The plight of the middle manager has taken a turn for the worse since the pandemic, leaving many in the role prone to burnout as they juggle competing expectations with limited support from their employers. Managers were already tasked with addressing low morale and absorbing additional work as companies have been hit with layoffs in recent yearsbut now a number of employers are more pointedly culling their ranks, too.
A dwindling force
Amazon is reportedly cutting thousands of middle managers by the end of this month, following in the footsteps of other tech companies like Meta and Google that have sought to flatten their workforces. Additionally, Gartner analysts estimate that as employers rely more heavily on artificial intelligence, 20% of companies are likely to cut more than half their middle manager roles.
Yet the latest edition of Deloittes annual Human Capital Trends Report finds that managers remain a crucial element of the workforce, even as many of them are struggling to manage their workloads. According to the reportwhich polled nearly 10,000 leaders and compiled input from manager-specific surveysmanagers spend almost 40% of their time on administrative tasks or putting out fires on a day-to-day basis. Just 15% of their time is spent on long-term strategic thinking, and another 13% on developing their direct reports.
More than a third of managers reported feeling like they were not sufficiently prepared to handle the people management and leadership aspect of their jobs, and that their company had not given them the tools they needed to perform.
The future of middle managers
As meQuilibrium CEO Jan Bruce recently wrote in Fast Company, this could be the year we see a manager crashand companies may not be equipped to deal with the fallout. The Deloitte report noted that 40% of bosses surveyed said their mental health suffered after they took on managerial duties. Whats more, younger employees may not be ready to step up as managers burn out or step away from their roles; in surveys, Gen Z workers have expressed little desire to become managers themselves.
Companies seem aware of the challenges facing middle managers, not to mention the fact that their jobs may need to evolve accordingly. But that doesnt mean theyre taking appropriate action to better support these employees or reevaluate what their function should be in todays workforce. Per Deloittes report, nearly three-quarters of employers said they understood the importance of revamping the role of managers, but only 7% claimed to be making meaningful progress to address the issue.
The impact on team morale
While cutting middle managers may seem like an efficient move during times of belt-tightening, taking that approach can leave their reports feeling adrift and may even reduce their autonomy by enabling senior leadership to wield more decision-making power.
The Deloitte report posits that one of the most important facets of a managers job is to coach and develop the employees who report to them: In fact, 67% of employees claimed that their manager knows best how to motivate them at work.
Restaurant diners can be a sticky-fingered bunch. Who hasnt been tempted to slip a particularly nice cocktail glass or a tiny saltshaker into their bag after lunch?
But as dining out gets more expensive, more people seem determined to get their moneys worth, swiping everything from cups and plates to steak knives and even cheese graters. And not only are they getting away with it, theyre proudly flaunting their loot online.
In a viral video with more than 900,000 views, one creator boldly holds up a stolen cheese grater and asks, “What’s the best thing you’ve ever stolen from a restaurant?”
@sovilay And i use it all the time #fyp #foryourpage #whatsthebestthing #pasta #cheese original sound – sov.
Rather than backlash, the comments section reads like a confessional. Spoons. little baby spoons. from every restaurant. every time. I can’t stop, wrote one user. I need to step up my game. I just have little sauce containers, added another.
For some, the habit has turned into a full-blown collection. In another video, a TikToker proudly displays a stash of stolen bowls, cutlery, jugs, and glasses. I really enjoy these – it’s why I have so many, she says of her small black soy sauce bowls. That’s my collection, she concludes cheerfully. I am going to be getting more soon.
@clairetalking lmk what i should get next #steal #restaurant #fyp original sound – claire
Some restaurants are leaning in to the joke. Upscale London restaurant Sexy Fish stamps the bottom of its chopstick holders with a label that reads: “Stolen from Sexy Fish.” Another London eatery, the Ivy Asia, marks its fish-shaped table ornaments with a similar disclaimer: “Stolen from The Ivy Asia.”
But not everyone is laughing. Creator YoungKaren called out the trend as a clear case of “normalized theft,” saying that even otherwise normal people seem to pocket items without considering the impactespecially on smaller businesses. “If I was sitting with you and you stole something, I would tell the waiter on you,” she warned. “Even if you’re my friend, I still would.”
@youngkaren_official I would 100% tattletale #youngkaren #dailyrant #storytime original sound – youngkaren_official
Anyone whos worked in or run a small business knows how fast those harmless thefts add up. Replacing stolen dishes, cutlery, and glassware isnt just annoyingits expensive. And ultimately, those costs are passed on to other diners. So while that copper mug might look great in your home bar, just remember: Someone else is paying for it.
We live in a world that seems to get busier and busier! Not only do we have our daily work tasks but we also have more meetings, longer commutes, and more interactions with more people in more locations than at any time in the history of work.
In addition to the many real and present external distractions, there are also internal obstacles to great listening. Our internal worlds can be loud. At times, they are a blaring noise of emotion, attitude, and motives that can make it impossible for us to give others our full attention.
