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At eight months pregnant with my first child, I walked into my bosss office, ready for a pivotal meeting. I had spent months designing a new crisis management program for our universityone that would improve student outcomes and reduce institutional risk. This was the moment Id learn whether my work would be implemented. I had poured everything into this project. It reflected my expertise, positioned the university at the forefront of best practices, andfor me personallyoffered the challenge and recognition I craved. My current role felt stagnant, and this opportunity was exactly what I needed. My boss was thrilled with my proposal and agreed I was the right person to lead it. Then, she hesitated. But, she said, you may not want it. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/acupofambition_logo.jpg","headline":"A Cup of Ambition","description":"A biweekly newsletter for high-achieving moms who value having a meaningful career and being an involved parent, by Jessica Wilen. To learn more visit acupofambition.substack.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/acupofambition.substack.com","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} I was stunned. Of course, I wanted it. It was a promotion I had essentially built for myself. But she smiled and, with what she saw as kindness, said, Once the baby comes, you may find that youre less interested in work. You might be less . . . ambitious. Youre going to find that youre a different person. I assured her I wanted the role, and the promotion was official. But her words cast a shadow over the good news. Less ambitious? Change my identity? What kind of sexist nonsense was that? I knew exactly who I was, and I wasnt about to prove her right. When motherhood becomes a career liability I hadnt even given birth, yet I was already experiencing the motherhood penaltya term that refers to the economic and career disadvantages that mothers often face in the workplace compared to their childless counterparts and fathers. Sociologists have long studied this phenomenon and have found that, to compensate, working mothers often feel pressured to downplay their parental responsibilities to be taken seriously at work. When I returned to work after maternity leave, I found myself doing exactly this. I shared my parenting experiences with only a small group of trusted colleagues, wary of confirming anyones biases. My bosss words still echoed in my head. Even in an institution more supportive of working parents than most, I didnt want anyone to doubt my dedication. The COVID-19 pandemic briefly shattered this illusion. When kids interrupted Zoom meetings asking for help with virtual school, hiding our parental roles became impossible. But now many of us feel pressure to return to the pre-pandemic norms of keeping motherhood in the background. The unspoken expectation remains: Be present as a professional first, a parent second. Of course, the pressure to separate our professional and personal identities comes at a steep cost. When employees feel they cant be authentic at work, they disengage, burn out, or leave. This isnt just a loss for individualsits a loss for organizations that miss out on the creativity, resilience, and leadership working parents bring to the table. Bridging the gap Ironically, my boss was rightbut not in the way she expected. After having my son, I did change. I returned to work with a broader perspective, increased flexibility in my thinking, and with a deeper well of empathy. And these changes made me a different kind of professionalthey made me better. Parenthood forces us to develop skills that translate directly into leadership: patience, conflict resolution, adaptability, and emotional intelligence. It forces us to prioritize, make decisions under pressure, and manage competing demands. These skills and perspectives are deeply needed in todays workplaces. We need to stop pretending that work and parenting exist in opposition. The more we integrate these identities, the stronger we becomeas professionals, as leaders, and as humansand the stronger our organizations become. Its time to rewrite the narrative. Parenthood deepens our capacity for leadership, strengthens our problem-solving skills, and fuels our drive to create a better world for the next generation. The real challenge isnt whether working parents can stay committed to their careersits whether workplaces can evolve to recognize the full value they bring. So instead of downplaying our role as parents, what if we embraced it as an asset? What if we stopped proving our worth by pretending caregiving doesnt exist, and instead reshaped professional culture to reflect the reality that so many of us live? The more openly we integrate our identities, the more we create space for others to do the same. I didnt lose my ambition when I became a mother. If anything, it sharpened. The question isnt whether we change after parenthoodits whether we allow those changes to make us stronger. And whether the workplace is ready to keep up. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/acupofambition_logo.jpg","headline":"A Cup of Ambition","description":"A biweekly newsletter for high-achieving moms who value having a meaningful career and being an involved parent, by Jessica Wilen. To learn more visit acupofambition.substack.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/acupofambition.substack.com","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
Natural disasters and extreme weather events are hammering America’s aging infrastructure. A new report lays out what the U.S. needs to do now to fix it, and it’s building more, better, and smarter infrastructure, from bridges, broadband, and dams to roads, levees, and parks. The United States has made slight improvements to its infrastructure, according to the report from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), a professional organization, but it still has a long ways to go, and it better pick up the pace because there are growing risks to public safety and the economy. The ASCE gave infrastructure in the U.S. a C grade, citing forward momentum, but the U.S. faces a “substantial investment gap,” according to the report. Its authors recommended policymakers and lawmakers take three steps to close the gap: sustain their investments, prioritize resilience, and advance policy and innovation. Sustain investment The new rating is up from C- in the group’s most recent report, released in 2021, and the ASCE cited the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that former President Joe Biden signed into law for prompting the improved grade. More than 66,000 projects were funded by the law, including repairs and improvements to more than 196,000 miles of road and improvements to more than 1,500 airports. The group called Biden’s law “the most comprehensive federal investment in the nations infrastructure in U.S. history,” but said it will take time to fully come into effect. “Recent federal and state investments have had a positive impact, but the full force of increased funding will take years to realize,” the report’s authors wrote. “Sustained investment is key to providing certainty and ensuring planning goes to development, as well as making larger