.
After they moved in, Dominguezs daughter quickly took to running around in the backyard, which featured a cherry blossom tree, and the family often grilled outside. Dominguez barely noticed the warehouse just beyond the cobblestone wall at the back. It really wasnt until the COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate in 2020 that she noticed the stream of trucks pulling in and out of the facility. Sometimes, she would hear the rumble of 18-wheelers as early as 6:30 a.m.
Still, she made little of it. She didnt realize that the warehouse was owned by Cardinal Health, one of the largest medical device distributors in the country, or that it’s part of a vast supply chain that the American public relies on to receive proper medical care.
But for Dominguez and her family, what seemed little more than a minor nuisance was actually a sprawling menaceone that a Grist data analysis found was exposing them to exceedingly high levels of a dangerous chemical.
Cardinal Health uses that warehouse, and another one across town, to store medical devices that have been sterilized with ethylene oxide. Among the thousands of compounds released every day from polluting facilities, its among the most toxic, responsible for more than half of all excess cancer risk from industrial operations nationwide. Long-term exposure to the chemical has been linked to cancers of the breast and lymph nodes, and short-term exposure can cause irritation of the nasal cavity, shortness of breath, wheezing, and bronchial constriction. Dominguezs family would go on to experience some of these symptoms, but only years later would they tie it to ethylene oxide exposure.
Warehouses like the ones in El Paso are ubiquitous throughout the country. Through records requests and on-the-ground reporting, Grist has identified at least 30 warehouses across the country that definitely emit some amount of ethylene oxide. They are used by companies such as Boston Scientific, ConMed, and Becton Dickinson, as well as Cardinal Health. And they are not restricted to industrial parts of townsthey are near schools and playgrounds, gyms and apartment complexes. From the outside, the warehouses don’t attract attention. They look like any other distribution center. Many occupy hundreds of thousands of square feet, and dozens of trucks pull in and out every day. But when these facilities load, unload, and move medical products, they belch ethylene oxide into the air. Most residents nearby have no idea that the nondescript buildings are a source of toxic pollution. Neither do most truck drivers, who are often hired on a contract basis, or many of the workers employed at the warehouses.
Grist identified the countrys top medical device manufacturers and distributors, including Cardinal Health, Medline, Becton Dickinson, and Owens & Minor, and collated a list of the more than 100 known warehouses that they own or use. Some of these companies have reported to state or federal regulators that they operate at least one distribution center that stores products sterilized with ethylene oxide. Others were identified in person by Grist reporters as recipients of products from sterilization facilities. But since companies use multiple sterilization methods, its unclear whether each of these emits ethylene oxide. However, Grist still chose to publish the information to demonstrate the scale of the potential problem: There are almost certainly dozens, if not hundreds, more warehouses than the 30 we are certain aboutand thousands more workers unknowingly exposed to ethylene oxide.
Identifying these warehouses and the 30 or so that emit some amount of ethylene oxide was a laborious process, in part because information about these facilities isnt readily available. Grist reporters staked out sterilization facilities, spoke to truck drivers and warehouse workers, and combed through property databases.
The problem is much bigger than we all assume, said Rick Peltier, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Massachusetts. The lack of transparency of where these products go makes us worried.
At the El Paso warehouse behind Dominguezs house, Grist spoke to several Cardinal employees who had little knowledge of the risks of being exposed to ethylene oxide. Cardinal Health, which employs a largely Latino workforce at the warehouse, requires some laborers to wear monitors and keep windows and vents open for circulation. But the workers Grist spoke to were unsure what the company is monitoring for.
I think its because of a kind of gas that we are breathing, one material handler told Grist while on break. I dont know what its called.
In response to the list of Cardinal warehouses that Grist identified, a spokesperson noted in a brief comment that the majority of addresses you have listed are not even medical facilities and that the majority of the locations youve listed arent relevant to the topic youre focused on. However, the company did not provide specific information, and the warehouse locations were corroborated against materials available on the companys website.
Cardinals operations extend across the U.S.-Mexico border. The company runs a manufacturing plant in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where gauze, surgical gowns, drape sheets, scalpels, and other medical equipment are packaged into kits that provide everything a doctor needs to conduct a surgery, as one worker put it. The finished kits are trucked back to El Paso or to New Mexico, where theyre sterilized with ethylene oxide by third-party companies that Cardinal contracts with. Then, the products are trucked to one of the two Cardinal warehouses in El Paso, where they remain until theyre shipped to hospitals across the country. All along the way, in the trucks that transport them and the warehouses that store them, ethylene oxide releases from the surface of the sterilized devices, a process called off-gassing.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates the facilities where medical devices are sterilized, controlling the processes and safety protocols to keep ethylene oxide emissions to safe levels. But for myriad reasons, the federal governmentand the vast majority of stateshas turned a blind eye to warehouses. Thats despite the fact that these storage centers sometimes release more ethylene oxide and pose a greater risk than sterilization facilities. Georgia regulators found that was the case in 201, and a Grist analysis found the warehouse in Dominguezs backyard posed a greater threat than the New Mexico sterilization facility that Cardinal receives products from.
The EPA knows that the risks from ethylene oxide extend far beyond the walls of the sterilization facility, said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a lawyer at the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice who works on toxic chemicals, that the chemical remains with the equipment when it is taken to a warehouse, and that it continues to be released, threatening workers and threatening surrounding communities.
EPA had a legal obligation to address those risks, he added.
