Stellantis, the world’s fourth-largest carmaker, named Italian auto executive Antonio Filosa as its new chief executive officer Wednesday, replacing Carlos Tavares, who resigned under pressure last year.Filosa, who is currently Stellantis’ chief operating officer for the Americas and chief quality officer, takes the post effective June 23, when he is expected to announce his leadership team.The move returns the running of Stellantis, created from the 2021 merger of France’s PSA Peugeot with Italian-US carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, to Italian hands after three years under Tavares, who previously served as Peugeot’s top executive. John Elkann, heir to the Fiat-founding Agnelli family, remains chairman.Elkann praised Filosa’s “deep understanding of our company, including its people, who he views as our core strength, and of our industry.”Robert Peugeot said the board’s choice was unanimous, calling Filosa a “natural choice” due to his leadership track record and knowledge of the business and “the complex dynamics facing our industry.”Filosa joined Fiat in 1999, spending much of his career in Latin America where held positions from plant manager to head of purchasing and later chief operating officer. He was credited with making the Fiat brand the regional market leader and boosting the market share of the Peugeot, Citroen, Ram and Jeep brands.He was promoted to chief operating officer of the Americas in 2024 in an executive shakeup as sales slumped in North America, its main source of profits.Stellantis has been lagging globally in the transition to electric powertrains and facing stiff Chinese competition. Analysts also have said Stellantis, with 14 brands, is yoked by too many under-performers, including Maserati and Chrysler.
Colleen Barry, Associated Press
I can tell you the exact moment when a new browser called Deta Surf clicked for me.I was getting a demo from Deta cofounder Max Eusterbrock, and he showed me how Surf can take screenshots of web pages and add them to a digital pinboard. But unlike a standard screenshot, this one contained a link to jump back to the web page it came from, and its content was searchable from Surfs menu system.Aha, I thought. Too often, Ill open dozens of tabs on a certain topic, only to forget which page had the quote or chart I was looking for. Surf solves that problem by making it easier to revisit what youve researched. Its as if a browser was built around the idea of bookmarking, instead of the other way around.Its still early days for Deta Surf, which is launching a public alpha today after months of being invite-only. The software has all kinds of rough edges and can feel like its trying to do too much, and theres also no mobile app and no business model yet. Id caution against getting too invested in it.But as a tool for short-term research that involves wrangling a lot of web page content, its one of the most interest concepts Ive seen.
Beyond basic bookmarksOn the surface, Deta Surf borrows some ideas from other power user browsers such as Vivaldi, Arc, and SigmaOS. It supports both vertical or horizontal tabs, and you can arrange tabs into separate workspaces, which Surf calls Contexts.[Screenshot: Jared Newman]But Surf also lets you save web pages to a My Stuff menu, which is a powerful spin on the standard browser bookmarks folder. Every tab has a button for saving the page to My Stuff, but you can also use Surfs screenshot tool ((nvoked with Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+1) to save snippets of web pages with your own annotations.The My Stuff menu supports more than just web page content. You can also import images and PDF files from your computer, and theres a built-in notepad for adding freeform thoughts.Everything you save to My Stuff is searchable, and not just by title. Surf also indexes the full content of web pages along with the text of screenshots and PDF files, so you find specific words or phrases. The result is a feeling of finally being able to close inactive browser tabs, because Surf provides an easier way to reference them later.My favorite organizational feature, though, is the Desktop view, where you can rearrange and resize any the items youve saved to My Stuff alongside any number of sticky text notes. Its a neat way to visualize all the different things youve been researching on a single canvas.Yes, of course theres also AILike lots of other startups, Deta is finding ways to bring AI into its browser as well.Some AI features are similar to those of other AI-powered browsers. Theres an Ask this Tab button that can summarize and answer questions about the current page (including YouTube videos). You can highlight text on web pages to translate, rephrase, or ask follow-up questions.[Screenshot: Jared Newman]The more interesting use of AI involves interacting with what youve saved in My Stuff. By clicking the Ask Context button, you can ask Surf to summarize details from across your documents or ask for supplemental information.These AI queries then feed back into Surfs notepad feature, essentially helping to organize or build upon your research. Its kind of like what Google is doing with NotebookLM, but built around what youre already looking up in your browser.