As two positive psychology experts, weve identified six of the most common internal barriers that can interfere with your ability to listen well, and developed a framework of six “radical listening” skills that can help you have better conversations and build better relationships.
Six barriers that prevent you from listening well:
1. Comparing: It happened to me!
Sometimes, the topic of a conversation seems to invite you to share your own, similar experiences. Rather than appreciating the speakers experiences, you are mentally reminiscing and preparing to offer your own carefully chosen anecdotethat time that you scheduled a business meeting in a dim sum restaurant where the waiting staff interrupted every couple of minutes to offer you some delicious delicacies. We call this comparing. What is it they are implicitly asking for in the conversation? It might be admiration from you, an acknowledgment of their enthusiasm, or a bit of respect for their work.
2. Competing: Thats nothingI have had it much tougher than that!
People are social creatures and it is common for friends and colleagues to share challenges they are experiencing. An office mate might say Im really struggling to get through my emails! I have over 200 unread emails sitting in my inbox! It is easy to assume that they are looking for some sympathy or perhaps some ideas for dealing with the overwhelm. Instead of offering either of these, however, you respond, Just 200? I have over 1,000 emails that I need to respond to! We call this competing. Again, there is nothing wrong with sharing your own experience, but it runs the risk of appearing unsympathetic, self absorbed, or checked-out.
3. Mind reading: I know what youre going to say.
Can you think of any recent interactions in which you were pretty sure what was going to happen even before the conversation took place? This is called mind reading. This biaseven if it was rooted in experienceinterfered with our ability to engage positively with the team. Mind reading runs the risk of focusing on your own assumptions rather than the views and interests of others. Unless you are actually a mind reader, believing that you know what other people will say becomes a barrier to genuinely listening.
4. Unsolicited advice: If I were in your shoes . . .
A leader of a team in another department confides in you how difficult it is for them to take a vacation and totally unplug from work. This is an instance that calls for optimal support matching. Rather than breaking out the toolbox, it is wiser to listen to what is being asked for. It might be that your colleague would appreciate some suggestions. Or, it may be that they just want someone to commiserate with them. Whatever the case, one thing is certain: If you are busy giving unsolicited adviceattempting to solve another persons problemwhile they are talking to you, then you are not listening.
5. Priority status: I know best.
Imagine you are in a work meeting, and people are discussing a technical issue that is in your area of expertise. You have had years of experience resolving technical issues just like the one being discussed! The problemwhere listening is concernedis that it is easy to believe that this expertise should give you priority. We call this priority status and it occurs when people quit listening and, instead, rush to share their own ideas. To be certain, people typically share their own perspectives out of a desire to help. Although there may be some merit in doing so, it is still the case that your enthusiasm to share your own ideas is likely to mean that you will have stopped listening to the conversation.
6. Time poverty: I dont have time for this.
Unfortunately, there are only twenty-four hours in a day, so there is a tendency to feel like time is always in short supply. This so-called time poverty can interfere with our concentration and focus. In these situations, we can come across as impatient or appear to have made a judgment about the significance of what they are saying. This impatience will make people feel that you do not value what they have to say and that you are not listening.
How to practice radical listening:
So what can you do instead? Weve developed a framework of six core radical listening skills. Instead of letting barriers take over, try to implement these skills instead. Using these skills does not mean that you must agree with the person speakingrather you are letting the other person openly express their views, leading to conversations that foster stronger connections.
1. Noticing requires the listener to be attentive during conversations. When a person is good at noticing, they can direct their attention to what is most important for a particular interaction. Noticing includes the ability to pay attention, scan for information, and determine what is relevant.
2. Quieting is the ability to bring a sense of calm to the conversation by using silences and strategic pauses. This involves managing internal dialogue and emotions so that the listener can give their full attention to the conversation.
3. Accepting can be particularly challenging for some people. This involves adopting a stance of openness to what others may bring to the conversation. The listener respects the right of others to hold personal opinions and accepts their views as permissible within the conversation.
4. Acknowledging is the act of explicitly recognizing the efforts, perspectives, strengths, values, or principles of the other person. When we acknowledge others, they feel seen, understood, and appreciated.
5. Questioning is the skill of asking thought-provoking questions that demonstrate interest and curiosity. When used intentionally, questions can encourage deeper reflection, new perspectives, and innovative ideas.
6. Interjecting, at first glance, may seem out of place as a skill of listening. In this case, interrupting your conversational partner is used to show full and enthusiastic engagement. Interjections are used to build energy, strengthen connections, and show interest.
Excerpted from Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection by Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener & Dr. Christian van Nieuwerburgh. Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers Copyright 2025, All Rights Reserved.
In early March, New York City subway riders noticed a new development at the West 4th Street station, near Manhattan’s Washington Square Park. Construction workers for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority were photographed removing a bench on the station’s platform and replacing it with a curving metal structure. Looking a bit like an oversized shaving razor with two handles, the metal object is known as a leaning rail or a leaning rail. Its horizontal face, slightly tilted and about three feet off the ground, is intended as a place for subway riders to lean their backsides while they wait for a train.