In 2009, Cardinal Health reached out to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, the state environmental regulator, seeking permits for its ethylene oxide emissions. At the time, the chemical compound was not known to be as toxic as it is, and TCEQ officials asked few questions about the effect the emissions would have on residents nearby. Grists reporting indicates the company had no legal responsibility to inform state officials but appears to have done so as a responsible actor.
The companys applications included a rudimentary diagram of a truck pulling up to a warehouse, an arrow pointing up into the air to denote ethylene oxide emissions from the facility, and a truck pulling out of the warehouse. Due to the unloading of the tractor trailers, Cardinal Health is registering the fugitive EtO that escapes upon the opening of each of the tractor trailers, it noted, using an abbreviation for ethylene oxide.
To calculate how much of the chemical escaped from trucks carrying sterilized products, Cardinal Health used an EPA model developed for wastewater treatment systems at TCEQs direction and multiplied the estimate by the number of trucks it expected would drop off products every year. Its unclear why the agency instructed Cardinal Health to use a wastewater model for an air pollutant when alternatives existed, but these imprecise calculations led the company to figure that its warehouses emitted at least 479 pounds per year. TCEQ granted Cardinals permits without requiring the company to take measures to reduce the pollution or notify residents.
Four years later, the company appears to have made an effort to determine more precise calculations. In a 2013 experiment, the company fit blowers to a truck and measured the amount of ethylene oxide emittedbut withheld other relevant details, like when the measurements were taken and how many products the truck transported, from the documents it submitted to TCEQ. Cardinal found that, in the first five minutes after a truck pulls into the warehouse, the sterilized products off-gas ethylene oxide at their highest levels. But after five minutes, rather than dropping to zero, the off-gassing levels stayed steady at 7 parts per million for the next two hours.
Publicly available documents do not provide details about where the trucks were coming from, how many packages they held, or how long ago the products had been sterilizedcrucial details that determine the rate at which ethylene oxide off-gases. If the medical devices in the truck that Cardinal observed traveled a short distance or if the truck was mostly empty when the experiment was conducted, the company could have vastly underestimated the emissions.
The numbers theyre using are just science fiction, said Peltier. For something as powerful as a carcinogen like this, we ought to do better than making up numbers and just doing some hand-waving in order to demonstrate that youre not imposing undue risk to the community.
Whats more, the analyses did not take into account the ethylene oxide emissions once the products were moved inside Cardinals facilities.
Toxicologists have long identified ethylene oxide as a dangerous chemical. In 1982, the Womens Occupational Health Resource Center at Columbia University published a series of fact sheets educating workers about the chemical, and in 1995, the Library of Congress released a study on the risks of using the gas to fumigate archival materials. However, it wasnt until 2016 that the EPA updated ethylene oxides toxicity value, a figure that defines the probability of developing cancer if exposed to a certain amount of a chemical over the course of a lifetime. That year, the agency published a report reevaluating ethylene oxide utilizing an epidemiological study of more than 18,000 sterilization facility workers. The agencys toxicologists determined the chemical to be 30 times more toxic to adults and 60 times more toxic to children than previously known.
Ethylene oxide, they determined, was one of the most toxic federally regulated air pollutants. Prolonged exposure was linked to elevated rates of lymphoma and breast cancer among the workers. In one study of 7,576 women who had spent at least one year working at a medical sterilization facility, 319 developed breast cancer. According to an analysis by the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, roughly 14 million people in the U.S. live near a medical sterilization facility.
As a result of the EPAs new evaluation, companies throughout the country came under greater scrutiny, with some sterilizers experiencing more frequent inspections. But regulators in Texas disputed the EPAs report. In 2017, eight years after Cardinal Healths first permit, officials with the TCEQ launched their own study of the chemical and set a threshold for ethylene oxide emissions that was 2,000 times more lenient than the EPAs, setting off a legal battle that is still playing out in court. For warehouses, which do not receive federal scrutiny, TCEQs lenient attitude meant virtually no oversight.
By early 2020, people around the world had little energy for anything but the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, the spike in demand for sterilized medical devicesand now masksmeant that more trucks with more materials passed through warehouses like the one just beyond Dominguezs backyard.
To approximate how high her familys exposure was to ethylene oxide during this period, Grist asked an expert air modeler to run Cardinal Healths stated emissions through a mathematical model that simulates how pollution particles disperse throughout the atmosphere. (This same model is used by the EPA and companiesincluding Cardinalduring the permitting process.) Grist collected the emissions information from permit files the company had submitted to the state.
The results indicated that ethylene oxide concentrations on Dominguezs block amounted to an estimated cancer risk of 2 in 10,000; that is, if 10,000 people are exposed to that concentration of ethylene oxide over the course of their lives, you could expect 2 to develop cancer from the exposure.
The EPA has never been perfectly clear about what cancer risk level it deems acceptable for the public to shoulder. Instead, it has used risk benchmarks to guide decisions around the permitting of new pollution sources near communities. The lower bound in this spectrum of risks is 1 in 1 million, a level above which the agency has said it strives to protect the greatest number of people possible. On the higher end of the spectrum is 1 in 10,000a level that public health experts have long argued is far too lax, since a persons cancer risk from pollution exposure accumulates on top of the cancer risk they already have from genetics and other environmental factors. The risk for Dominguez and her family is beyond even that.
According to the air modelers results, 603,000 El Paso residents about 90% of the citys population, are exposed to a cancer risk above 1 in 1 million just from Cardinal Healths two warehouses. More than 1,600 peopleincluding many of Dominguezs neighborsare exposed to levels above EPAs acceptability threshold of 1 in 10,000. The analysis also estimated that the risk from Cardinal Healths warehouse is higher than that of a Sterigenics medical sterilization facility, located just 35 miles away in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. These findings underscore how much ethylene oxide can accumulate in the air simply from off-gassing. To be clear, these figures are based on Cardinals own data. Given the questions surrounding the companys estimates, the risk to Dominguez, her neighbors, and the facilitys workers could be higher.
In 2021, Dominguez gave birth to her second child, and over the next few years, both she and her children began suffering from respiratory issues. Her young son, in particular, developed severe breathing problems, and a respiratory specialist prescribed an inhaler and allergy medication to help him breathe better. Her daughter, now a teenager, complained of persistent headaches. And she, too, began developing sinus headaches.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Health was expanding its operations. In 2023, the company applied to the TCEQ for an updated permit as quickly as possible. At the warehouse across town from Dominguez, the company soon expected to receive nearly four times as many trucks carrying sterilized productspotentially up to 10,000 trucks a yearand the increased truck traffic may increase potential emissions of ethylene oxide.
Cardinal relied on the 2013 experiment to estimate the facilitys emissions, simply multiplying that concentration by the new maximum number of trucks the facility would be permitted to receive. The back-of-the-envelope calculation led the company to estimate that the warehouse across town from Dominguez would increase its emissions to 1,000 pounds of the chemical per year.
Cardinal also estimated that the medical equipment would off-gas 637 pounds of ethylene oxide inside the warehouse every year. However, it claimed that those emissions are de minimus, or insignificant sources of pollution. Under Texas state law, minimal emissions, such as the vapors that might form in a janitorial closet storing solvents or gas produced by running air conditioners or space heaters, may be excluded from permitting requirements.
Like, if Im a college professor in school, I dont want to consider the volatile organic compounds coming out of the marker pens that Im writing with on the board, said Ron Sahu, a mechanical engineer and consultant with decades of experience working with state and federal environmental regulators and industrial operators. The exceptions, he said, were not based on highly toxic compounds like ethylene oxide.
As required under Texas rules, Cardinal surveyed facilities around the country that emit comparable amounts of ethylene oxide and summarized the technology they use to reduce emissions. Given the volume of the emissions from the warehouse, the most analogous facilities were the sterilizers themselves. The company found two sterilizers in Texas that utilize equipment to reduce their emissions by 99%.
But these options, Cardinal determined, were cost excessive and emissions from the warehouse were very low. Instead, the company said it would simply restrict the number of trucks unloading sterilized productsonly three per hour and 10,000 per year. In other words, it would expand its operations, but in a controlled way, in order to forego proven methods of reducing ethylene oxide emissions.
Grist sent TCEQ detailed written questions about the permits it issued to Cardinal. Even though the questions were based on documents the agency has already made publicly available, a spokesperson requested that Grist send a formal records request due to the level of involvement and the amount of technical information you are requesting.
Ultimately, in 2023, TCEQ granted Cardinals new permit.
At the same time that Cardinal Health was expanding its operations in Texas, the fight to have stricter oversight of ethylene oxide was spreading across the country. Individuals in Lakewood, Colorado, filed private lawsuits for health care damages related to ethylene oxide exposure; others joined class action lawsuits against sterilization companies and the EPA.
Finally, in April 2023, the EPA proposed long-overdue regulations to reduce ethylene oxide emissions from sterilizers. While the draft rule covered emissions from storage centers located on-site, it neglected to include off-site warehouses. Other provisions advocates had hoped for, like mandatory fence-line air monitoring near facilities, were also missing from the draft rule.
Following standard procedure, the EPA then opened a 75-day period for public comment and potential revision to the draft rule. Earthjustice organized a convening of community advocates from across the country to increase pressure on the agency to strengthen its draft. Residents from California, Texas, Puerto Rico, and other places with sterilizers spent two days in Washington, D.C., petitioning members of Congress, meeting with the EPA, and sharing their stories of exposure.
Daniel Savery, a legislative representative at Earthjustice who helped organize the event, told Grist that the meeting with the EPAs Office of Air and Radiation was well attended and that leadership expressed empathy for the stories they heard. But when the agency released the final rule in March 2024, neither off-site warehouses nor mandatory air monitoring was included. The regulations do reference the problem of off-site warehouses and indicate the agencys intention to collect information about thema first step that Savery believes wouldnt have made it into the rule were it not for pressure from the Washington meetings. However, he added, the EPA should have collected information about medical supply warehouses a long time ago.
This is the EPAs eighth rodeo on this issue, Savery said, alluding to the many years advocates have pressed the agency to address ethylene oxide exposure since the chemical was found to be highly toxic in 2016. The EPAs Office of Inspector General, an independent agency watchdog, had asked the federal regulators as early as 2020 to do a better job informing the public about their exposure to ethylene oxide from the sterilization industry. The wool is sort of over the countrys eyes for the most part about these emissions sources, Savery said.
Efforts to rein in ethylene oxide emissions seem unlikely during President Donald Trumps second term. Trumps nominee to lead the EPAs air quality office, Aaron Szabo, was a lobbyist for the sterilization industry, and the agency recently asked sterilizers seeking an exemption from ethylene oxide rules to send their petitions to a dedicated government email address. The Trump administration has since also said in court filings that it plans to revisit and reconsider the rule for sterilizers.
A spokesperson for the EPA said they cannot speak to the decisions of the Bidn-Harris administration and cited the agencys recent decision to offer exemptions to sterilizers. The spokesperson also referenced a separate EPA decision to regulate ethylene oxide as a pesticide. That decision could require a specific study for monitoring data on fumigated medical devices to better understand worker exposure to EtO from fumigated medical devices, the spokesperson said. However, much like the sterilizer rule, the Trump administration could also decide to rescind the pesticide determination.
Ethylene oxide from these warehouses is just unregulated, said Sahu, the mechanical engineer. Theres no control, so everything will eventually find its way to the ambient air.
Last August, on a cloudy morning in east El Paso, Texas, when most peoples days were just getting started, workers at the Cardinal Health warehouse were sitting in their cars, a stones throw from the Dominguez backyard. Having started their shifts at 5 a.m., they were all on break. One young worker was talking to his girlfriend. Another was scrolling on Facebook. And another snacked on Takis, staining her fingers bright red.
Some of their jobs require moving refrigerator-size pallets filled with sterilized medical devices. Others carefully cut open the pallets wrapped in plastic, moving the cardboard boxes containing the medical kits into the warehouse and repackaging them to be trucked to hospitals across the country. They do this with protective gloves, basic face masks, and hairnetsprecautions the company urges to ensure the sterility of the medical equipment, not the protection of the workers.
Grist spoke to several of them while they were on break or leaving their shifts. Although none of the workers agreed to speak with Grist reporters on the record, due to a fear of retaliation by their employer, they shared their experiences about working at the warehouse. Most were unaware they were being exposed to ethylene oxide. Some had heard of the chemical but didnt know the extent of their exposure and its risks.
Grist also distributed flyers to workers and nearby residents explaining the risks of ethylene oxide exposure. Two workers called Grist using the contact number on the flyer and said they had developed cancers that research links to ethylene oxide exposure after they started the job.
Since learning about the warehouses emissions, Dominguez said she now thinks twice before letting her young son play in the backyard. Were indoors most of the time for that reason, she said.
Dominguez had been considering buying the property from her boss, but her familys future in their home is now uncertain.
I really changed my mind about that, she said.
This article was originally published by Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here.
Grist created an informational guideavailable in English and Spanishin collaboration with community organizations, nonprofits, and residents who have pushed for more EtO regulation for years. This booklet contains facts about EtO, as well as ways to get local officials to address emissions, legal resources, and more. You can view, download, print, and share it here.
If youre a local journalist or a community member who wants to learn more about how Grist investigated this issue and steps you can take to find out more about warehouses in your area, read this.
Amid tariff whiplash and the rejuggling of global trade, GE Vernovas CEO Scott Strazik is finding a way to stay relentlessly optimistic. Strazik returns to the Rapid Response podcast to share how the company plans to continue its success as one of Wall Streets top-performing stocks, despite looming supply chain disruption and market unpredictability.
This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.
GE Vernova is now one year into life as an independent public company, much to celebrateyour revenue rose to $35 billion. In 2024, GE Vernova was the year’s fourth best performing stock. Again, a lot to celebrate. But in 2025, the external environment hasn’t been as friendly. The Trump tariffs have everyone scrambling. How do you think about this moment? How do you think about it compared to a year ago at this time?
Well, our end markets really haven’t changed very much, Bob. I would start there. I mean, we continue to see very strong end markets in our larger core businesses and gas power, in our electrification and grid businesses.
So, frankly, there’s going to be moments of dislocation between the stock market and our end markets. It doesn’t mean that depending on where the tariffs go, that doesn’t create an opportunity for us to prove out our nimbleness and managing our global supply chain, and we’re going to have to do that. But I think it’s frankly an opportunity for us to demonstrate how much we’ve grown in our first year as a public company to be able to operate in this kind of environment.
How do the tariffs practically impact your business? I mean, you’re a global business, so changes in global relationships and reputation, all of that requires some adjustment.
Yeah, I think even if you take a step back and think about some of the stuff I’ve talked to our investors about on where we want to make investments, we want to invest in our business where we can improve the durability or the resiliency of our supply chain, and that’s simply because we have a lot of organic growth that’s coming in our businesses, irrespective of any policy changes.
Now, policies are going to change, they’re going to evolve. This is going to force us to relook at where we source certain things. It’ll force us to revisit our terms with some of our suppliers in different locations, but we know how to do that. So, we don’t want to be too fast to respond as we’re kind of trying to make sense of everything. But I’d also rather be a company that is quick on its feet.
In this environment, President Trump announced the tariffs on a Wednesday afternoon after the market closed. Rest assured by Friday afternoon, our teams were actively working evaluation plans of what our alternatives are. Now, it doesn’t mean within 40 hours you pull the trigger in a dynamic period of time. So, we’re working it pretty hard right now to figure out what our alternatives are, and with a growing backlog, to the extent our backlog is growing so substantially, that also puts us in a privileged position with our supply base to come and say, “Listen, this is what it’s going to take to keep serving GE Vernova.”
It’s almost like there’s been a pullback around the very idea of globalization that maybe it’s not good to be a global organization. Do you think about that?
Well, when I think about my first four months of the year. I mean, my first trip of the year was to Singapore and Japan, the first week of January. I had a great trip in the Middle East in February visiting Saudi, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi. These are all important markets for us. I think we’ve got opportunities to serve these markets throughout, and we’re going to work really hard to earn those opportunities.
At the same time, long before announcements with tariffs, the reality is there has been an evolving shift with globalization. There’s certainly been a lot of strategic moves towards concepts of decoupling from the Chinese supply chain explicitly. So, we’ve been working that over a long period of time. Now, the last week certainly has been broader than any one country, and with it, it forces you to really revisit it in an even more intimate way, what you do and where you do it, but we can do that. We’re capable of taking that on, and I’m highly confident we can use this moment to make ourselves a better company for the long term.
You have announced investing $600 million in U.S. factories yourself creating over 1,500 jobs.
Yes.
How much does GE Vernova need to be an American company?
I would say more we need to be a local company for our local markets. I think in your bigger markets, you’re going to have a local supply chain to serve that market, local teams to serve that market. We’re a global company where, at this moment, one of our most important local markets certainly is the U.S., and that’s why we’re investing into that market. But we’re not going to not invest in some of these other countries that are attractive and markets too to be local there.
There’s been some speculation that the speed with which U.S. manufacturing can ramp up to replace things that might have come from abroad, that that’s going to take a while and there’s going to be disruption. Is that something for your business that you see that you worry about, or is that part of the nimbleness, I guess, that you’re talking about on the part of your team?
We do have a fair amount of industrial footprint in the U.S. that allows us to build on existing assets. So, the $600 million investment is reinvesting in existing assets, 1,500 jobs to locations that already have the concrete poured. They already have the cranes. They already have the logistics with the railroad adjacent to the factory.
So, we can move reasonably quickly. Now, to the extent the policy environment drives us towards greenfield investments to reindustrialize parts of our supply chain, that would take longer, truth be told. And that’s a multiyear journey that, at this point, we aren’t necessarily evaluating, but we will keep looking in that regard.
But first and foremost, we’re going to keep trying to eliminate waste in our existing processes and build upon the assets we have, and we feel like that can carry us for a eriod of time. Now, where we don’t have it, as an example, we announced and closed an acquisition of a supply chain footprint from Woodward. That was a vertical supply chain integration of a small part of Woodward’s business, but for our gas business, an important part of our supply chain where we thought it made more sense to just have that internal.
How much do you tune your long-term decision-making when there’s noise and change and pressure in the near term?
We need to scrutinize how long the status quo is, for sure. And that can be hard to do in a volatile moment that we’re in. But if nothing else, it gives us a chance to really challenge ourselves on what we have been doing, whether there’s a different way to do it. And that’s the way we talk about it internally is: “This is an opportunity for us to really revisit past assumptions and think about how we can be better.” Now, in some cases, we may gain conviction with exactly the play we’ve been running. In others, there may be a better alternative.
I mean, do you have, sort of, I don’t know, leadership principles or lessons that you use as a touchstone when things do get volatile?
Well, we’re not going to suck our thumbs and cry on our beer as things kind of change. We want to use change as an opportunity to improve. In that regard, this moment when we’re just reaching our one-year anniversary as a public company is a moment when I feel pretty confident we’ve got our feet on the ground, and we can play into this and use this moment of change to play offense on not just how we want 2025 to go, because we won’t change 2025 in any material way certainly from a supply chain strategy, but we can use 2025 to challenge ourselves for the next decade, and that’s very much what we’re doing.
Given all the recent bad news on the world stage, from tariffs wars to the war in Ukraine, it’s no wonder Swedes are seeking a moment of zen by watching a livestream of “The Great Moose Migration” (loosely translated from the Swedish, “Den stora älgvandringen“).
The 24-hour event, which runs for 20 days straight, kicked off on Tuesday. Since it first aired in 2019, it’s been providing soothing entertainment for millions of Swedes each year around this time. That first year, nearly a million Swedes tuned in to literally watch moose walk through forests and swim across the ngerman River, all captured by remote cameras and drones, the Associated Press reported. By last year, the sleeper hit had a whopping 9 million viewers, who followed along on Sweden’s national public television’s streaming platform, SVT Play.
This year, the livestream started airing a week earlier, as the moose got an early start due to warmer weather. From now until May 4, viewers can watch dozens of moose migrate to their favorite pastures located about 187 miles northwest of Stockholm, the country’s capital.
Sure, there’s not much happening, but that’s why so many people find it relaxing. So much so, that more than 78,000 Swedes have joined a Facebook group with fans sharing photos of their TV screens when moose appear, according to NBC News.
In fact, The Great Moose Migration is part of a larger global trend of relaxing, nature-oriented livestreams with not too much going on, which began in 2009 when NRK, Norway’s public broadcaster, aired a seven-hour train trip across the southern part of the country. That trend has even extended to the U.S., where thousands of captivated viewers have tuned in to watch a couple of wild eagles, Jackie and Shadow, and their growing family via the bald eagle nest cam in California.
OpenAI has named labor leader Dolores Huerta and three others to a temporary advisory board that will help guide the artificial intelligence company’s philanthropy as it attempts to shift itself into a for-profit business.
Huerta, who turned 95 last week, formed the first farmworkers union with Cesar Chavez in the early 1960s and will now have a say on the direction of philanthropic initiatives that OpenAI says will consider both the promise and risks of AI.
The group will have just 90 days to make their suggestions.
She recognizes the significance of AI in todays world and anybody whos been paying attention for the last 50 years knows she will be a force in this conversation, said Daniel Zingale, the convener of OpenAI’s new nonprofit commission and a former adviser to three California governors.
Huertas advice wont be binding but the presence of a social activist icon could be influential as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attempts a costly restructuring of the San Francisco company’s corporate governance, which requires the approval of California’s attorney general and others.