[Screenshot: Jared Newman]Eusterbrock also showed me a more ambitious Surflets feature, which can turn data from web pages into interactive visuals. If you were comparing web browsers, for instance, you could open up a bunch of pages that explain various browser features, then ask Surf to create an interactive chart comparing them.Expect things to breaka lotWhile Deta Surf is brimming with smart ideas about what a desktop browser could do, I wouldnt say it all comes together the way it should.For one thing, its just a lot to take in. Between the My Stuff menu, the Desktop, and all your open browser tabs, youve essentially got three different organizational surfaces to work with, and they multiply each time you create a new Context. My gut feeling is that the Desktop and My Stuff features should be streamlined into a single menu system for organizing and managing your research.[Image: Deta Surf]Surfs AI features can be cumbersome to use as well. Deta has stuck AI buttons into seemingly every corner of its interface, but they all flow back to a notepad that opens in a sidebar menu. Ive continually run into issues clicking the correct button to generate an AI response, and the latest build seems to have hidden the option to switch between large language models.The biggest issue, though, is that a lot of things just dont work properly. In my time with Surf, Ive dealt with disappearing bookmarks, information that appears in the wrong Context, and web searches that get truncated after typing them in the address bar.Surfs AI answers are even less reliable. For instance, I asked the browser to provide links to YouTube backing tracks for a list of sheet music in a Google Drive folder, and none of its generated links worked. Ive also had responses that dont accurately reflect whats in my notes and appear to be hallucinated, and Ive yet to successfully generate a single Surflet on my own.Meanwhile, I cant bring in my workflow from other browsers, because Surf doesnt work with most browser extensions (password managers are the exception) and doesnt support bookmarklets. The lack of a mobile app means I cant send pages into Surf from my phone, either.Deta is clearly moving fast and breaking things in search of what sticks, and thats totally understandable for an alpha product, but it makes for rough sailing if youre trying to use it as an everyday browser.
What to expectEusterbrock acknowledges that a lot of what comprises Surf today is subject to change. Eventually the company wants to charge for things like cross-platform sync and collaboration, but it plans to spend the rest of the year nailing down the core product.Deta had already shifted gears a couple of times before developing Surf. The Berlin-based startup began as a free web app deployment platform for indie developers, then tried spinning that product into a wildly ambitious online operating system with its own set of interconnected apps, called Deta Space, which raised around $3 million, according to Pitchbook.[Screenshot: Jared Newman]It was a neat idea, but its parallel universe of apps lacked immediate appeal to end users, so Deta pivoted to building a browser instead. The core idea is still that you should be able to search and contextualize across your entire online workflow, but the browser allows Deta to work with existing web apps and sites instead of trying to build its own. (Deta killed off Space and deleted users data last year.)The resulting product is more immediately compelling than Detas previous efforts, but it comes with the same risk of getting shut down if things dont work out, and there are few examples of startups turning wildly ambitious browser into thriving businesses. The most notable startup in the space, The Browser Company, gave up on developing its ambitious Arc browser for desktops and is now pivoting to something much simpler.Still, I hope Deta Surf proves the exception to the rule. As a way to actually make sense of your browser tabs and the research you do around them, theres nothing else like it.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday signed into law a bill requiring Apple and Alphabet’s Google to verify the age of users of their app stores, putting the second-most-populous U.S. state at the center of a debate over whether and how to regulate smartphone use by children and teenagers.
The law, effective on January 1, requires parental consent to download apps or make in-app purchases for users aged below 18. Utah was the first U.S. state to pass a similar law earlier this year, and U.S. lawmakers have also introduced a federal bill.
Another Texas bill, passed in the state’s House of Representatives and awaiting a Senate vote, would restrict social media apps to users over 18.
Age limits and parental consent for social media apps are among the few areas of wide U.S. consensus, with a Pew Research poll in 2023 finding that 81% of Americans support requiring parental consent for children to create social media accounts and 71% support age verification before using social media.
The effect of social media on children’s mental health has become a growing global concern, with dozens of U.S. states suing Meta Platforms and the U.S. Surgeon General issuing an advisory on safeguards for children. Australia last year banned social media for children under 16, with other countries such as Norway also considering new rules.
How to implement age restrictions has caused a conflict between Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, and Apple and Google, which own the two dominant U.S. app stores.
Meta, along with social media companies Snap and X, applauded the passage of the bill.
“Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child’s age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way. The app store is the best place for it, and more than one-third of US states have introduced bills recognizing the central role app stores play,” the companies said.
Kathleen Farley, vice president of litigation for the Chamber of Progress, a group backed by Apple and Alphabet, said the Texas law is likely to face legal challenges on First Amendment grounds.
“A big path for challenge is that it burdens adult speech in attempting to regulate children’s speech,” Farley told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “I would say there are arguments that this is a content-based regulation singling out digital communication.”
Child online safety groups that backed the Texas bill have also long argued for app store age verification, saying it is the only way to give parents effective control over children’s use of technology.
“The problem is that self-regulation in the digital marketplace has failed, where app stores have just prioritized the profit over safety and rights of children and families,” Casey Stefanski, executive director for the Digital Childhood Alliance, told Reuters.
Apple and Google opposed the Texas bill, saying it imposes blanket requirements to share age data with all apps, even when those apps are uncontroversial.
“If enacted, app marketplaces will be required to collect and keep sensitive personal identifying information for every Texan who wants to download an app, even if its an app that simply provides weather updates or sports scores,” Apple said in a statement.
Google and Apple each has its own proposal that involves sharing age range data only with apps that require it, rather than all apps.
“We see a role for legislation here,” said Kareem Ghanem, senior director of government affairs and public policy at Google, told Reuters. “It’s just got to be done in the right way, and it’s got to hold the feet of Zuckerberg and the social media companies to the fire, because it’s the harm to kids and teens on those sites that’s really inspired people to take a closer look here and see how we can all do better.”
Stephen Nellis, Reuters
Shares in Americas publicly traded movie theater chains surged yesterday, the first day of trading after the Memorial Day holiday. Its a holiday weekend that saw moviegoers flock to theaters in droves, snapping up tickets and leading to the best Memorial Day weekend box office in history. Heres what you need to know about the Memorial Day box office and its impact on shares in movie theater companies.
Memorial Day box office was the best on record
Movies generated a record $326 million at the Memorial Day box office this weekend, a period that ran from Friday, May 23, to Monday, May 26. That four-day haul record was largely fueled by two films.
The first was the live-action remake of Disneys Lilo & Stitch, which took in a staggering $192.7 million domestically during the four-day period, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Thats a historic recordthe most any film has ever made over the Memorial Day period.
Coming in second place was Tom Cruises latest installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Paramounts Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning took in $79 million domestically over the four-day period, a record for the franchise.
In total, Lilo & Stitch made $361.3 million globally during the four-day period, and Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning took in $191 million globally.
But while executives at Disney and Paramount are no doubt lauding the record box office haul for the holiday weekend, executives at Americas publicly traded movie theater chains are also celebratingand so are investors.
AMC, Cinemark, and Marcus shares surge
Thanks to the record-breaking box office haul over the Memorial Day weekend, shares in movie theater chains in the United States surged on Tuesday, the first trading day after the holiday.
Iconic meme stock AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC), as well as Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK), and The Marcus Corporation (NYSE: MCS) all saw their shares jump yesterday.
AMC: up over 23% to $4.01
CNK: up over 3.8% to $33.69
MCS: up over 10% to $18.71
Given how theater attendance has struggled since the pandemic, its little wonder that the stellar Memorial Day weekend period at the box office is giving investors cause for celebration.
Many in the industry have worried in recent years that the pandemic triggered a shift in audience habits away from movie theaters and toward their large televisions at home, particularly as streaming has become the de facto king of entertainment.
Yet, the weekend box office suggests that if you give audiences movies that resonate with them, they will show up with their wallets at the theater instead of waiting to watch the films at home.
This record-setting Memorial Day weekend underscores the long-standing truth that when exceptional films meet unmatched theatrical experiences, audiences respond in a big way, AMC Adam Aron said in a press release.
The release also noted that AMC didn’t just see a record-breaking box office. The chain said it also generated record food and beverage revenue this weekend. Concessions, such as popcorn and soda, are a major driver of profits at theaters.
Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble also reported records at the chain, noting in a press release, “Cinemark delivered a remarkable over-performance, breaking numerous records across box office and concession revenues.
And Greg Marcus, CEO of Marcus Corporation, said the company has high hopes for the rest of 2025, too. “Once again, huge audiences came out for the experience of enjoying these films on the big screen in theatres, Marcus noted. We expect the momentum to continue throughout the summer with an exciting slate of films ahead.
That slate of films includes the highly anticipated Superman reboot from Warner Bros; the latest Marvel movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, from Disney; and Universals newest installment of the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World Rebirth.