infrastructure projects attainable.” The group said after the bipartisan infrastructure law expires in 2026, Congress should maintain its investment levels. Prioritize resilience In addition to an overall score, the ASCE infrastructure report rated 18 individual categories, from aviation to wastewater. No category received an A rating. The highest-rated categories were ports and rail, which received a B and B-, respectively, and the lowest-rated categories were stormwater and transit, which both received Ds. The ASCE named extreme weather and disasters as pressing reasons for the U.S. to upgrade its infrastructure now. The report’s authors said natural disasters and extreme weather events are especially damaging for America’s aging infrastructure, “creating unexpected and often avoidable risks to public safety and the economy.” They made an economic argument for building and strengthening resilient infrastructure. “Climate-related challenges are widespread, affecting even regions previously resistant to these events: Floods become more intense and occur more often, hurricanes create higher wind loads, and wildfires encroach more unpredictably,” the authors wrote. “Investments in resilient infrastructure are consistently proven to be an effective use of limited public dollars, because they reduce costs in the long term, especially by minimizing rebuilding needs after a significant event.” Advance policy and innovation The ASCE said for the U.S. to raise each category to a state of good repair would cost an estimated $9.1 trillion, and improvements could save the average American family $700 a year. The report’s authors said to get there, all levels of government should work to identify “pain points” in their permitting processes, address an engineering and construction workforce shortage, look for chances for the public and private sectors to collaborate, and leverage “proven and emerging technologies to make the best use of limited financial and personnel resources.” The group’s next report is due in 2029, and to raise Americas infrastructure grades by then, the group “urges a comprehensive agenda that sustains investment, prioritizes resilience, and advances forward-thinking policies and innovations.” President Donald Trump signed an executive order shortly after he returned to office for a second term pausing funds from being disbursed from the infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act, but a judge ruled the following month that the Trump administration had to restore the funds as Congress had appropriated them. “Support research and development of innovative materials, technologies, and processes to modernize and extend the life of infrastructure, expedite repairs or replacements, and reduce costs into the future,” authors of the ASCE infrastructure report recommended.
Category:
E-Commerce
Apple Watch sales are enduring a years-long backslide. While Apple first launched its watch in 2015, sales didnt spike until the pandemic, when consumers were highly focused on their health. But competitors quickly caught up, with fitness-focused companies like Garmin integrating more smart technology. Meanwhile, Apple stumbled in adding compelling new featuresgetting into some legal spats along the way. For the past three years, Apple Watch sales have declined year-over-year, according to research firm IDC. In 2022, Apple sold 43 million units; by 2024, that number dropped to 34 million. The Apple Watch also lost market share, falling from 29.6% to 22.5%, while high-end competitor Garmin and budget alternatives like Huawei and Xiaomi gained ground. And although Apple doesnt break out revenue by individual product, its Wearables, Home and Accessories segment was the only one to decline year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2024. Apple is in a weird spot, says Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC studying wearables. They make great stuff but, at least on the watch side, things are a little bit iterative. Where did the Apple Watch upgraders go? Apple Watch sales have fallen far from their 2022 peak. While some analysts remain optimisticUbrani expects Apple will regain modest growth in 2025the numbers are still well below pandemic highs. Part of the drop, experts say, comes down to durability. A lot of people bought a new smartwatch or replacement smartwatch during the pandemic, says Ben Hatton, analyst of connected devices for CCS. Those devices are yet to reach the point where they are beginning to be replaced. So there’s that longevity of device, especially for the top-end devices, that does hamper growth. Unlike the iPhone, which users often upgrade for new features, the Apple Watch hasnt changed dramatically in recent years. Ubrani notes that the devices health and fitness sensors have remained largely consistent across generations. Youre not getting a whole new experience, apart from maybe a shiny new case, he says. (Apple did not respond to a request for comment.) That could soon change. According to Bloomberg, Apple is currently testing watches with added cameras and Apple Intelligence. Ubrani says these updates could appeal to Apple loyalistsbut theyre already standard features among competitors. If were talking AI, I think Apple is behind, and visual intelligence would be a part of that, he says. In terms of adding cameras, they wouldnt be the first one. Who needs an Apple Watch these days? Apple isnt the only company facing headwinds; the entire smartwatch industry has seen declining sales over the past three years, per IDC. But Apples competitors have weathered the downturn more gracefully. In 2023, when Apple Watch sales fell 15.8%, Googles declined just 4.3%. And while both are expected to return to growth in 2025, Googles projected 9.4% gain far outpaces Apples 4.9%. Even in a shrinking market, Garmin is gaining ground. Though its share remains modest at about 5%, the company sold nearly two million more watches in 2024 than the previous year. You’ve got a group of consumers that are looking to buy the best, top of the range fitness trackers, Hatton says. They may have gone into them through the Apple Watch or the Samsung Watch, but increasingly, they’re realizing that what they want it for is the pure fitness element. Garmin is probably best positioned to serve that demand. The wearables category has also diversified. Watches once dominated the space, but now consumers can choose from smart rings that track sleep, headbands that boost focus, and AI-powered sunglasses. While these devices are still niche, Hatton says their rapid growth poses a longer-term threat. Apple sold an estimated 40 million watches last year; by contrast, only about 2 million smart rings were sold across all providers. If they continue to grow very quickly, then they may start to become a real challenger to watches, he contends. And some consumers are simply over it. Maybe they grew tired of the endless notifications. Maybe they were shamed for wearing an Apple Watch at their wedding. Maybe they just missed the feel of a classic timepiece. Theres been a resurgence of traditional watches, Ubrani says. People like the idea of having something thats a little less mass produced, something thats away from the mainstream.
Category:
E-Commerce
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