Another coalition of labor leaders and nonprofits recently petitioned state Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, to investigate OpenAI, halt the proposed conversion and protect billions of dollars that are under threat as profit-driven hunger for power yields conflicts of interest.
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, started out in 2015 as a nonprofit research laboratory dedicated to safely building better-than-human AI that benefits humanity.
It later formed a for-profit arm and shifted most of its staff there, but is still controlled by a nonprofit board of directors. It is now trying to convert itself more fully into a for-profit corporation but faces a number of hurdles, including getting the approval of California and Delaware attorneys general, potentially buying out the nonprofit’s pricy assets and fighting a lawsuit from co-founder and early investor Elon Musk.
Backed by Japanese tech giant SoftBank, OpenAI last month said its working to raise $40 billion in funding, putting its value at $300 billion.
Huerta will be joined on the new advisory commission by former Spanish-language media executive Monica Lozano; Robert Ross, the recently retired president of The California Endowment; and Jack Oliver, an attorney and longtime Republican campaign fundraiser. Zingale, the group’s convener, is a former aide to California governors including Democrat Gavin Newsom and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Were interested in how you put the power of AI in the hands of everyday people and the community organizations that serve them, Zingale said in an interview Wednesday. Because, if AI is going to bring a renaissance, or a dark age, these are the people you want to tip the scale in favor of humanity.
The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of APs text archives.
Matt O’Brien, AP technology writer
The Associated Press says that a new White House media policy violates a court order by giving the administration sole discretion over who gets to question President Donald Trump, and the news agency asked a federal judge on Wednesday to enforce that order.
The swift move was in response to a policy issued late Tuesday by the White House, which suffered a courtroom loss last week over The Associated Press’ ability to cover Trump. The plans, the latest attempt by the new administration to control coverage of its activities, sharply curtail the access of three news agencies that serve billions of readers around the world.
The AP filed Wednesday’s motion with U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, asking for relief given defendant’s refusal to obey his order last week. McFadden said the White House had violated the AP’s free speech by banning it from certain presidential events because Trump disagreed with the outlet’s decision not to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Wednesday. Leavitt is a defendant in the AP’s lawsuit, along with White House chief of staff Susan Wiles and her deputy, Taylor Budowich.
The AP’s lawsuit claimed that its First Amendment rights were violated by the White House blocking its reporters and photographers from covering Trump. McFadden ordered the administration to treat the AP as it does other news organizations.
Reframing who gets access to the president for questions
For many years, the independent White House Correspondents Association has run the pool for the limited space events, and each time it has included reporters from the wire services AP, Reuters and Bloomberg. One print reporter was also allowed, selected on a rotating basis from more than 30 news outlets.
The White House now says it will lump the three wire services with print reporters for two slots meaning roughly three dozen reporters will rotate for two regular slots. Wire services typically report and write stories that are used by different media outlets around the world.
Even with the rotation, the White House said Trumps press secretary shall retain day-to-day discretion to determine composition of the pool. The new policy says reporters will also be allowed in irrespective of the substantive viewpoint expressed by an outlet.
Seeing their own access cut back along with the AP’s, representatives from Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters also protested the new policy.
For decades, the daily presence of the wire services in the press pool has ensured that investors and voters across the United States and around the world can rely on accurate real-time reporting on what the president says and does, said Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. We deeply regret the decision to remove that permanent level of scrutiny and accountability.
In a statement, the APs Lauren Easton said the outlet was deeply disappointed that rather than restore the APs access, the White House instead chose restrictions over all of the wire services.
The wire services represent thousands of news organizations across the U.S. and the world over, said Easton, an AP spokeswoman. Our coverage is used by local newspapers and television stations in all 50 states to inform their communities.
The administrations actions continue to disregard the fundamental American freedom to speak without government control or retaliation, Easton said Tuesday night.
The WHCA said the administrations insistence on retaining control over who covers the president shows that it is unwilling to guarantee that it would not continue viewpoint discrimination. The government should not be able to control the independent media that covers it, said Eugene Daniels, the associations president.
More access for Trump-friendly media
Under Leavitt, the White House has given greater access to news outlets friendly to Trump. That was visible Tuesday, when the first reporter Leavitt addressed during a briefing asked two questions while also praising Trump policy.
At Mondays Oval Office meeting, Trump bristled at questions from CNNs Kaitlan Collins about a man deported to an El Salvador prison, at one point accusing CNN of hating our country. He made it a point to contrast her questions with a non-pointed one from another reporter.
Despite the occasional fireworks, Trump has made himself accessible to the media more than his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. Cramped-quarters events, particularly in the Oval Office, are some of his favorite places to talk rendering the new access policy all the more impactful.
The new policy advanced on Tuesday did not address access for photographers. At an earlier court hearing about the APs case, the outlets chief White House photographer, Evan Vucci, and correspondent Zeke Miller testified about how the ban has hurt the business of a news agency built to quickly get news and images to its customers.
The dispute stems from APs decision not to follow the presidents executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico, although AP style does cite Trumps wish that it be called the Gulf of America. McFadden agreed with APs argument that the government cannot punish the news organization for what it says for exercising its right to free speech.
The White House has argued that press access to the president is a privilege, not a right, that it should control much like it decides to whom Trump gives one-on-one interviews. In court papers filed last weekend, his lawyers signaled that even with McFaddens decision, the APs days of unchallenged access to open presidential events were over.
No other news organization in the United States receives the level of guaranteed access previously bestowed upon the AP, the administration argued. The AP may have grown accustomed to its favored status, but the Constitution does not require that such status endure in perpetuity.
The administration has appealed McFaddens ruling, and is scheduled to be in an appeals court on Thursday to argue that ruling should be put on hold until the merits of the case are fully decided, perhaps by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The administration has not curtailed AP access to Leavitts briefings over the past two months. It has blocked access to events in the East Room to White House-credentialed AP reporters until Tuesday, when one was allowed into an event that involved the Navy football team.
DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer
A colossal squid has been caught on camera for the first time in the deep sea by an international team of researchers steering a remotely operated submersible.
The sighting was announced Tuesday by the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
The squid filmed was a juvenile about 1 foot (30 centimeters) in length at a depth of 1,968 feet (600 meters) in the South Atlantic Ocean. Full-grown adult colossal squids, which scientists have uncovered from the bellies of whales and seabirds, can reach lengths up to 23 feet (7 meters) almost the size of a small fire truck.
The squid was spied last month near the South Sandwich Islands during an expedition to search for new sea life. Researchers waited to verify the species identification with other independent scientists before releasing the footage.
I really love that we have seen a young colossal squid first. This animal is so beautiful, said Kat Bolstad, a squid researcher at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, who helped confirm it.
Researchers are testing different cameras in hopes of catching an adult colossal squid, Bolstad said.
The young squid is almost entirely transparent, with thin arms. As adults, the squids lose this glassy appearance and become an opaque dark red or purple. When full grown, they are considered to be the world’s largest known invertebrates.
Christina Larson, AP science writer
AP video journalist Mustakim Hasnath contributed to this report.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Tesla‘s electric-vehicle registrations in California dropped 15.1% during the first quarter, industry data showed, signaling an accelerated decline and growing challenges for the Elon Musk-led automaker in its biggest U.S. market.
In California, often viewed as a bellwether for EV trends, Tesla’s share has fallen to 43.9% from 55.5% a year earlier, while brands such as Honda, Ford and GM’s Chevrolet have grown their footprint, according to the California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA).
Overall zero-emission vehicle sales in the state also rose 7.3% during the same period.
“An aging product lineup and backlash against Musk’s political initiatives are likely key factors for the decline in Tesla BEV market share,” the industry body said.
The company reported earlier this month its first-quarter sales globally fell 13% to the lowest in nearly three years, hurt by pushback against Musk, rising competition and as customers wait for a refresh of its bestselling Model Y.
The billionaire’s leadership of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has sparked widespread protests across the United States, with activists demonstrating against his role in federal workforce cuts and the cancellation of contracts funding global humanitarian programs.
Musk’s popularity has been declining among liberal voters, who have traditionally been more inclined to purchase electric vehicles, particularly in environmentally conscious markets such as California.
California accounts for nearly a third of Tesla’s sales in the U.S., according to Reuters calculations based on data from Cox Automotive and the California New Car Dealers Association.
The CNCDA also expects new vehicle registrations in the state to fall 2.3% from last year due to U.S. trade policies.
Model Y snags
While the Model Y remained the best-selling EV in the state, its sales plummeted about 30% in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier.
Tesla said earlier this month that retooling production lines for the refreshed Model Y at four of its factories resulted in several weeks of lost production during the first quarter.
Meanwhile, analysts attributed some of the drop in overall sales in the January-March period to customers waiting for cheaper versions of the refreshed Model Y crossover.
Investors will be closely watching Tesla’s earnings report on Tuesday for indications of whether the company will maintain its annual growth forecast despite the challenging quarter.
Akash Sriram, Reuters
With stock market charts resembling the contours of a roller-coaster ride in recent days, many Americans could be forgiven for eyeing their 401(k)s with a little concern.
Retirement savings are crucial to the financial well-being of millions of especially older people in the U.S., so the concern is understandable.
But just how worried should people be by market fluctuations? And just how big a hit do 401(k)s take when markets fall? The Conversation turned to Western Governors Universitys Ronald Premuroso, an expert in this area, for answers.
What is a 401(k)?
Simply put, a 401(k) is an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan in which employees contribute a portion of their compensation on a tax-deferred basis.
The employee is eligible at any age to contribute to a 401(k) plan and has the option to pay into these plans throughout their employment. Many employers match some or all of an employees contributions, making the plan even more attractive.
What about withdrawals?
Under Internal Revenue Service rules, someone with a 401(k) is required to start making monetary withdrawals from their plan when they reach age 73. Some people start withdrawing at an earlier age.
Someone with a 401(k) can withdraw funds from the plan early, and at any time. But the money amounts withdrawn will typically be deemed taxable income. In addition, those age 59 and a half and under will likely face a 10% penalty on the withdrawal, unless the employers plan allows for hardship distributions, early withdrawals or loans from your plan account.
The IRS has specific rules for these early withdrawals; if you find yourself in this situation, you should get help from a tax professional.
All withdrawals starting at age 73, which tax professionals call RMDs, are then taxable in retirement presumably at a lower tax rate than the employee was subject to while employed and working. So these withdrawals starting at age 73 can be a very tax-efficient way of financial planning, including personal income tax planning, for later in life, especially in ones retirement years.
Again, its important to get help from a tax professional to make sure you meet the IRS RMD dollar withdrawal requirements once you start withdrawing.
In calendar-year 2025, the most that an employee can contribute to a tax-deferred 401(k) plan annually is US$23,500, including the employers match. Super catch-up contributions are allowed for employees over the age of 50 to their employers 401(k) plan each year indexed to inflation. In 2025, super catch-up contributions allow individuals age 50 and older to contribute an additional $7,500 beyond the standard limit, bringing their total annual contribution to $31,000. For those turning age 60, 61, 62 or 63 in 2025, the SECURE Act 2.0 allows a higher catch-up contribution limit of $11,250, resulting in a total allowable contribution of $34,750 in 2025.
When and why did 401(k)s become popular?
Before 1978, retirement savings options were limited.
In 1935, Congress created the Social Security Retirement Plan. This was followed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which created individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, as a way for employees to save tax-deferred money for their retirement.
401(k) plans became popular with the passage of the Revenue Act of 1978 by Congress.
Congress saw 401(k) plans at that time as an alternative way to supplement Social Security benefits that all eligible Americans are entitled to receive upon retirement. In 1981, the IRS issued new rules and regulations allowing employees to fund their 401(k)s through payroll deductions. This significantly increased the number of employees contributing to their employers 401(k) plans.
As of September 2024, Americans held $8.9 trillion in 401(k) plans, according to the Investment Company Institute. A study published by the Pension Rights Center toward the end of 2023 using data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics concluded that 56% of all workers including private sector and state and local government workers participate in a workplace retirement plan. That equates to 145 million full- and part-time workers.
How are 401(k) plans affected by market rises and falls?
Contributions to a 401(k) are typically invested in a variety of financial instruments, including in the stock market.
Most 401(k) plans offer investment options with varying levels of risk, allowing employees to choose based on their personal comfort levels and financial goals.
Employers typically outsource the management of these 401(k) plans to third parties. Some of the largest companies managing 401(k) funds on behalf of employers and employees include Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Charles Schwab, to name just a few.
Because many of these investments are tied to the stock market, 401(k) balances can rise or fall with market fluctuations.
Should I be worried about the stock market tanking my 401(k)?
It depends on when you started making contributions, when you plan to retire and when you expect to start making withdrawals.
Employees with 401(k) accounts should only be worried about falling stocks if they need the money right now either for retirement living expenses or for other emergency reasons. If you dont need to take money out soon, theres usually no reason to panic. History has shown that markets can rebound quickly; short-term drops often dont signal long-term trends.
Over time, the stock market has experienced many periods of falling stock prices: the bursting of the internet bubble of 2000; the period after the events of 9/11; and the U.S. and global banking crisis of 2007-2010, to name but three.
But overall, over time, stock market returns have averaged 9% from 1994 to 2024, and this includes the periods of falling stock prices mentioned above.
So even if you are a baby boomer heading for retirement and your 401(k) has taken a hit in recent weeks, dont panic. Bear in mind the truism that stock markets can always go down as well as up.
History suggests that in the long run, depending upon your plans and timing for retirement, working together with a trusted financial adviser strategically with regard to your 401(k) retirement savings is a good approach, especially during periods like we have seen in recent weeks in the stock market.
This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice. Consult with a qualified financial adviser before making financial decisions.
Ronald Premuroso is an accounting instructor at the Western Governors University School of Business.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Some common business models can be described as B2C and B2B, which are business-to-consumer, and business-to-business, respectively. But now, get ready for B2AI, or business-to-AI.
Thats one of the potential disruptions on the horizon, identified in a new report from Visa and the Institute for the Future. The report digs into the numerous ways that AI will transform commerce, and to some degree personal finance, including how consumers will likely lasso AI for their own meansand how businesses will, in turn, develop AI agents to communicate and correspond with consumers AIs.
While many people likely havent adopted personal AI tools yet, theyre on the market. And similar to how businesses adopted search engine optimization, or SEO, strategies to attract customers, the next technological wave will see those same businesses deploying similar strategies to appeal to AIs.
Itll be the new SEOinstead of optimizing for Google, youre optimizing for the perception of what AI agents are suggesting, says Dylan Hendricks, director of the 10-year forecast program for the Institute for the Future. A lot of companies and organizations have teams that are looking at AI and thinking about creating bots, but theyre not thinking about how everybodys going to have bots. And as people encounter an onslaught of AI bots trying to talk to them, theyll need their own bots to work to shield them, and act as a vetting system.
Basically, therell be so much AI information being pushed toward consumers, that theyll need discerning AIs to tell them whats actually relevant. That will birth new B2AI strategies.
And yes, itll be weird at first. But there was also a time when search engines were weird, and strategies to game them were seen as strange, too. All of it is commonplace today, as weve grown accustomed to the technology and the strategies around them have been normalized. And some are saying we’ll likely have a similar, albeit faster, developing relationship with AI.
That fast pace is surprising even to the experts, says Rajat Taneja, Visas president of technology, who says that Visas been working with AI in some capacity for more than three decades. The speed at which this has developed is something we couldnt have predicted, he says, adding also that despite all these advancements, were still in the hunt-and-peck part of the AI tech cycleit’s not as seamless as wed like it to be.
Taneja predicts that personal AI assistants will likely be ubiquitous within a handful of years as the technology improves and becomes more obviously useful, and more people grow accustomed to using it. That, in turn, will spur companies and organizations to adjust their strategies, appealing not only to human consumers, but those AI assistants as well.
Hendricks says that the transition wont be seamless, but in a few years, itll be hard to imagine our lives without AI. Its like discovering fire, he says. Theres a period where people are just burning down their houses until they learn to use it to cook and heat their homes. Hendricks thinks that were still in the burn down our houses phase of learning to use AI assistants, but its only a matter of time before the upsides become obvious to most people.
