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Why our lengthening lifespans are not entirely welcomeView the full article

Google’s Chrome is taking browser tabs vertical. The company announced this week that it’s beginning to roll out an option for users to stack their tabs in a panel on the left side of the browser instead of horizontally at the top. For tab hoarders like me—who get lost in a million tabs while trying to remember which favicon went with which website, or who have multiple websites open with the same favicon—vertical tabs will give us more information to determine which tab is where. It even works when you have so many open that you have to scroll to reach the end. The vertical tab interface has two modes: a collapsed version with just the favicons, and an expanded version that shows the full text of the page titles too, no matter how many tabs are open at once, unlike in the horizontal view. “This layout is perfect for multitasking, saving you time by making sure you never lose a tab,” Chrome product managers Alex Tsu and Jess Carpenter wrote in a blog post. To turn on vertical tabs, users can right-click on a window and select “Show Tabs Vertically.” Chrome is also introducing “reading mode” in its latest update, which is a full-page text interface that removes visual distractions. Google is pitching reading mode as a tool for deep focus. Many of Chrome’s most recently shipped updates are targeted at one of two aims: either adding AI functionality with Google’s Gemini or keeping up with alternative browser competitors. The Browser Company’s Arc browser launched in 2023 and had vertical tabs and split view before Chrome did. Google did not respond to a request for comment. While Chrome might not get to features like vertical tabs first, when it ships them, it reaches a mass audience. Chrome is far and away the most popular browser, with about 66% market share worldwide, according to Statcounter GlobalStats, a web analytics firm. So while Chrome isn’t the first to market, as the industry leader it can adopt the best innovations from smaller competitors after the fact to discourage platform switching among its existing users. (Think of how Meta rips off features like Snapchat’s filters and stories for its own apps, for instance.) Regardless, the update meets an urgent need, as tab hoarding is common. A 55% majority of respondents have trouble closing tabs, and 30% call their habit a “problem,” researchers from Carnegie Mellon University found. Plug-ins like Skeema can help rank tabs by priority, and with vertical tabs, the UI to do it yourself is now built in. View the full article

America’s housing market is finally starting to tip in favor of aspiring homeowners. A new analysis from Realtor.com reveals that nearly two-thirds of the biggest housing markets in the U.S. have now moved into “balanced” or “buyer-friendly” status, while only a quarter of the major markets still favor sellers. That’s in sharp contrast to 2021, when low interest rates and a buying frenzy gave sellers the upper hand in 98% of the top U.S. housing markets. Out of the top metros, only 26% qualify as seller’s markets right now, with a relatively large ratio of home shoppers to housing stock. Of those cities, 46% are in what Realtor.com calls a “balanced-loosening” phase, trending toward giving buyers the advantage; 16% are now solid buyer’s markets, where home shoppers have the most leverage. While most major metro areas are finally trending in favor of buyers, 12% of the top 50 metros are moving in the other direction—toward a “balanced-tightening” stage that precedes a full-blown seller’s market. Still, regional trends look very different depending on where in the country you’re looking to buy or sell a home. The new analysis shows that nearly all housing markets favoring buyers these days are in the South, while the Midwest and Northeast have the strongest concentrations of market conditions that benefit sellers. That variation is in sharp contrast to the seller-friendly nationwide homebuying blitz of a few years ago. “A national picture is useful, but when making a real estate decision, the local details are what really matter,” said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com chief economist. “Right now, a homebuyer in Houston or San Antonio is navigating a very different market than someone in Hartford or Milwaukee.” A heat map of housing markets In the report, Realtor.com depicts the housing market phases as the hands of a clock, with peak seller-friendly conditions at noon (think the COVID-era housing frenzy) and buyer-friendly conditions closer to 6 o’clock. After a seller’s market peaks, it transitions into a balanced phase before eventually cooling off into a buyer’s market, with more inventory, price cuts, and more leverage for home shoppers. The major seller’s markets currently in their peak are the metro areas of Chicago; Indianapolis; Hartford, Connecticut; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Southern cities including Atlanta; Austin; Jacksonville, Florida; and Nashville are all entering the early stages of a buyer’s market. Realtor.com considers housing supply, inventory balance, market competition, pricing pressure, and price adjustments to determine what market phase a metro area is in. A market’s status as buyer- or seller-friendly offers a useful snapshot of what homebuyers are grappling with; it isn’t meant to be a perfect predictor of home prices, but it can be useful. Housing signals like Realtor.com’s new analysis offer a glimmer of hope for would-be homebuyers who’ve been frozen out of the market, but they’re not out of the woods yet. The era of ultralow mortgage rates helped many first-time homebuyers in the early years of the pandemic, but the housing market has been off-kilter ever since. Many would-be homeowners found themselves facing impossibly high monthly payments as mortgage rates spiked, inventory dried up, and high home prices lingered. While the housing market gridlock finally started to ease early this year, homeowners face an unpredictable spring season. With a new war in the Middle East weighing on the economic outlook, in early April mortgage rates hit their highest levels in months. Higher rates drag fresh concerns about housing affordability into the busiest homebuying phase of the year—just as many Americans were hoping to catch a break. View the full article

This new outdoor fireplace—called the Totem Chiminea—would be at home in an art museum. It stands 5 feet tall, has a bulbous base that tapers into a slender flue, and is coated in porcelain enamel that comes in earthy colors such as sage green and burnt red. When you light a fire inside it, it emits warmth as well as a glow. At $4,500, it is not a casual purchase. But Neighbor, the 5-year-old brand that creates it, has found that many consumers are looking to invest in outdoor furniture that is as beautiful and thoughtfully designed as the pieces within their home. Neighbor was founded in 2020 in Phoenix by three friends—Nick Arambula, Chris Lee, and Mike Fretto—who had previously worked together at the direct-to-consumer mattress brand Tuft & Needle. As they surveyed the furniture industry, they realized that outdoor furniture tends to be an afterthought for many companies, rather than something they ask their best designers to tackle. At Neighbor, the team would focus entirely on the design of outdoor sofas and lounge chairs, concentrating their energies on making the pieces as beautiful and durable as possible. The company launched during the pandemic amid an already crowded market, when Americans were flush with stimulus checks and looking to spend more time in their gardens and patios. Its revenue grew elevenfold from 2020 to 2021. In the years since, the brand has found that Americans have continued to want to invest in their outdoor spaces. Particl, a third-party e-commerce tracking firm, estimates that Neighbor did around $24 million in e-commerce sales over the most recent six months. The furniture maker’s pieces, which tend toward minimal aesthetics and natural materials, stand out in an industry that is replete with the same synthetic wicker textures, sprawling sectionals in neutral tones, and faux wood that is obviously made of plastic. The reason for this homogeneity is partly because many furniture brands aren’t designing the pieces themselves, but instead are ordering from the same manufacturers’ catalogs. Arambula believed Neighbor’s competitive advantage was that it has a distinct point of view. “We tried to take a pretty strong perspective on design from the very beginning,” he says. “We didn’t want to just be slapping our brand on something someone else had designed.” Aaron Whitney, Neighbor’s VP of design, is trained as an architect, and it shows. He begins with the materials, most of which are natural, including real wood, aluminum, and stainless steel. Neighbor uses Grade A FSC-certified teak, an unusually dense hardwood with a high oil content that has made it the preferred wood for boatbuilding for centuries. The brand’s steel is 304 or 316 stainless wherever possible, not mild steel with a powder coat that will eventually chip. When using synthetic materials, including for a rattan collection, Neighbor chooses ColorCore high-density polyethylene (HDPE) that’s dyed all the way through, so there’s no surface degradation. The design philosophy that has emerged from all of this is not a distinct aesthetic—like mid-century or Scandinavian—but a discipline. “My goal is usually just to simplify things,” Whitney says. “It’s less about style and more about utility, but it is certainly not boring.” His goal is to pare down the design as far as it will go, then add life back in through function and color. The result is furniture that customers describe as versatile, and that can work in a hyper-modern home as well as a more vintage-inspired one. The Totem, for instance, looks like outdoor fireplaces that were popular in the 1960s and ’70s. Its design came out of Whitney’s own experience. He had been renovating his house and hunting for one of the cone-shaped hanging fireplaces, known as chiminea, that were produced by brands like Malm and Preway in the 1960s—the kind you see in mid-century California ranch houses or in movies set in that era. The vintage market for those pieces was thin. The modern market was thinner. “Everything else you see for a chiminea is just like a really minimal, cheap metal cone basically.” At the same time, Whitney observed that throughout the Southwest, traditional clay chimineas are everywhere. The design of the fireplace includes a narrow flue that draws smoke upward. The wide base radiates heat outward, a passive engineering solution that predates the smokeless fire pits that are very popular right now. “Chimineas have been solving that problem for centuries with a very straightforward design,” Whitney says. Neighbor took the traditional chiminea’s logic, modernized it with clean lines and distinct colors, and made it out of steel with a porcelain enamel finish—similar to the durable coating on cast-iron cookware—which won’t blister, peel, or fade from heat. It also has functional features to ensure it works well, including stainless steel legs that keep it level on uneven surfaces. The whole thing disassembles for storage; the tall chimney pieces pack back inside the firebox. Whitney imagines it as the focal point in an outdoor room. “I see this piece for people that truly want an outdoor living room setup,” he says—less a portable fire pit and more an architectural object that the rest of the furniture arranges itself around. Neighbor has found that people from all across the country are drawn to its products. Roughly a third of the brand’s customers come from California and the Northeast, which Arambula attributes to the fact that people from the coasts tend to be quicker to adopt new brands. But a growing number of its customers come from the Sunbelt states, where people spend nine months of the year outdoors. More recently, the company has seen a significant boost in revenue from the trades, including interior designers, architects, and hotels. In December 2024, historically one of the company’s slowest months, Arambula received an inbound call from a luxury hotel on the Las Vegas Strip for a $500,000 order. That’s when the company decided it made sense to start developing products specifically for the commercial market. The Totem, though, is very much designed for the homeowner. It’s an architectural statement piece that is slightly retro—the kind of thing that makes your neighbors wonder where you got it. View the full article

Let’s get one thing straight: I love my 2015 Toyota Sienna minivan. But after a decade of navigating dirty dog paws, diaper changes, puking toddlers, cross-country road trips, dystopian Maritime Canadian winters, and more, it might be time to consider a succession plan. So, like reportedly half of American consumers using LLM search today, I recently opened up a chatbot and asked it to help me find a new car. My opening prompt was simple: What is the best vehicle for a family of four, that has to deal with daily commutes, winter weather, all in the $50,000 price range? According to ChatGPT: Best overall: Mazda CX-90 Hybrid Best for reliability and resale: Toyota Highlander Hybrid Best for commuting and family size: Toyota RAV4 Hybrid / Honda CR-V Hybrid Best for space and comfort: Toyota Sienna AWD Hybrid (Wouldn’t you know it?) According to Claude: Top pick: 2026 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid AWD Plus, four “strong alternatives”: 2026 Kia Telluride 2026 Hyundai Palisade XRT 2026 Subaru Forester 2026 Honda Passport From the same prompt, two LLMs came up with 10 vehicle suggestions and only a single model in common. That, in a nutshell, is one of the newest, most compelling challenges facing major brands and marketers right now. Those LLMs’ results didn’t happen just naturally. They’re the result of everything the brands did, intentionally or unintentionally, and what was written about them online. And each LLM interprets and prioritizes all of that information in its own special way, so figuring out how to get to the top of every list—and knowing what each LLM is saying about your brand—is now a key task for every brand’s marketing department. Welcome to the GEO speedwagon. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and overall LLM visibility are in the midst of a gargantuan hype cycle. According to an October 2025 McKinsey report, 50% of Google searches already have AI summaries, and that’s expected to rise to more than 75% by 2028. At that point, $750 billion in U.S. revenue will funnel through AI-powered search. The McKinsey report says brands that are unprepared could see a decline in traffic from the traditional search channels by as much as 50%. Gaggles of startups are pitching AI slop factories as a solution: promising to quickly create hundreds of pieces of content with key information about brands that will get picked up by LLMs and regurgitated in their responses. What’s proving more useful, however, are tools—like Profound, Bluefish, Scrunch, and Emberos—that help marketers monitor, track, manage, and influence how LLMs find their brands. Profound announced a $96 million investment in February at a $1 billion valuation. Brands and marketers who may be feeling a bit behind on all of this need not panic . . . yet. Sources I’ve talked to describe this moment in GEO as 1998 for search, or 2006 for social media—the very beginning stages of a transformational moment. The biggest difference is the pace of both technological development and audience adoption. Now is the time to be building the foundations onto which a bigger part of your business will be built. Brand executives and CMOs are on a sliding scale of acceptance of this messy new world of AI discoverability, ranging from diving in headfirst to dipping their toes to going full Lloyd Christmas and trying to ignore the whole thing. GEO and the services and tools surrounding it have been labeled everything from snake oil to THE FUTURE. The reality is, of course, somewhere in the messy middle. For this story, Fast Company spoke to major brand executives, leading ad agencies, and startup founders to detangle the hype from what really matters. Here we’ll break down: The unexpected power move that will make your brand more visible on LLMs Why GEO is a racket, and the reasons it’s not How major brands and agencies are approaching GEO right now (and their plans for the future) Consider this your no-BS guide to GEO. First up: Your foundation matters From talking to executives across brands, agencies, and startups, it’s clear that GEO is not a short-term game you can win. The brands that will dominate LLMs are the brands that are already owning their paid, owned, and earned media. These are brands with consistency and clarity across their brand content, website, and social channels, not to mention their outside media coverage. Public relations veteran Jim Prosser recently argued in a piece titled “GEO is a Racket,” that GEO is really just about having a good overall communications strategy while monitoring how your brand is showing up in LLMs. And he’s right. That old chestnut of everything your company does is a brand action has never been more true. Except now, all of these brand actions aren’t simply spread across the internet but distilled down to answer a single LLM prompt. All the good, the bad, and the ugly is right there, in an instant. When you ask an LLM about a product or brand, it sources material from everywhere it can, prioritizing the most credible and most high-profile sources. It utilizes what your execs say on LinkedIn, what your customers and employees say on Reddit, what major publications and meaningful influencers say about you, and what you say about yourself in your own advertising and content. These have always been important factors in a brand’s overall identity. What LLM search does is make everything accessible all at once. “There’s a lot of hype around it, but at the same time, it has basically confirmed marketing fundamentals,” says Meghan Signalness, global head of media, marketing planning and operations, and agency leadership for Philips’s $4 billion personal health consumer business. “In some ways it’s just SEO sped up.” Signalness says her team has done plenty of GEO audits, and that the biggest thing that moves the needle is simply showing up consistently. “LLMs are looking at what words are most associated with your brand. That’s old-school marketing,” she says. Set up your content for success Chris Neff, global chief AI officer at award-winning ad agency Anomaly, says brands must optimize their own digital assets—particularly their websites—since roughly 60% to 65% of AI citations can derive from the brand’s own content. This has led to a resurgence in value of brand landing pages because they have the citable assets and structured architecture that bots require to reference a campaign. This extends to a brand’s FAQs, says Brad Nunn, vice president of media at ad agency Gale, noting that clear, factual, one-sentence answers are the single most effective way to ensure LLMs do not make incorrect assumptions about a product. “You’re not creating vagueness,” he says. “You’re mentioning the brand up front, and you’re saying exactly what it’s solving. You could add more after the fact if you want to be cute but you want the first sentence to be super clear, super tight, and factual.” According to James Cadwallader, cofounder and CEO of AI-native marketing platform Profound, owned content gives LLMs the best opportunity to talk thoughtfully about what your brand does. “You’re trying to give AI the opportunity to understand your business better,” he says. To make sure all of this content is working, Ally Financial CMO Andrea Brimmer says her team is constantly auditing and correcting how the brand shows up online. They use a tool called Scrunch to look at where and how the brand is showing up in LLMs. They analyze the findings with what Brimmer calls weekly “scrums” of multidisciplinary teams made up of PR, tech, HR, and a dedicated AI team within the marketing organization. From there, they work to build and maintain the brand’s presence through new content that shows up in the right places. When they find that LLMs are citing outdated or incorrect information, they intentionally create new content and work with PR to correct the original sources being cited by the bots. Then comes the more intangible art of making sure all the ways a customer sees, hears, and experiences the content are aligned in order to make your brand’s online presence as clear and consistent as possible for the LLMs to find and understand. “We’ve come to realize really quickly that brand has never been more important than it is now,” Brimmer says. “And when I say brand, I don’t mean just the marketing part of the brand. You better have really damn good customer experience and PR around your products, you better have a strong reputation in the marketplace, you better show up as a good citizen of the world, and you better treat your employees really well because all of those elements of what makes a great brand are more important now than ever before.” Build a spiderweb of authority For now, LLM search still prioritizes sources high in expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. But things can be complicated when one of those sources has wrong information. Brimmer describes this moment in marketing as a “Wild, Wild West” phase where brands must engage in “hand-to-hand combat” to ensure they show up accurately on probabilistic LLM chatbots. Her team has experienced the unpredictability of LLM search firsthand. When Ally announced in December that its customers could now deposit cash into their Ally checking accounts in person at Walmart, it was a big deal for one of the largest online-only banks in the U.S. But the brand had a problem: Major LLMs were still telling users the bank didn’t offer this feature. Fixing that misinformation was a long-term content play. The brand began creating more specific content to highlight the feature on its own site and elsewhere, as well as trying to correct sites where there was information saying it wasn’t a feature. Google, Meta, TikTok, and other major search and social media companies have robust brand liaison departments to help marketers better utilize their platforms. So far, AI companies don’t seem to be following that model, leaving brands to chart their own paths. This will undoubtedly change once there is advertising of some kind integrated into LLMs. But for now, companies must fend for themselves in making sure the source information is accurate. Getting the correct brand information into the world means showing up where people—and LLMs—are looking for information. On Reddit, for example, Philips conducted an “Ask Me Anything” event with credible engineers and doctors to provide high-authority, factual content on a platform AI models heavily scrape to see how providing credentialed human expertise there would impact the brand’s visibility in LLM models. The results were encouraging, but Signalness is quick to acknowledge that it’s far from an exact science. The rules can change suddenly, as when Reddit began limiting AI companies’ ability to scrape comments of millions of Reddit users for commercial purposes. Philips has done similar LLM visibility testing with its influencer strategy. “While we know there’s a role for influencers, in the context of an LLM there’s not as much of a role for that 20-year-old with a cellphone as there is for a doctor, a dentist, or another professional,” Signalness says. “So it’s stripping away a lot of noise, which is really refreshing.” Make a human fingerprint Forget churning out never-ending content to feed the algorithm. Quality still beats quantity. All of my sources said brands should avoid using anything resembling AI slop, because people are increasingly seeing that as (shocker!) creepy and inauthentic. Taryn Crouthers, CEO of agency Big Spaceship, highlights a significant “trust gap” between marketers and consumers. Marketers may be all in because they see the value of how AI can help make work more efficient, and more personalized at scale and all of that, but when consumers hear AI, they tend to tune out or get actively repulsed. “So now brands need human fingerprints or evidence of effort,” Crouthers says. “You can make something using AI and make sure that the GEO attributions are all there, but you need to also show the human side of that storytelling, how hard it was to make it, why you made it, how you made it. That helps people be more comfortable with it and more open to the message.” Ndidiamaka “Ndidi” Oteh, CEO of Accenture Song, says that if strong SEO was rooted in product attributes and specific description, LLM visibility goes beyond that by its conversational nature. “Take a black crewneck sweater,” she says. “We are now moving to the attributes that are connected beyond just that it is a black crewneck. It is about the flow, it’s about how it’s perfect for an afternoon ski trip—things you would never have had as part of your traditional attribute criteria because it’s not specific to the product.” What’s next After search comes agentic commerce, which will revolutionize e-commerce and require seamless integration between all aspects of a business. But we’re not there yet. Oteh says that link between commerce and LLM search, for example, where you’d find something you like and buy it right then and there within the LLM, is not quite ready for prime time in new agentic channels. “Even in rudimentary examples where the tech can sort of do it but not at scale, we’re finding that a lot of companies’ supply chains and order management systems just aren’t set up in a way where they can take signals from anywhere,” she says. Signalness also points to LLMs’ lack of readiness for providing the data brands need in order to responsibly utilize their platforms and justify the investment. “We know this is the step we need to take, but ‘Dear LLMs, let’s partner to take the step,’” Signalness says. “Some of us in the brands are saying, ‘Okay, let’s go start testing, but here’s our list of questions.’ And the answers to those questions aren’t coming back clearly.” Healthy brands will be healthy with just a few moves, primarily around monitoring. According to McKinsey, only 16% of brands currently track AI search performance systematically, which is key to identifying misinformation or visibility gaps. So while there is snake oil in the hype around how to build, grow, and maintain LLM visibility, for many major marketers its importance is very real. “This is the direction of travel,” Signalness says. “So get comfortable.” Just like a ride in a brand-new minivan. View the full article

Conforming loan limits are determined using a home price index. A congressman is proposing a switch to an income-based metric, creating more jumbo mortgages. View the full article

When managing your small business finances, choosing the right Intuit can make a significant difference. Various firms offer customized solutions, from bookkeeping to payroll services, designed to meet your specific needs. Comprehending these options is essential for effective financial management. Some firms excel in automation, whereas others provide personalized support. As you explore these top online accounting firms, you’ll uncover valuable insights into how they can help streamline your financial processes. Key Takeaways Bench offers reliable bookkeeping and monthly reports, making it ideal for freelancers and startups seeking consistent financial oversight. Pilot automates routine bookkeeping tasks, providing specialized accounting services and CFO options for high-growth tech startups. QuickBooks Live provides personalized bookkeeping with seamless integration for existing QuickBooks users, focusing on small business needs. Bookkeeper360 delivers flexible hourly services with payroll and tax preparation, ensuring clarity with financial dashboards tailored to business requirements. inDinero combines bookkeeping with CFO services, offering real-time insights and strategic planning for small businesses needing comprehensive financial support. Best Online Accounting Services Overview When you’re running a small business, finding the right online accounting service can make a significant difference in managing your finances effectively. Several top online accounting firms cater to diverse needs. Bench stands out for reliable bookkeeping and monthly reports, perfect for freelancers and startups. If you’re part of a high-growth tech startup, consider Pilot, which automates routine bookkeeping tasks, saving you time and effort. For those already using QuickBooks, QuickBooks Live offers personalized bookkeeping, ensuring smooth integration with your existing system. Bookkeeper360 provides thorough services, including payroll and tax preparation, along with financial dashboards to improve your organizational clarity. Finally, inDinero combines bookkeeping with CFO services, delivering real-time insights and strategic financial planning. By choosing the right outsourced accounting firm or virtual accounting firm, you can focus more on growing your business as well as ensuring your finances are in expert hands. QuickBooks Live: Cleanup Bookkeeping Excellence QuickBooks Live shines at providing cleanup bookkeeping services, ensuring your financial records are both organized and accurate, especially as tax season approaches. This accountant company specializes in helping small businesses manage their financial data effectively. They offer three online bookkeeping plans to cater to different needs, providing expert guidance and tax resources. If you need immediate assistance, the one-time Live Expert Cleanup service is available for just $150, making it an affordable option for those in a pinch. After the initial cleanup, QuickBooks Live’s services start at $300, positioning them competitively in the small business bookkeeping market. With a customer rating of 4.5, QuickBooks Live is recognized for its reliability and efficiency, making it a trusted choice for small businesses looking to streamline their bookkeeping processes. Botkeeper: Innovative Solutions for Accounting Firms Botkeeper provides automated bookkeeping solutions that can greatly streamline your accounting processes, reducing the need for manual tasks. It integrates smoothly with various accounting software, allowing you to maximize your existing tools as you benefit from advanced automation features. With pricing starting at $69 per license and professional support options available, Botkeeper offers a scalable solution customized to the needs of growing accounting firms. Automated Bookkeeping Solutions In today’s fast-paced business environment, many accounting firms are turning to automated bookkeeping solutions to improve their operational efficiency. Botkeeper offers customized solutions designed particularly for accounting firms, allowing you to streamline processes with minimal manual intervention. Starting at $69 per license, with a minimum of 10 licenses, Botkeeper’s scalable pricing model adapts as your firm grows. The platform automates routine tasks such as data entry and reconciliation, ensuring accurate financial records. Furthermore, Botkeeper provides monthly accounting team support, with pricing ranging from $999 to $2,499 depending on your needs. With a solid rating of 4.5, Botkeeper stands out as a top choice for firms enthusiastic to leverage technology in their accounting practices. Integration With Accounting Software Many small businesses find that integrating automated bookkeeping solutions with their existing accounting software can greatly improve their financial management capabilities. Botkeeper offers innovative solutions that seamlessly sync with various platforms, enabling real-time data access for informed decision-making. This integration considerably reduces manual data entry by up to 80%, saving you time and minimizing errors in financial reporting. With pricing starting at $69 per license for a minimum of 10 licenses, Botkeeper provides scalable solutions that can grow as your business needs evolve. Furthermore, you’ll gain access to a dedicated accounting team, ensuring you have the support and expertise necessary to manage client accounts effectively, without overwhelming your in-house resources. Ignite Spot Accounting: Certified Bookkeepers at Your Service Ignite Spot Accounting provides certified bookkeepers who specialize in customized bookkeeping solutions designed to meet your small business needs. With flexible pricing options starting at $625 per month, their services can adapt as your business grows, ensuring you receive the right support at the right time. From financial reporting to cash flow management, Ignite Spot is committed to helping you maintain accurate financial records crucial for your business’s success. Certified Bookkeeper Expertise In regard to managing the financial aspects of a small business, having a certified bookkeeper can make a significant difference. Ignite Spot Accounting provides certified bookkeepers who are not just trained but also experienced in handling the intricacies of small business finances. Their hands-on approach allows you to focus on growth as they manage daily financial operations. Here’s a quick overview of Ignite Spot’s offerings: Service Description Personalized Bookkeeping Customized financial management suited to your needs Strategic Financial Guidance Expert advice for better decision-making Cash Flow Forecasting Projections to help maintain financial stability With pricing starting at $625 per month, you can access top-tier expertise as your business grows. Personalized Bookkeeping Solutions When you’re running a small business, having personalized bookkeeping solutions can be crucial to your financial success. Ignite Spot Accounting offers customized services to meet your unique needs, ensuring high-quality financial management through certified bookkeepers. Here’s what you can expect: Customized Strategies: Receive cash flow forecasting and strategic financial guidance designed for your business model. Compliance Assurance: Professionals maintain accurate records, helping you stay compliant with regulations and facilitating smooth operations. Scalability: As your business grows, Ignite Spot adapts its services, offering flexibility and all-encompassing support when you need it most. Flexible Pricing Options Finding the right bookkeeping service for your small business often hinges on flexible pricing options that align with your financial capacity. Ignite Spot Accounting understands this need, offering pricing based on a percentage of your annual revenue. This model allows you to scale your bookkeeping services as your business grows, avoiding high upfront costs. Starting at $625 per month, their personalized services are provided by certified bookkeepers who tailor solutions to your specific needs. With a dedicated bookkeeper, you’ll benefit from expert financial management that understands your unique circumstances. In addition, Ignite Spot’s pricing structure adapts as your business evolves, ensuring you can modify service levels according to changing requirements without being tied to fixed fees. 1-800Accountant: Tailored Solutions for Small Businesses For small businesses seeking accounting solutions, 1-800Accountant offers customized services designed to meet specific needs in addition to ensuring compliance and financial health. Their mid-tier plans include thorough bookkeeping services, making them a solid choice for many small enterprises. Here are three key benefits you can expect: Dedicated Accountant: Each plan gives you access to a dedicated accountant, ensuring personalized support that understands your unique business challenges. Budget-Friendly Pricing: Starting at just $209 per month when billed annually, 1-800Accountant provides a cost-effective option for small businesses grappling with tight budgets. Expertise in Compliance: With extensive experience in small business accounting, they assist you in maintaining compliance and improving your financial health. While clients appreciate the service, clear communication about billing is vital to avoid confusion. Bookkeeper360: Flexibility in Hourly Services Bookkeeper360 stands out for its flexible hourly bookkeeping services, allowing small to medium-sized businesses to only pay for the support they genuinely need. With rates starting at $19 plus $150 per hour for additional help, you can manage costs effectively as you receive customized assistance. This service is designed to scale according to your specific bookkeeping requirements, ensuring you get exactly what you need without overspending. You can choose from a variety of services, including payroll, tax preparation, and financial reporting, which allows you to customize your support based on your unique business needs. Bookkeeper360 emphasizes personalized service, giving you direct communication with a dedicated team of bookkeepers. This model is particularly beneficial for businesses needing occasional help, as it eliminates the need for a full-time staff member, making it a cost-effective solution for managing your finances efficiently. Bookkeeper.com: Unlimited Support for Your Business When you choose Bookkeeper.com, you gain access to unlimited online support customized to your business needs. This service is designed to simplify your financial management by providing dedicated bookkeepers who are always available to assist you. Here are three key features of Bookkeeper.com: Monthly Meetings: You’ll have regular meetings with your dedicated bookkeeper to guarantee clear communication and personalized service that meets your specific requirements. Comprehensive Services: Starting at $399 per month, you receive a full suite of bookkeeping services that help maintain organized financial records and guarantee compliance with tax regulations. Onboarding Process: The onboarding can take up to three weeks, allowing time for thorough preparation and integration of your financial systems. Clients appreciate the continuous support, which facilitates timely resolutions to any bookkeeping challenges that arise, making it a reliable option for small businesses. Decimal: On-Demand Financial Reporting Decimal provides small businesses with on-demand financial reporting that streamlines access to crucial financial data, enabling you to make informed decisions quickly. Their service stands out in offering customizable reporting options, allowing you to tailor financial reports to meet your specific business needs and objectives. This flexibility guarantees that you can focus on what matters most to your business. Decimal’s platform improves the efficiency of financial reporting, greatly reducing the time you spend on traditional methods. With real-time data access, you stay updated on your financial performance, enabling timely adjustments as necessary. Even though pricing details for Decimal’s services aren’t publicly available, be aware that additional costs may apply for payroll and invoicing services, indicating a flexible pricing structure. This adaptability makes Decimal a valuable resource for small businesses looking to optimize their financial strategies and maintain a clear comprehension of their financial health. Pilot: Specialized Services for Startups For startups maneuvering the fast-paced world of technology, Pilot offers specialized accounting services designed to meet their unique financial needs. Here’s what you can expect: Tailored Expertise: You’ll benefit from dedicated finance experts and optional CFO services, guaranteeing you have the right guidance as your business grows. Automated Bookkeeping: Pilot automates routine tasks, freeing up your time to focus on strategic financial planning and core operations. Flexible Pricing: With pricing starting at $199, you can choose a plan that fits your startup’s financial situation, adapting as your expenses change. Moreover, monthly financial reports provide insights into your performance, helping you make informed decisions. You’ll also experience personalized onboarding to guarantee a seamless shift to Pilot’s services. This combination of support and automation makes Pilot an ideal partner for startups aiming to thrive in a competitive environment. Methodology for Evaluating Accounting Firms To effectively evaluate Deloitte accounting firms, a systematic methodology was employed that balances various critical aspects of their services. We used a scoring system that weighted general features at 50%, expert scores at 30%, supplementary features at 10%, and pricing at 10%. This approach guaranteed a thorough analysis of 13 firms across 15 categories, including invoicing capabilities and payroll services. The expert score component focused on each firm’s reputation, popularity, and perceived value based on client feedback. We examined pricing structures for transparency, which is crucial for small businesses to budget effectively and avoid hidden costs. Moreover, client satisfaction metrics provided important insights into the quality of service and overall effectiveness of each firm. This methodology allows you to make informed decisions when selecting an accounting firm that best fits your business needs. Frequently Asked Questions Which Accounting Package Is Best for a Small Business? Choosing the right accounting package depends on your specific business needs and budget. If you seek extensive services, QuickBooks Live’s starting price of $300 is appealing, whereas 1-800Accountant offers packages beginning at $209, including tax services. For personalized assistance, Ignite Spot’s $625 monthly fee provides certified bookkeepers. If flexibility is essential, Bookkeeper360 offers hourly services starting at $19, and Pilot caters to startups with packages starting at $199 based on expenses. What Is the Average Cost of a CPA for a Small Business? The average cost of a CPA for a small business typically ranges from $150 to $400 per hour, depending on service complexity and the CPA’s experience. For basic services like bookkeeping and tax preparation, you might pay annual fees between $1,000 and $5,000. Monthly ongoing bookkeeping services usually cost around $200 to $500. If you need specialized services, expect costs to rise, potentially reaching $1,500 to $10,000 annually. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmdpQzURvDQ How Much Should an Accountant Cost for a Small Business? An accountant for a small business typically costs between $200 and $800 per month, depending on the services you need. Hourly rates can range from $50 to $300, influenced by the accountant’s experience. