What's on Your Mind?

There are a few workplace topics that consistently bring out strong feelings, and performance reviews is at the top of that list. While most people would agree that it’s a good thing to have a tool to measure how employees are doing at their jobs, and a time for managers to discuss career advancement, very few seem to think that the way performance reviews are currently set up is working. In fact, a Gallup survey last year found that only 2% of human resource officers at major companies think their performance management system is working and just 22% of workers felt their review process was “fair and transparent.” One of the biggest complaints employees have …

It’s human nature to wait until the last minute rather than plan ahead—perhaps especially when it comes to retirement planning. There’s always plenty of other excellent uses for your money, until suddenly you’re staring at an underfunded 401(k) with only a few years left before you’ll need it. This is why president George W. Bush passed legislation in 2001 that (among other things) allowed for catch-up contributions among workers who were 50 or older. This gave older workers a chance to beef up their 401(k) accounts while they were typically at the peak of their earning years and let them continue to take advantage of making pre-tax contributions. Other than incre…

Just under a year after the rebirth of the Kickstarter favorite Pebble smartwatch, the founder of that tech gadget is debuting the company’s next product. The Pebble Index 01 is a smart ring of sorts, but instead of focusing on health data or sleep cycles, the sole purpose of this ring is to help wearers remember thoughts that bolt out of the blue during the middle of the day. “Do you ever have flashes of insight or an idea worth remembering? This happens to me five to 10 times every day,” Eric Migicovsky, who shepherded Pebble from Y Combinator to an angel investment of $375,000 to the record-setting Kickstarter campaign, wrote in a blog post. “If I don’t write d…

Since 2018, the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma has dished out $10,000 to more than 4,000 remote workers for moving there—and according to a new study, generated more than four-times that sum in economic impact. Cities and towns have long offered tax incentives and other perks to employers that bring jobs. In recent years, however, the Tulsa Remote program—which is primarily funded by community-based nonprofit the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF)—has proven that there can be equal or greater value in recruiting mobile workers one at a time. Though $10,000 might sound like a hefty sum, new research suggests each dollar given returns $4.31 to the local economy, includ…

When I first learned about Roth IRAs and Roth 401(k) plans—the tax-advantaged retirement plans that are funded with a taxpayer’s after-tax income—I remember thinking that it must be nice to have enough income that you could afford to contribute money to your retirement without an immediate tax break. But even though you fund Roth accounts with after-tax dollars, making them more expensive on the contribution side, they are ultimately a savvy way to save money in the long run. Unfortunately, if you don’t know what these accounts are or how they work, you will miss out on all of their benefits. Here’s everything you need to know to make the most of Roth retirement a…

Many traits—like impulsivity, hyperfocus, and nonlinear thinking—that get pathologized in school or corporate environments are the same ones that create natural entrepreneurs. View the full article

Dek: The health supplement company counts investors like Lewis Hamilton and Alex Honnold. Kat Cole is no stranger to a career pivot. At Hooters, she went from waitress to vice president as she worked her way up the restaurant chain’s corporate ladder. Then, over the course of more than 10 years at Cinnabon parent Focus Brands, she built a career selling sweet treats to consumers. In 2024, Cole made the leap from selling fast food to health supplements by becoming CEO of AG1 (formerly known as Athletic Greens), which sells a green multivitamin and nutrient powder. Valued at $1.2 billion in 2022, AG1 has been endorsed by athletes like Olympic runner Allyson Fe…

It’s long been the uniform of management consultants and finance bros, but now the humble quarter zip is being embraced by a rather unexpected demographic. ​​Over the past few weeks, FYPs have become dominated by the workwear staple. Young men who previously might’ve been seen exclusively in Nike Tech, have now traded them in for quarter zip sweaters. Across social media, they are sharing styling tips and hosting meetups at malls, all clad in business-casual. The trend gained widespread attention when, in early November, TikToker @whois.jason shared a video of himself sipping a matcha (the beverage of choice for the ‘performative male’) with a friend. Both are we…

The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics are giving people at home a first-of-its-kind, first-person view of the Winter Games, all thanks to a fleet of custom-built drones. The small, agile drones can be spotted—not to mention heard—buzzing across Olympic venues, and they’re giving what broadcasters call a “third dimension” to the viewing experience. Instead of capturing the action only from fixed or semifixed cameras on cables and cranes, operators of these drones give viewers an athlete’s perspective as they race down slopes and around tracks. “This is the closest you can get to feeling a jump,” ski-jumper-turned-drone-operator Jonas Sandell said in a statement. …

If you’ve already given up on your 2026 rebrand because you couldn’t stick to your six gym sessions a week and no-sweet-treats resolutions, adopting a “vegan plus bacon” mindset may be the answer to all your problems. TikTok creator @addietheoptimist broke the idea down in a recent video: “Someone on here went viral because they said if you think you can’t go vegan because you love bacon too much, just become vegan plus bacon,” she explained in the now-viral clip. “I’m here to tell you you can just apply that mentality to so many things in your life.” While the original creator was referencing harm reduction in relation to veganism (that if you only eat baco…

My working days often unfold in either Zoom minimalist workplaces or glass-walled conference rooms with sleek windows, filled with entrepreneurs pitching ideas. As a marketing executive and startup mentor, I lead strategies for companies of various sizes, guide founders at startup accelerators TechStars and Founder Institute, and serve as an awards jury member. My calendar overflows with executive consultations, brand campaign planning, and deadline sprints. But between Christmas and New Year’s, I trade those sterile spaces for museum halls alive with color and history. It wasn’t easy getting out the door the first time I did this in 2021. I was filled with fears.…

You may remember this, if you are old enough: in 2002, search engine optimization (SEO) transformed from a technical curiosity into a full-blown industry. All of a sudden, agencies, consultants, and “black-hat sorcerers” emerged overnight, offering tricks and hacks to get brands onto the first page. Today, we stand at the dawn of the next wave: what some call Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) or simply AI Engine Optimisation (AIO). The logic is similar: get your brand seen, but the stakes are higher, the rules blurrier, and the risks far more structural. Imagine a world where users no longer click search results but instead ask an…

Getting your tax refund is the only fun part of filing your taxes every year—which can make it especially galling when Uncle Sam takes his sweet time sending your money. Waiting for a refund in 2025 has some added stress, considering the recent IRS layoffs, the department’s plans for a 25% reduction in force, and the heartburn-inducing game of acting director musical chairs that played out during this year’s tax season. With all of that turmoil in the IRS, any taxpayer still waiting on a refund may worry their tax return got lost in the shuffle. The good news is that the IRS is still processing tax returns and refunds at a steady clip, even with a reduced workforc…

You’ve probably heard of Charles and Ray Eames, the designers behind the iconic Eames chair and ottoman, and Georgia O’Keefe, the trailblazing artist. But you might not know about how these artists were connected during their careers—or the art that came from their camaraderie. Herman Miller, in collaboration with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, is bringing that history to light with a new limited-run furniture line. The New Mexico Collection, set to be released on May 20, celebrates the Eameses, O’Keeffe, and designer Alexander Girard, the founding director of Herman Miller’s textile division. Included in the launch are 300 special Eames Wire Chairs, retailing for $1,9…

The standing desk is old news. Behold, the standing table. Herman Miller just released a new design that takes the concept of a standing desk to a whole new level. The Spout Sit-to-Stand Table comes in a range of sizes, from 2-by-4 feet to a whopping 4-by-7 feet, supports up to 400 pounds, and can seat a whole team rather than just one worker. That’s because it breaks a key form factor that most other standing desks follow: the number of legs in use. The vast majority of standing desks have only two motorized legs, mostly because they’re easier to stabilize and engineer to move seamlessly. Meanwhile, the Spout table stands on four legs, allowing chairs to be placed comf…

If you visit the Hermès website in search of a scarf or a handbag, you’ll be greeted by a collection of whimsical sea creatures swimming across the screen. To navigate to the watch section, you’ll click on an image of a watch flanked by an eel. To locate shoes, you’ll click on a loafer with a pelican sitting inside it as if it were riding a boat. These sea horses and fish and eels and star fish are intriguing to the eye. While digitally-rendered images are hyper smooth, symmetrical, and flawless, these pictures bear all the imperfections of a hand-drawn illustration. We see the texture of the paper grain in the background, a slight irregularity in the lines, uneve…

Hershey’s has finally jumped on the Dubai chocolate trend, and it typifies the intentional approach the company is taking to viral candy. The Hershey’s Company announced it’s releasing a limited-edition Hershey’s Dubai-Inspired Chocolate Bar that adds green pistachio filling and kadayif pastry to a classic break-apart Hershey’s chocolate. They’re treating the release like a sneaker drop: only 10,000 bars are being released. “We don’t chase every trend, but this one was big enough, and there was an opportunity to do it in a Hershey way,” Dan Mohnshine, Hershey’s vice president of demand creation strategy and brand development, tells Fast Company. To make th…

Hertz is notifying customers that hackers may have stolen personal information like credit card details and social security numbers during a data breach on one of its vendors. In a notice on its website, Hertz said an unauthorized third-party stole data during a cyberattack on Cleo Communications’ file-transfer platform between October 2024 and December 2024. Hertz, which also owns the Dollar and Thrifty rental brands, said it confirmed the attack on Feb. 10 and concluded April 2 that the information exposed by the breach could have included customers’ names, contact information, dates of birth, credit card information, driver’s license information, and informat…