Chris Rogers, Instacart’s current chief business officer, is taking over as the delivery giant’s next CEO, the company announced on Wednesday.
Rogers, who has worked at Instacart since 2019, will take the helm from Fidji Simo on August 15. Simo, who ushered the company through a successful market debut (stock prices are up 53% since its 2023 IPO) after taking the top spot in 2021, will become CEO of applications at OpenAI.
“We chose Chris because the company needs a leader who understands all our partners deeply, has immense operational experience, and can mobilize teams around our vision,” Simo wrote in a note to employees. “Chris knows this company. He helped shape it. And I know Chris will carry our mission forward with conviction, care, and ambition.”
Simo previously told employees the top role would be filled by a member of Instacart’s management team. In his current role, Instacart said Rogers “oversees all aspects of the companys commercial operationsincluding retailer relationships and expansions, ad sales and R&D, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, Instacart Business, and Instacart Healthwith a focus on driving growth at the intersection of brands, retailers, and technology.”
Prior to joining Instacart, Rogers spent nearly 11 years at Apple as the managing director for Apple Canada. He also led Apples carrier channel business and the consumer retail business in Canada.
Rogers will be tasked with continuing to grow orders despite ongoing macroeconomic concerns. The company reported first quarter financial results earlier this month, posting strong order growth and total revenue. However, its burgeoning advertising segment where food companies pay for placement in the app could see problems as new tariffs and regulations impact the ad spend.
Rogers said in a blog post that the company’s strategy and vision wouldn’t change.
“Our opportunity is massive, and Im excited to lead this team as we build on our momentum and take Instacart forward,” Rogers said.
After back-to-back explosions, SpaceX launched its mega rocket Starship again on Tuesday evening, but fell short of the main objectives when the spacecraft tumbled out of control and broke apart.The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket blasted off on its ninth demo from Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site at the southern tip of Texas. Residents voted this month to organize as an official city.CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX hoped to release a series of mock satellites following liftoff, but that got nixed because the door failed to open all the way. Then the spacecraft began spinning as it skimmed space toward an uncontrolled landing in the Indian Ocean.SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” or burst apart. “Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test,” the company said in an online statement.Musk noted in a post on X it was a “big improvement” from the two previous demos, which ended in flaming debris over the Atlantic. Despite the latest setback, he promised a faster launch pace moving forward, with a Starship soaring every three to four weeks for the next three flights.It was the first time one of Musk’s Starships intended for moon and Mars travel flew with a recycled booster. There were no plans to catch the booster with giant chopsticks back at the launch pad, with the company instead pushing it to its limits. Contact with the booster was lost at one point, and it slammed into the Gulf of Mexico in pieces as the spacecraft continued toward the Indian Ocean.Then the spacecraft went out of control, apparently due to fuel leaks.“Not looking great with a lot of our on-orbit objectives for today,” said SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot. The company had been looking to test the spacecraft’s heat shield during a controlled reentry.Communication ceased before the spacecraft came down, and SpaceX ended its webcast soon afterward.The previous two Starships never made it past the Caribbean. The demos earlier this year ended just minutes after liftoff, raining wreckage into the ocean. No injuries or serious damage were reported, although airline travel was disrupted. The Federal Aviation Administration last week cleared Starship for another flight, expanding the hazard area and pushing the liftoff outside peak air travel times.Besides taking corrective action and making upgrades, SpaceX modified the latest spacecraft’s thermal tiles and installed special catch fittings. This one was meant to sink in the Indian Ocean, but the company wanted to test the add-ons for capturing future versions back at the pad, just like the boosters.NASA needs SpaceX to make major strides over the next year with Starship the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built in order to land astronauts back on the moon. Next year’s moonshot with four astronauts will fly around the moon, but will not land. That will happen in 2027 at the earliest and require a Starship to get two astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface and back off again.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer
Two romantasy authors have publicly defended their use of artificial intelligence after being caught with AI-generated prompts left in their published works. While their readers are far from impressed, the writers insist that it does not take away from their craft.
Excerpts from novels published by K.C. Crowne and Lena McDonald have been spreading across Reddit, Goodreads, and Bluesky, after readers discovered revision notes that read like ChatGPT and cues that reference the style of other authors embedded in the copy.
“I’ve rewritten the passage to align more with J. Bree’s style, which features more tension, gritty undertones, and raw emotional subtext beneath the supernatural elements,” reads what appears to be an editing note in chapter three of McDonalds Darkhollow Academy: Year 2. (J Bree is also an author of romance and fantasy novels.)
McDonald has since addressed the incident on the About the author section of her Amazon book page.
“The truth is, I used AI to help edit and shape parts of the book, she wrote in a recent note. As a full-time teacher and mom, I simply can’t afford a professional editor, and I turned to AI as a tool to help refine my writing, adding, my goal was always to entertain, not to mislead.
Harmless brainstorming or active deception?
McDonald is not the only author who has been caught using AI prompts in recent months.
A top-ranked author on Amazon who writes under the name K.C. Crowne published a book called Dark Obsession in January, one of many dozens of titles under the author’s byline. However, it wasnt long before screenshots from the mafia-romance novel began spreading with what appeared to be an AI prompt in the middle of the page.
Certainly! Heres an enhanced version of your passage, making Elena more relatable and injecting additional humor while providing a brief, sexy description of Grigori, the passage reads, according to a screenshot posted on Reddit.
Crowne has seemingly responded to the accusations via her personal assistants Facebook account.
Ive recently started the practice of using AI to make very minor edits, Crowne clarified according to a screenshot of a Facebook thread.
Crowne also wrote in an email to Futurism: “Earlier this year, I made an honest mistake. I accidentally uploaded the wrong draft file, which included an AI prompt. That error was entirely my responsibility, and that’s why I made the tough decision to address it publicly.”
She explained that she occasionally uses AI to brainstorm or to tackle writers block but that every story I publish is fundamentally my own.” She also added, “I only use AI-assisted tools in ways that help me improve my craft while fully complying with the terms of service of publishing platforms, to the best of my ability.”
Fast Company has reached out to Crowne for comment. We could not find a contactable email address or public social media account for McDonald.
New territory and fresh questions in an old industry
These incidents add fuel to the fire that has been raging about AIs infiltration of creative fields.
When it comes to the major players in publishing, their position on AI is tentative. Penguin Random Houses AI approach champions human creativity and advocates for intellectual property, but adds we will use generative AI tools selectively and responsibly, where we see a clear case that they can advance our goals.
Meanwhile, Hachette UK opposes machine creativity but encourages responsible experimentation with AI for operational uses and recognises the benefits of remaining curious and embracing technology.
In this new murky territory, if authors are turning to these AI tools for brainstorming, editing, or even drafting, is it their duty to disclose this to unsuspecting readers? Or is an author’s final seal of approval enough to claim the work as their own? Thats provided they have proofread the work and deleted any giveaways.
In my twenties, I was the kind of employee managers loved and therapists worried about.
I worked late without being asked. I answered emails during vacation and treated 11 p.m. messages like asteroid-headed-for-Earth emergencies. My identity was stitched to my output, and I wore burnout like a badge of honor.
Somewhere along the way, many of us signed this invisible contract stating that success demands sacrifice. For us, time, health, and relationships were all fair game in the pursuit of professional validation. But now, more people are realizing its a contract they want to break: According to Gallups most recent global report, employee engagement is down two percentage points to just 21%, and manager engagement saw an even more dramatic drop.
An alternative to quiet quitting
For me, becoming a parent made me realize that powering through was not just hard, but unsustainable. My time was no longer mine to give away so freely. I started making small changes like declining late meetings, muting notifications after 6 p.m., and blocking Friday afternoons for deep work so I could log off fully over the weekend. Each change felt like a micro-rebellion against my internalized idea of what defines a great professional.
Many employees today just make these shifts subtlysomewhere between 20% and 40% of the workforce are quiet quitters, according to data from McKinsey and the Understanding Societyand part of me was tempted to just pull back quietly, too.
Instead, I decided to swing the other way. I got louder about what I needed. I told colleagues when I was logging off, and then actually logged off. I pushed back on two-day timelines and offered alternatives that protected both the quality of my work and my sanity. Most importantly, I stopped padding my newly found boundaries with apologies.
This approachwhat Ive come to call loud livingisnt about doing less. Its about showing up better, with focus and clarity. It isnt about less ambition, but ambition that doesnt cost you everything else.
Heres how anyone can move from burnout-fueled achievement to sustainable success, without even having to be quiet about it.
1. Redefine Success for Yourself First
Traditional success metrics like promotions, title bumps, and glowing performance reviews are easy to chase because theyre visible and externally validating. But I realized that those wins dont mean a lot if they come with a side of chronic exhaustion and missing important things in my personal life.
I started redefining success on my own terms: Did I get the important work done and make it to storytime? Did I show up fully without sacrificing my health, sleep, or relationships? Measuring success this way didnt make me less ambitiousit made me more intentional. And it gave me a reason to protect my time as fiercely as I used to chase someone elses version of achievement.
2. Tag Your Calendar Transparently
I used to write busy as a default time block, thinking it made me look like I wasnt slacking but having things other than my job responsibilities on my calendar. But busy doesnt communicate priorities.
Swapping it for things like deep work, school pickup, or thinking time not only made my day more manageable, but gave colleagues insight into how I work best. It signaled that all timenot just meetingsis valuable, and that caregiving or creative work deserve just as much space as Zoom calls.
Transparency in your calendar builds trust. And when people see you respecting your own time, theyre more likely to respect it, too.
3. Clearly Communicate Personal Nonnegotiables
It still feels moderately uncomfortable telling my team, Im not available before 9 a.m. because thats school drop-off. I expected eye rolls or assumptions that I was less committed.
Naming nonnegotiables doesnt mean youre rigid. It means youre clear on what keeps you grounded, and youre modeling a healthier way to mesh life and work without hiding behind vague time blocks and secret stress.
4. Put Up Your OOO Message, Even If Youre Not on Vacation
Out of office replies used to feel like something reserved for work travel and time off. But I think we can all agree that life doesnt wait for vacation. When I started using OOO messages for moments like caring for a sick kid and going offline to reset, I noticed something powerful: people responded with understanding, not judgment.
By expanding whats worthy of an OOO message, we start the process to normalize that time away is not always tied to beaches and life milestones like weddings. Sometimes its about boundaries, bandwidth, and being human.
5. Ask Your Team (and Yourself) the Tough Questions
Worklife alignment starts with curiosity, not just policies. What does someone really need to feel present at work and at home? Whats the thing they never want to miss, or the time of day when theyre truly in flow?
These arent just nice-to-know details, but critical inputs to help teams collaborate effectively and do their best work. By asking these questions not just as a manager, but as a teammate, and answering them for ourselves we start treating each person as a whole human, not just a job title. This kind of clarity reduces burnout, builds empathy, and makes it easier to plan work that honors priorities and the people.
Normalize having honest conversations around personal priorities and boundaries. Managers and teammates alike can ask:
What are your personal nonnegotiables?
What time of day do you work best?
Whats one thing you want to protect weekly?
What do you never want to miss?
6. Practice Saying No Without Apologizing
If you were raised in hustle culture, saying no can feel like a big ol failure or make you seem weak. For years, I padded every boundary with Im so sorry followed by justifications.
But over time, I realized that being clear about my limits wasnt disrespectful. It was actually responsible, both for myself and my team. Saying, I cant take this on right now, but heres when I can revisit based on whats on my plate, is honest and professional.
The Boundary-Filled Future of Work
Worklife balance may not be a universal reality. But worklife alignmenta career that adapts to your life, not erases itis worth building toward. Is this realistic for everyone? Not always. Some roles require reactivity, and others rely on client schedules, shift work, or global time zones.
But even in those cases, we can normalize transparency over perfection. Being clear about bandwidth, boundaries, and priorities helps teams operate more effectively andwith more empathy. And, we could all use a bit more empathy. Parents and non-parents alike.
We need to start treating boundaries as a performance tool, not a privilege.
Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Companys workplace advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer your biggest and most pressing workplace questions.
Q: What should I do if I think my coworkers are gossiping about me?A: In past columns Ive said that much of office life can feel like high school, and this is the ultimate example.
This is a situation that feels awful but that you have little control over. So while you cant control other people, you can control your own actions and reactions. Here are a few things you can do:
Dont engage in negative gossip yourself
“Gossip is an important part of human communication,” says Jason Morgan, vice president of behavioral intelligence at Aware. Its a way that people build relationships, feel more connected, and help soothe their anxiety. In other words, we are social animals that need to talk to each other and, often, about each other. But that doesnt mean that the content of our gossip has to be vicious or hurtful.You dont need to bring someone down to bring yourself up. If you think your coworkers are talking negatively about you, your first step should be to evaluate your own gossiping tendencies. You’re never going to stop people from talking, but the more negativity you put out into the world, the more thats likely to come back to you.
Use gossip as a force for good
Good gossip is beneficial to everyones well being. Fast Company contributor and behavioral scientist Art Markman points out that gossip can bring people together or it can create factions. Lead by example and start the kind of gossip that makes people feel better.
When we celebrate other peoples successes and positive life events, we are bringing our community together, Markman explains. When we let team members know about a sad experience in the life of a colleague, it can create outpourings of sympathy and attempts to help. These are quite positive uses of gossip that can improve the overall sense of community.
Deal with it directly
If trying to use office gossip as a force for good isnt working and your coworkers are still saying negative things about you, you need to decide if its worth intervening. If the gossip is annoying but ignorable, then do your best to turn the other cheek. If its impacting your daily well-being, you have a few choices:1. Confront it with humor. Sometimes taking a lighter approach might be more effective than an awkward conversation. For example if you overhear two colleagues whispering about how you are a know-it-all, you can say something like, oh, tell me about itthat Kate, shes a real pill! That will shame them enough to either stop their gossip, or at least be more discreet.2. Take it as feedback. You can take a more mature approach and view the content of their gossip as feedback and consider some behavior changes. (Maybe you do interrupt too much?)
3. Have an uncomfortable conversation. If you’re feeling brave enough you can confront the gossip directly. After all, we arent in high school anymore and hopefully in the years since youve gained some self-assuredness. You can start it off with something like Ive heard you and Dan talking about me and I just want to let you know that Id love to hear your feedback directly.4. Talk to your boss. This is generally the type of problem you can handle yourself, but if it rises to the level of creating a toxic work environment, you can get your boss involved. Just make sure you’ve already tried to take some steps to mitigate it yourself.
Want more about office gossip? Here you go:
Three steps to end office gossip
How work gossip has changed in the age of hybrid work
How to make office gossip your ally
This is when gossip can be healthy in the workplace
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Last month, in an address to investors, D.R. Horton CEO Paul Romanowski said the spring 2025 selling season is getting off to a slower-than-usual start for the nation’s largest homebuilder.
This years spring selling season started slower than expected as potential homebuyers have been more cautious due to continued affordability constraints and declining consumer confidence, Romanowski said on the company’s earnings call.
It isnt just D.R. Horton.
“Demand at the start of this springs selling season was more muted than what we have seen historically, despite a healthy level of traffic in our communities,” wrote Jeffrey Mezger, CEO of KB Home, in the companys Q1 2025 earnings report. “In mid-February, we took steps to reposition our communities to offer the most compelling value, and buyers responded favorably to these adjustments.”
Last quarter, Lennar spent the equivalent of 13% of home sales on buyer incentivesup from 1.5% in Q2 2022 at the height of the pandemic housing boom. A 13% incentive on a $400,000 home translates to $52,000 in incentives.
This softer housing demand is causing unsold inventory to tick up. Indeed, since the pandemic housing boom fizzled out, the number of unsold completed U.S. new single-family homes has been rising:
April 2018: 61,000
April 2019: 77,000
April 2020: 78,000
April 2021: 33,000
April 2022: 34,000
April 2023: 69,000
April 2024: 89,000
April 2025: 117,000
The April figure (117,000 unsold completed new homes) published last week is the highest level since July 2009 (126,000).
Lets take a closer look at the data to better understand what this could mean.
ResiClubs Finished Homes Supply Index puts the number of unsold completed new single-family homes into historic context.
The index is one simple calculation: The number of unsold completed U.S. new single-family homes divided by the annualized rate of U.S. single-family housing starts.
A higher index score indicates a softer national new construction market with greater supply slack, while a lower index score signifies a tighter new construction market with less supply slack.
If you look at unsold completed single-family new builds as a share of single-family housing starts (see chart below), it still shows we’ve gained slack; however, it puts us closer to pre-pandemic 2019 levels than the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis.
While the U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t give us a greater market-by-market breakdown on these unsold new builds, we have a good idea where they are based on where total active inventory homes for sale (including existing) has spiked above pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Most of those areas are in the Sun Belt around the Gulf.
Some builders are experiencing pricing pressure, particularly in major housing markets like Florida and Texas, where resale inventory remains significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.
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Big picture: Theres greater slack in the new-construction market now than a few years ago, giving buyers some leverage in certain markets to negotiate better deals with homebuilders.