Comment byu/thrilsika from discussion innycrail
Goodbye benches, hello leaning rails?
Not exactly, according to Meghan Keegan of the MTA’s media relations. We’re trying out a freestanding version of a concept previously deployed at a few stations that have already proved successful. There are four leaning bars at West 4 St and we’ll evaluate how they work before deciding whether to expand, she explains via email. Benches remain at the station. Leaning bars are another option for customers.
According to the company that built the leaning rails, they’re becoming an increasingly common option, and not just for subway riders. We have seen some really nice growth in the market since the launch of the product, says Heidi Grinde, director of category management at Global Industrial, an industrial and commercial supply company that added standalone leaning rails to its product list last year. We’re even seeing it in areas that maybe we hadn’t expected originally.
[Image: Global Industrial]
In addition to transit customers like the MTA, Grinde says Global Industrial has been selling leaning bars to a wide range of users. Airports are installing them at rideshare pickup zones. Hospitals are putting them outside emergency rooms. Universities are adding them to quads and other public spaces. They’re even popping up in outdoor shopping malls.
If you have a smaller footprint, or you don’t have room for benches, you can utilize the leaning rails for your patrons to be able to just kind of take a break, Grinde says.
In the New York subway station, the leaning rails are intended for short breaks while riders are waitingnot long, ideallyfor a train with a high-frequency schedule. We picked this station because it’s a high-trafficked one with island platforms, says the MTA’s Keegan.
Some subway users were unenthusiastic about the idea. Thanks, I hate it, one Reddit user wrote. Reacting to a photo of the newly installed leaning rail, some called it hostile architecture that is intended to deter the homeless while disregarding the needs of people with mobility challenges. As someone who frequents West 4th and uses a cane I am . . . baffled, another Reddit user wrote. I can stand up fine most of the time waiting for the train but I’m thinking about the people who can’t stand at all. What is this doing? How is this helping?
The MTA plans to evaluate the use of the leaning rails at the West 4th Street station through a variety of methods including customer and station employee feedback, says Keegan.
Grinde says the leaning rails have been ergonomically designed to offer support to most people’s bodies, with the resting area typically located around 32 to 36 inches off the ground. The leaning rail helps you to distribute your weight, and it reduces strain on your legs and your back, she says. With a wall, you’re not really ergonomically correct. It’s not holding the posture of your body.
And while some subway riders aren’t welcoming these new leaning rails, they’re likely to become more common. Grinde expects the rails to be a growth area for Global Industrial, and to take new forms. Lighting is being integrated into their design, as are technology elements like charging infrastructure and interactive screens. Some are even considering adding heating elements. A metal rail tends to get a little cold in the middle of winter, she says. The market as a whole has been looking at some different things to increase what that leaning rail can do for the customers in the space.
But she doesn’t suggest leaning rails should become the hostile bench of the future. It’s a great complement to a bench, she says. It’s not a replacement.
On an unremarkable vacant lot in Atlantas West End, a proposed rowhouse construction project could soon become a milestone of modern design. The building itself is not particularly special; its 17 units have attractive geometrical facades, large picture windows, and will be affordably priced. More notable than the design of the project itself is how it was designed. To an uncommon degree, artificial intelligence was used extensively throughout the design process, from market analysis and conceptual design to regulatory compliance and material selection. The building, which is going up for zoning approvals this week, could be one of the first projects designed largely through AI to actually get constructed.The project was designedor, perhaps more accurately, codesignedby Cove Architecture, an arm of the technology services firm Cove, which offers AI consulting to architects and designers. Founded by two trained architects, Cove uses AI to optimize project planning, design, engineering, and bidding for architecture and developer clients around the world. Through Cove Architecture, the company is now using the AI tools its been building since 2017 to pursue AI-designed building projects in-house.Cofounders Sandeep Ahuja and Patrick Chopson say AI was used to greatly accelerate the Atlanta project, achieving a 60% reduction in design timelines, early-stage cost estimates that hit 95% accuracy, and a 40% cut in design iteration expenses. Instead of it taking six months, were doing it in a month, Ahuja says. Speed is the superpower.[Image: Cove Architecture]The little detailsWhile many architects were quick to embrace the visualization powers of generative AI, using it to pump out conceptual designs and lightning-fast renderings, a recent report showed that only 6% of architects are actually using AI regularly. Chopson says Cove Architecture is using AI for all the tasks that underlie the design.[Image: Cove Architecture]Complying with zoning codes is one major use case. The city of Atlantas zoning code is very complex. It has a lot of tables and different regulations. Youve got to go to different spots to understand what you really can do, and then you also have to look at what the city has approved in the last year, says Chopson, whos been a practicing architect for more than 20 years. All that analysis can take a few weeks, but we can do that in a few days.[Image: Cove Architecture]The company does this through several specialized AI agents that analyze site conditions, cost parameters, local regulations, structural approaches, floor plans, and exterior designs. We have all of these agents talking to each other, Ahuja says.That creates a set of guidelines that Cove Architectures team then uses to fine-tune a design. We get to spend more of our time as artists working on the art of it and less time chasing down all the little details, Chopson says.[Image: Studio Tim Fu]A technological push and pullThose little details can make or break a project. When London-based architecture firm Studio Tim Fu was hired to design a series of luxury villas in a historical area on Lake Bled in Slovenia, the client had already had a few previous proposals denied by the local heritage agency. The firms founder, Tim Fu, who previously worked at Zara Hadid Architects, used several AI agents, a large language model, and consultations with local designers to navigate the specifics that would help the project meet the heritage agencys requirements. He says the AI tools helped define the constraints of the site, allowing the design to comply with regulations about the height and slope of the villa roofs, as well as maximizing daylight through window and building orientation.[Image: Studio Tim Fu]We have an extensive list hat we tick, and every time you tick those boxes that are conceived together with the local architect and the large language model and our research, the heritage agency is happier, Fu says. There are very strict things that helped us to develop a project of such heightened luxury at such a controlled site, which is nearly impossible.[Image: Studio Tim Fu]Fu says the designers and the client (an undisclosed Slovenian philanthropist) are confident that the AI-designed building will meet the heritage agencys approval and begin construction in the next year or so.Fu says AI is being used for more than just checking regulatory boxes. His firm has integrated bespoke and commercial AI tools to shape design concepts that are then refined by human designers. For example, they will train an AI model to perform a task like designing around specific roof requirements. Those design concepts will then be fed into a generative AI tool to create renderings that are adjusted by architects using Photoshop and the studios own built-in AI tools. Those drawings then go through more rounds of revisions using data sets specific to the site, the local market conditions, and the clients requests.As specifics are narrowed down, AI-generated concepts are further refined by human architects. We remain a critical eye on this whole process to make sure that the machine doesnt go haywire, Fu says. We obviously have to fact-check and double-check everything to make sure that we are making the best decisions and there are no hallucinations from any part of the process.[Image: Studio Tim Fu]A freethinking co-creatorThe end result is a mixture of human and AI design. Fu calls AI a freethinking co-creator that feeds into a complex, almost conversational design process. Its so intertwined that its like another member of the team. And were at a point where its hard to distinguish between what we did and what the AI did, he says. We dont see it as a distinct tool.This blurry line means that its not really accurate to say Fus project is an AI-designed building, or that its fully designed by humans. Cove Architecture sees this blended approach as the future mode of architecture. Were going to scale up thousands and thousands and thousands of buildings in this new methodology, Ahuja says.Chopson sees the integration of AI as simply allowing software tools to do the tasks that take humans too long to doand which arent very enjoyable parts of the process anyway. You spend all your time trying to figure out, is the thing that I want to do going to work? The AI allows us to leap forward by weeks to get to the part thats fun, where you get to think about how am I going to make this look beautiful?
Artist and industrial design icon Ross Lovegroves work has always looked like the space-age futureand he has now partnered up with SpaceX on a project that sees him revisiting one of his most famous pieces from the past: The Bernhardt Go chair.
CreativeWorkStudios is a company that fosters collaborations with an eye toward art, science and philanthropy. Having worked on a project that connected artist Refik Anadol with the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health, CreativeWorkStudios turned to Lovegrove for its next endeavor, a partnership with the Polaris space missions to raise funds for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital.
Ross Lovegrove [Photo: J Harry Edmiston/courtesy CreativeWorkStudios]
Lovegrove created the flowing Bernhardt Go chairprobably my favorite objectat the turn of the millennium. With its absence of straight lines and legs that are seemingly reversed, it has a futuristic aesthetic that has landed it a spot in the film Passengers and other sci-fi projects. Which is perhaps why his partnership with the space exploration company feels so immediately organic (and causes you to momentarily forget who owns SpaceX). Using data from the landmark Polaris Dawn mission, Lovegrove is now retrofitting the Bernhardt Go into its next evolution: The $6,500 Polaris Go.
A Magnesium-Injected Innovation
Its apropos that Lovegrove is working with SpaceX on a project involving this particular chair. Years ago, he was invited out to the company to possibly become its design directorand when he got there, he discovered a couple hundred Bernhardt Go chairs in the canteen.
[Photo: courtesy CreativeWorkStudios]
While the first Polaris Dawn mission last year yielded a few firsts, such as the first commercial spacewalk, the Bernhardt Go scored one of its own when it launched in the early 2000s. Lovegrove originally designed the chair in aluminum, but found it to be too heavy. So he decided to use pressure die-cast magnesium, which weighs about 30% less without compromising strength. Thing was, it had never been done before, and has not been done since (the chairs were sealed and powder-coated, and are safe).
How can I say itit wont burst into flames, but its highly flammable, Lovegrove says with a laugh. It took us a while to find somebody who would take that risk.
The Bernhardt Go was hit, with TIME citing it as one of 2001s best designs, and various museums adding the chair to their collections.
[Photo: courtesy CreativeWorkStudios]
After partnering with CreativeWorkStudios and the Polaris team for the new project, Lovegrove reached out to Bernhardt, which had 210 originals leftand he says the company handed them over.
I mean, to suddenly give up your whole stock is pretty remarkable, Lovegrove says. And it’s because of the St. Jude’s component. Which is not cynicalit’s incredibly sincere.
Earth from Polaris Dawn [Photo: Jared Isaacman]
Taking a New Seat
Polaris mission commander (and current nominee to lead NASA) Jared Isaacman has a history of raising funds for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, which the Polaris program has partnered with for its trio of missions. Lovegrove says its a cause close to him, as well, owing to a number of family members he has lost to cancer.
As he devised ways to update the chair for the project, Lovegrove homed in on the seat pan insert. He decided to utilize data from the shockwaves of the launch to create a pattern emerging from four corners.
[It] is a metaphor about the co-joining of forces for the crew membersso, the four coming together form a total balance, and a kind of dynamic unity that comes from the abstract forces of nature.
[Photo: courtesy CreativeWorkStudios]
Lovegrove says he wanted to find a U.S. supplier linked to the space program to make the inserts, which he was able to do. He could have created it with, say, a 3D-printed polymerbut that doesnt exactly represent space. So instead, the team used an aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, which is laser-cut to a finite dimension and then pressed incredibly thin so as to not impede the weight of the chair. The names of the four astronauts, meanwhile, are set to be laser-engraved onto the pans.
Ultimately, I’d like to even look at anodizing those, possibly in other colors, so that we could do a limited edition as we roll this out, he says. In a philanthropic way, we have to sell these we have to appeal to people.
[Photo: courtesy CreativeWorkStudios]
The chairs are priced at $6,500 and are available for preorder on the project website, with 50 percent going to St. Jude. Lovegrove adds that this is the start of a larger project with CreativeWorkStudios and Polaris, where hell take more data and interpret it in various ways, particularly around the physical impact of space on the human bodies.
If you look at space programs now, all the space adventure and business development, I think it’s going to pull [the human race] forward. I think it’s going to pull everything into a whole new mindset, Lovegrove says. They always say the most abstract thing that mankind can ever do is go into space, because we’re absolutely not designed to go into space. And then engineers come up and say, Hey, we’re doing it.
As for that forward momentumits always been visually evident in the chair since the start. Has that always driven him?
Everything that we do has an implied energy in it, he says. I don’t like static things.
On January 15, a group of utility companies wrote a letter to Lee Zeldin, then president-elect Donald Trumps nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. We provide the electricity for millions of homes, businesses, and institutions across the U.S., create thousands of good-paying jobs, and drive economic progress and American prosperity, the letter stated.
After the polite opening, they got right to their main request: Two matters in particular call for immediate action: (1) regulations on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing coal-fired and new natural-gas power plants that mandate a carbon capture technology that has not been adequately demonstrated and (2) the unprecedented expansion of the federal regulation of coal combustion residuals (CCR).
The companies contend that the federal government has overstepped its authority in its enforcement of these two areas of regulation. The letter asked Zeldin to go easy on themby delivering the regulatory authority back to states and rescinding a 2024 rule that mandated cleanup of coal ash at inactive power plants.
What the power companies call coal combustion residuals, and describe as a natural byproduct of generating electricity with coal used for beneficial purposes in U.S. construction and manufacturing, is known more colloquially as coal asha toxic mixture of heavy metals like arsenic and mercury, which, because coal plants are usually built near bodies of water, often comes in contact with groundwater when it is buried in an unlined pit. Over the last century and a half of American coal power generation, power companies have dumped coal ash at hundreds of active and inactive power plants across the country.
Zeldin is now the administrator of the EPA, and it appears the power companies are getting their wish. Amid a barrage of press releases that, on March 12, proposed 31 deregulatory actions, were two that seem designed to significantly weaken enforcement of coal ash regulations, environmental attorneys told Grist.
Zeldin called it the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.
In the first, the EPA announced that it will encourage states to take over permitting and enforcement of the coal ash rule. When states are delegated the authority by the EPA to issue their own coal ash disposal permits, they’re supposed to adhere to standards at least as stringent as the federal rules, but in some cases state environmental agencies have simply gone rogue and flouted this requirement.
Georgia, which received the authority to issue its own permits for coal ash disposal in 2019, has controversially approved plans at several coal plants for the utility Georgia Power to permanently store millions of tons of coal ash in unlined landfills that are partially submerged in groundwater, despite being notified by EPA that this violates the federal rule. In neighboring Alabama, state regulators sought the same delegated authority that their counterparts in Georgia had been granted, but last year the EPA denied their application because they planned to issue permits to Alabama Power that violated the federal rules in the same manner as Georgias.
Alabamas was the first application for a state-run coal ash program that the EPA has denied; so far, only Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma have been approved. But new approvals may be coming soon: EPA will propose a determination on the North Dakota permit program within the next 60 days, the release said.
