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The first few weeks of working for a new boss are exciting. Youre ready to jump in, hopeful for growth opportunities, and eager to please. Your boss is enthusiastic, too, likely welcoming you with open arms, setting up 1-1s, and taking a keen interest in your professional development. You both want to make a great impression on each other. Yet, as the new job glow wears off, you may find yourself confused by how quickly your bosss attention vanishes. The leader you were excited to work for becomes the person ignoring your emails, giving haphazard feedback, and postponing your 1-1 (again!). Working for a boss who is overwhelmed is a frustrating, yet not uncommon experience. A growing number of managers report feeling burnt out. Yet, employees are eager for growth opportunities, mentorship, and regular communication with their leaders. This tension often results in teammates feeling under-supported and confused, while managers feel overloaded and guilty. Even if your manager is spiraling, youre not powerless. Through intentionally leading yourself, you can form a supportive and impactful partnership, getting the most out of your managers often limited time. Make it easy to say yes When your manager is juggling a million things, they dont have time to read between the lines or guess what you need. Most leaders want to support their teamthey just need a little direction. Thats where you come in. Rather than hoping your manager will support you, be specific. Ask them to role-play a tough conversation with you, join a high-stakes meeting, or advocate for your work to leadership. The clearer you are about what you need, the easier it is for them to step up and help. Dont just hope for growth opportunitiesgo after them. Find the conference you want to attend, break down why it matters, how much it costs, and then ask your manager for approval. A clear, direct request is way more likely to get a yes than a vague wish for development. Same goes for flexibility. Instead of saying you need more work-life balance, be specific. Ask to work from home on Fridays or swap early mornings for late nightswhatever actually helps you. Your manager is busy, and broad requests like support or professional development are easy to push to the bottom of the list. Spell out exactly what you need, make it an easy yes, and watch how much more you get. Take charge of your 1-1s If your manager is showing up to your 1-1s frazzled and in need of a deep breath, youre not alone. The challenge is that overwhelmed managers spend most of their time on near-term fires. Theyre often worried about getting through the week, not building a successful year. Left unchecked, this can leave your long-term strategies and professional growth high and dry. Address the pop-up windows in your managers brain first, but then take it upon yourself to proactively bring up longer-view horizons by asking questions like: What skills should I be proactively developing to excel in my role? How can I further support our organizational strategy of X? Or mitigate the challenge of Y? Who should I be building relationships with beyond our immediate team? 1-1s that dont go beyond immediate deliverables wont hurt your manager, theyll hurt you. Surface whats most important to your career growth; dont wait for your manager to bring it up. Create a paper trail A leader who is overwhelmed will often forget what happened, what they said, and what the next steps are. Their brain is either in overdrive or stuck in a survival response. If your leader is overwhelmed, create a paper trail. Its on you to recap conversations, confirm prioritizations, and document timelines. This is of service to you and your manager. For you, creating a paper trail saves you time. When your manager can search their inbox for information, theyre less likely to ask you to recap or remind. When they inevitably ask you anyway, you have a simple email to forward. A paper trail is also a form of self-protection. Overwhelmed bosses are more likely to give unclear directions, change timelines, and constantly change their minds. Protect yourself and your work product by documenting important conversations. Busy managers are juggling a hundred things at once, and sometimes, they dont even realize theyve given unclear or conflicting feedback until they see it in writing. That quick comment they made in passing? It might not hold up once its written down. That timeline they casually agreed to? It might suddenly seem impossible when its laid out in black and white. If your boss is moving a mile a minute, a clear, written recap can be a lifesaverit gives them a chance to process things at their own pace and catch any misunderstandings before they turn into bigger problems. Bottom line: dont leave things up to memory or interpretation. Put it in writing and protect yourself from the dreaded I never said that. Be the change you seek Dont add fuel to the never-ending corporate fire drill. People mirror the energy around themregardless of hierarchy. Want your manager to be more engaged? Show up engaged. Wish they were less frantic? Bring calm and focus to your meetings. Yes, working for an overwhelmed boss can be frustrating. But odds are, they dont want to be this way. They probably wish they had more time to support you, but theyre drowning in emails, answering to their own micromanager, or buried under deadlines. Heres the good news: You dont have to wait for them to change the dynamic. You can shift the toneno title required.
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E-Commerce
On Mauis North Shore, inside an industrial building that was once a pineapple cannery, an architecture office sits across the hall from a surfboard manufacturer. When the architects first moved in, they noticed something: Every few days, the dumpsters in the back would fill up with scraps of foam from making the boards. David Sellers, one of the architects, realized that the foam could be used in a building materialinsulated blocks that are typically made from a mix of concrete and new polystyrene foam. I was just like, We shouldnt be throwing this away, says Sellers, principal architect at the firm, Hawaii Off Grid. We live on an island, with limited space. So how can we use this to make houses? [Photo: Hawaii Off Grid] In 2023, the team got a small grant to pursue the idea of recycling the surfboard waste into new blocks. Then came the Lahaina fire, which destroyed more than 2,000 homes and other buildings. The small firm paused the project and focused at first on helping redesign houses. But we also said, we’re going to need a lot of building materials, he says. And we’re going to need building materials that are fire resistant. The blocks have some advantages. In addition to resisting fire, theyre also four times as strong as a two-by-four framed wall in a hurricane. Theyre impervious to mold, mildew, and termites, all issues in Hawaii. The insulation properties are twice whats required by code. (The fact that its energy efficient is especially important for Hawaii Off Grid, which focuses on the carbon footprint of each of its projects; the firm actually requires all of its clients to commit to net zero buildings.) The blocks use only about a third as much cement as is used in cinder blocks. [Photo: Hawaii Off Grid] Its also an accessible alternative to wood. Lumber is at an all-time high again, and the availability of building materials is stretched thin, Sellers says. This is another option that people can utilize and hopefully help them rebuild faster and not be pinched by the current tariffs that we’re dealing with in the building industry. To make the blocks, the company uses a large machine to grind up the foam into tiny beads. Then those are mixed with Portland cement, making a consistency that Sellers compares to rice crispy treats, and pressed together in wooden molds. The one-foot-high blocks are five feet long, making them faster to stack together during construction. The design-build firm has just completed its first house using the surfboard-waste-based blocks, on the edge of the burn zone in Lahaina. More are coming. Though the fire happened 20 months ago, the process of rebuilding is just beginning, delayed by the need to decontaminate properties and by red tape. Now, as construction begins to ramp up, materials will be in more demand. [Photo: Hawaii Off Grid] With the volume of foam waste produced by its neighbor alone, the firm has calculated that it would have enough to build 10 to 20 houses a year, much more than it currently needs as a small firm. Sellers has also talked to companies like Lowe’s about recycling foam packaging after appliance deliveries. (In theory, old surfboards could also be recycled, though surfers tend to hang on to old boards and display them rather than throw them away.) The idea could be replicated by other builders, Sellers says. But he’s hoping that polystyrene foam can eventually be phased outat which point, they’d stop using the blocks as a building material. “I hope we won’t be using petroleum-based solutions, moving forward,” he says. Surfboard companies are already experimenting with alternative materials, and other companies are trying to find foam alternatives for packaging. For now, the architects plan to keep recycling as much foam as possible to keep it out of the dump and out of nature. “We have a stockpile of foam,” Sellers says. “We’re trying to not let any foam go in the landfill.”
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E-Commerce
While home sales and remodeling rates remain low, Thumbtackwhich connects homeowners with professionals to do work on their housessays business is booming. In fiscal 2024, Thumbtack saw revenue of $400 million, up 27% from the previous year, with billions of dollars going to the roughly 300,000 small businesses that book work through the platform. Cofounder and CEO Marco Zappacosta attributes the companys success to more than 15 years of work helping users find the right, trustworthy professionaleven if theyre not entirely sure what they need to fix a problem in their homebolstered by recent advances in artificial intelligence. “You’ve got to remember this is, on average, a $1,000 purchase,” Zappacosta says. “It’s not something you do casually.” [Photo: Thumbtack] Zappacosta believes it’s inevitable that the vast majority of home maintenance and remodeling bookings will ultimately move online, similar to the travel and transportation industries. What sets this industry apart, however, is the sheer number of service typesThumbtack lists professionals in about 500 different categories, from ceramic tile installation to black mold remediation. To help users understand what’s available and how services match their needs, the company has offered an AI-powered search feature since last year. It allows users to describe home issues in plain language, rather than rely on keyword searches or Yellow Pages-style lookups for terms like “plumber” or “electrician.” Thumbtack is also testing an AI feature that lets users upload photos of home issues, such as a leak through the ceiling, to get help finding the right professional. As AI grows more powerful, it can help transform the experience of booking home services from a traditional internet search into something more like a conversation with a savvy neighbor, Zappacosta suggests. [Photo: Thumbtack] “The opportunity that AI creates for our business is at any point in the process, if you have a question or concern, or if you have to make a decision, we can arm you with the relevant context to help you evaluate that and confidently take action,” he says. Even before the rise of large language models, the company offered a collection of home project guides, including advice to help people decide when to tackle a task themselves and when to hire an expert. Alongside reminders of scheduled work and tools to rebook trusted pros, the Thumbtack app also provides customized guidance on when to perform various maintenance tasksguidance Zappacosta suggests will only improve as AI systems advance and the company gathers more data about users, their homes, and their needs. AI can also likely help professionals optimize their use of Thumbtack, Zappacosta says, enabling them to better configure platform features to find sales leads suited to their businesses. “The focus on pros is always how we can provide them more consistent value,” he says. [Photo: Thumbtack] Thumbtack’s technical edge, says Sequoia Capital partner and Thumbtack board member Bryan Schreier, gives the company a strong chance of becoming the go-to platform for home servicesakin to Uber for ride-hailing or DoorDash for delivery. “Owning a home is complex, and so I think it’s just taken a while to deliver the technical achievement that is required to become the Uber of the home services space, because it is so complex,” Schreier says. “In the last couple of years, in terms of its growth and profitability, I think the secret behind [Thumbtack’s] emergence is the fact that they have cracked the technological nut behind what had been holding back a company from becoming the Uber of the home services space until now.” In parallel with its AI efforts, Thumbtack has forged partnerships with other online platforms, including providing search results for home improvement-related terms on Nextdoor. The company was also recently featured in an Amazon preview of upcoming AI enhancements for Alexa, which would be able to book professionals on users behalf. These partnerships now account for 10% of Thumbtacks annual revenue and help deliver its services to users even if they dont visit the site directly. “Hiring pros and dealing with your home is a huge activityit happens in a ton of places on the internet,” says Zappacosta. “And increasingly, platforms are utilizing us as the best way to fulfill a homeowner’s hiring needs.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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