The EPA also said it would be reviewing a rule it finalized in 2024, under president Joe Biden, that closed a longstanding loophole by extending coal ash regulations to cover so-called legacy coal ash ponds at shuttered power plantswhich werent covered by a landmark 2015 rule that regulated coal ash disposal only at power plants in active use.
The EPAs review of the 2024 legacy coal ash rule will focus on whether to extend the deadlines for compliance with the rule. Lisa Evans, senior counsel at Earthjustice, said the time frames in the rule as written were already far more lenient than was necessary. Industry already got major concessions from the Biden EPA to establish deadlines that are far in the future, she said.
Because coal ashs peak contamination levels arent reached until some 70 years after waste is dumped, longer deadlines can only mean less effective cleanup. The longer you ignore those sites, the worse the pollution gets, Evans said.
In the second announcement related to coal ash, the EPA said it will revise a list of its top enforcement priorities that was announced in 2023 and applied to the fiscal years 2024 through 2027. The list of National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives, or NECI, included six priority areas for action, one of which was Protecting Communities from Coal Ash Contamination.
The EPA now intends to align the agencys enforcement priorities with President Trumps executive orders. It said this would be accomplished by immediately revising the NECI list to ensure that enforcement does not discriminate based on race and socioeconomic status (as it has under environmental justice initiatives) or shut down energy production and that it focuses on the most pressing health and safety issues.
No further details were provided regarding what this meant for the agencys actual enforcement actions. But a fuller picture is found in an internal agency memo, which was sent by Jeffrey Hall, the acting head of the agencys enforcement and compliance division. The memo, seen by Grist, outlines the ways in which the NECI list was to be updated.
Halls memo said that the priorities are under review to ensure alignment between the NECIs and the Administrations directives and priorities, and it laid out a series of directions that applied in the interim to all EPA enforcement and compliance actions. These include a blanket directive that environmental justice considerations shall no longer inform EPAs enforcement and compliance assurance work and another declaring that enforcement and compliance assurance actions shall not shut down any stage of energy production (from exploration to distribution) or power generation absent an imminent and substantial threat to human health or an express statutory or regulatory requirement to the contrary.
With respect to coal ash, the memo argues that the NECI priority list focuses in large part on perceived noncompliance with current performance standards and monitoring and testing requirements and is motivated largely by environmental justice considerations, which are inconsistent with the Presidents Executive Orders and the Administrators Initiative. Accordingly, the memo stipulates that enforcement and compliance assurance for coal ash at active power plant facilities shall focus on imminent threats to human health.
p>Due to the wording of the memo, Evans said in an email that it would be entirely possible for EPA to justify avoiding any enforcement whatsoever of the coal ash rule under the NECI.
This would be a dramatic reversal of the heightened enforcement that ramped up under the Biden administration. In 2024the first year of the coal ash NECI prioritythe EPA conducted 107 compliance assessments of coal ash sites across 18 states. While only five enforcement cases (orders or agreements by which EPA requires companies to take certain actions) were filed in that year, Evans said it is likely that EPA will find reason for enforcement action at many of the other sites if the investigations are allowed to proceed.
Evans said the requirement that enforcement only take place in cases of an imminent threat to human health effectively restricts the agency from enforcing aspects of the coal ash rule designed to prevent imminent threats by requiring proper management and monitoring of toxic waste sites before damage and spills occur.
For instance, Evans said, the directive would prohibit the EPA from requiring a utility to repair a faulty groundwater monitoring system. Utilities have gamed the system at some plants by designing monitoring systems that intentionally miss detecting leakage from a coal ash dump, she said, citing a 2022 report by Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project that alleged a widespread practice among power companies of manipulating monitoring data to downplay the extent of contamination.
Power companies are supposed to dig wells to assess the groundwater quality at coal ash dumps, and in order to gauge their contamination level they compare it to what should be uncontaminated water samples nearby. But the 2022 report documented examples like coal plants in Texas, Indiana, and Florida where the EPA found that the background wells used for the purpose of providing baseline samples of water quality were dug in contaminated areas near the coal ash dump. The report also documented the practice of intrawell monitoring, or simply analyzing the data from each well in isolation, in order to assess changes in contamination levels over time, rather than contrasted with uncontaminated wells. This method doesnt work unless the wells arent contaminated to begin with, and is prohibited by EPA guidelinesbut the report found it was in use at 108 coal plants nationwide.
These practices could essentially be given a free pass under the new enforcement guidance. While these are very significant violations (because contamination is not discovered and cleanup not triggered), they may not rise to an imminent threat, especially if there are no data revealing toxic releases, Evans said.
The section of the memo dealing with coal ash also stipulated that any order or other enforcement action that would unduly burden or significantly disrupt power generation requires advance approval from the assistant administrator of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurancethe politically appointed position temporarily being held by Hall.
The memo justifies this requirement on the basis of the Trump administrations stated intention of unleashing American energy. But to Nick Torrey, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, it has little to do with energy productionand more to do with utilities bottom line.
Theres nothing about cleaning up coal ash that affects power generation; those are two separate activities, Torrey noted. So what it sounds like is theyre prioritizing polluters interests over peoples drinking water.
Gautama Mehta, Grist
This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here.
Hows work? If you feel like answering meh, youre not alone. Gallups latest workplace survey found that employee engagement has slumped to a 10-year low. It might not be the work itself, though. You might want to take a closer look at your boss, says Dr. Katina Sawyer, coauthor of Leading for Wellness: How to Create a Team Culture Where Everyone Thrives.
The proximal experiences that you have in the day to day of your workplace are what predict your general overall sentiments about your work, says Sawyer, who is an associate professor of management and organizations at the University of Arizonas Eller College of Management. That means that the people that you work with most frequently tend to be really important, specifically leaders. Direct supervisors are often the key determinant of your feelings [about your workplace].
Leadership norms are causing employees to disconnect, says Sawyer. Traditional beliefs include the idea that work should be a leaders entire focus, working tirelessly. Leaders should always have the answers and be very decisive and assertive. And the individual leader is more important than the collective team in terms of what they bring to the table.
These ideas have permeated our workplaces, says Sawyer. As a result, when leaders rise through the ranks, instead of being the leader that they would have wanted, they unconsciously adopt these norms of what we’ve seen other leaders do.
Unfortunately, these beliefs just dont work, and employees dont want to work for a leader who behaves this way. Feeling meh comes from the norms that workers have inherited, says Sawyer.
Organizations have not figured out a way to solve for meh. When they see burnout on the rise and job satisfaction on the decline, they turn to shortsighted and trendy wellness initiatives, such as yoga in the morning and mindfulness breaks at lunch, says Sawyer.
Sure, they may be fun, but are they actually driving results? she asks. While none of those things are bad in and of themselves, there’s no substitute for a bad leader. If your proximal experiences are not great, its like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.
Instead of investing in one-off solutions, Sawyer suggests that organizations boost leaders capabilities to lead in a way that supports teams and, as a byproduct, drives results and productivity. She offers four techniques that can help.
Forgo the Fearless Leader
The first mechanism she suggests is realizing that people don’t want superhero leaders, who are stoic, decisive, and unafraid.
Actually, that’s quite demotivating for employees, because they can’t see themselves in their leader at all, says Sawyer. They also often start to see the cracks when someone presents a very perfect image of themselves as a leader. People are looking for authenticity. When they don’t see it, it gets confusing and discouraging.
Building stronger teams happens when leaders and teammates share their struggles. They become motivated to continue to grow and thrive in the organization, because they actually see a pathway forward for them as human beings, says Sawyer.
Dont Worry About the Clock
A second mechanism is training leaders to deprogram themselves from thinking that the amount of time that they spend on work is the best metric of productivity.
Overworked leaders often produce a negative climate and expect overwork from their employees, says Sawyer. That’s a recipe for burnout.
Instead, leaders need to create a culture in which people feel comfortable and confident to support one another through their struggles and to show gratitude to each other. Positive team environments end up saving the leader time in the long run, because what’s supposed to be happening is functioning more smoothly, and leaders are not constantly putting out fires, says Sawyer.
Reset Priorities
Third, leaders need to recognize that work supports life instead of thinking you must fit your life around work. This includes encouraging employees to prioritize their personal lives by maintaining and respecting their boundaries.
Help them do the things that are important to them as people, says Sawyer. If someone is a parent and they’re coaching their kids T-ball team and have to leave every Tuesday and Thursday at four in order to get there on time, be cognizant of the fact. If you make it hard for your employees to participate in things that are important to them, over time, they’re going to grow resentful.
Tailor Your Wellness Approach
The fourth mechanism is to realize that nothing is one-size-fits-all. One of the problems that broader wellness initiatives have is that they take a blanket approach, says Sawyer. It assumes every employee will love to participate in mindfulness at lunch, but not everybody does.
Leaders need to have honest conversations about things that really contribute to each employees health and well-being. Sometimes those are physical things, like needing time to walk in the middle of the day, says Sawyer. Sometimes theyre mental health things, like needing to get to a therapy appointment every Thursday morning. Try to tailor what you offer to the extent possible to best support employees varied needs.
What Employees Can Do
If you are feeling meh at work and your employer isnt taking steps to change the norms, Sawyer recommends looking for people in your organization who are like-minded and then suggesting some of the cultural elements that can shift the workplace dynamics.
Create a committee on health and wellness, where it’s not just one squeaky wheel, but it’s a group of people who are brainstorming to try to create a better work environment for everybody, she says.
You can also try to create a micro subculture sphere of influence that adheres to new norms. Document the positive impacts to sell the idea that these mechanisms work. And take steps to regain balance and well-being on a personal level, such as participating in a hobby after work. But dont keep feeling meh about work.
The meh feeling is a leading indicator that people are movng in a direction of being less engaged, says Sawyer. Companies should think of meh as a yellow flag that’s headed to red and a recipe for burnout. It wont get better on its own. Turn course now and recover instead of simply following the downward trend.
The Seattle Mariners will be repping Nintendo this season.
The team announced that starting with the season opener on Thursday, team members will be wearing Nintendo patches on their jerseys. It’s the first time the team has ever had a jersey sponsorship. The Mariners promoted the partnership in a video posted to social media showing center fielder Julio Rodríguez wearing the new jersey and grabbing a Mariners ball cap that’s sitting next to a red Mario hat in a locker.
Major League Baseball announced in 2022 that it would begin allowing teams to put sponsorships on their uniforms. Some teams quickly capitalized: The New York Yankees signed Starr Insurance, and the Kansas City Royals signed the convenience store and gas station chain QT.
For the Mariners, the Nintendo patches are just the latest in a long-running partnership with the video game company that goes back more than three decades to 1992, when Nintendo of America purchased a controlling stake in the team. Though most of Nintendo of America’s stake was sold in 2016, the company still owns about 10% of the team.
“Nintendo and the Mariners have been inextricably linked since 1992,” Kevin Martinez, the baseball teams president of business operations, said in a statement. “Now, each time the Mariners take the field, our jersey sleeves will help serve as a reminder of all that Nintendo of America has done for the Northwest community and the team.”
[Photo: Seattle Mariners]
Mariners players will wear white jerseys with the red-and-white Nintendo “racetrack” logo on the sleeve for home games. For away games, their turquoise jerseys will feature a red patch for the Switch 2, the Nintendo console that comes out next month.
For baseball fans unhappy with corporate sponsorships finally making their way to players’ jerseys, the Nintendo patches may be unwelcome news. But at least for Mariners fans the team’s first ad might just be something they actually want to buy.
In early 2024, Ben Collins was contemplating the future of the media businessand his place in it. He was in the process of resigning after spending six years as a senior reporter at NBC News, exhausted by the disinformation beat that took him to some of the darkest and most disturbing corners of the internet. It hadnt helped that in December 2022 NBC News had suspended Collins from the Elon Musk beat following his highly critical coverage of the gazillionaires acquisition of Twitter.
The media landscape looked bleak. Layoffs were decimating storied media titles like Sports Illustrated, and Collins was hearing rumors that G/O Media, the holding company owned by private equity firm Great Hill Partners, was looking to shed 36-year-old satirical news publication The Onion from its portfolio. (G/O had dumped Jezebel and was about to purge other titles, including Deadspin and The A.V. Club.)
As a joke, Collins posted a message on Bluesky: So uh how do we buy The Onion? Two media friends (Leila Brillson and Danielle Strle) jumped on board, and they quickly joined forces with another Onion lover, Twilio cofounder and former CEO Jeff Lawson, who also just so happens to be a billionaire. By late April 2024, the team had closed the deal. Heres how it felt from the inside.
Ben Collins, CEO
There was this article saying that The Onion is aggressively for sale. I knew that Elon Musk had been dreaming for a long time of owning it. And I was like, If The Onion is in his hands, just give up on American society. Hes the most humorless person on earth. So I [posted on Bluesky], Who wants to buy The Onion? I think I have $600. I had no idea how to buy a company. Im not a guy who buys stuff. All my shirts are from the dollar store. Its a huge problem. But Leila Brillson was sitting at home. She had just had a baby three weeks before. She was the first female executive editor for Playboy and then went to work at Netflix and Disney and TikTok.
Leila Brillson, chief marketing officer
I think the reason Ben picked up my call is that I had just moved back to Chicago, which is where Im from. The Onion is based in Chicago. My thought process was, Huh, its for sale. It cant be that much. Followed by, I bet they have an incredible social footprint. Followed by, Theyre in Chicago. Hey, Im in Chicago. I think he thought I was much more connected than I am. The best thing I brought to the table was that I was the only one who lived in Chicago. Also, my sister is an M&A lawyer. [Paula Brillson is now general counsel at The Onion.]
Danielle Strle, chief product officer
I had a lot of freedom after Tumblr [where Strle went from employee No. 8 to director of product] to just work on fun projects. I had helped a friend run a cheese shopI was the chief technology officer of New Yorks best cheese shop. When Ben called, I was immediately interested.
I remember seeing The Onion on newsstands in New York right after 9/11, and I was like, Wow, The Onion is here. Were going to bounce back. My first call was to Scott Kidder [now acting as The Onions CFO]. Hes a true wizard on the spreadsheets. If youre going to try and buy something, youre going to need a powerful set of spreadsheets.
Jeff Lawson, Owner
Jeff Bezos bought The [Washington] Post, and Marc Benioff bought Time. The universe would just be right if I bought The Onion. This sort of started like a joke but then, as we looked into it more, it was like, its hit some hard times under the last owner and needs some revitalization. So it wasnt just a matter of, I could buy The Onion, [but] hey, we could save The Onion. There was a real opportunity here to take this modern American institution and help it thrive in a new media environment. An environment where we need satire more than ever.
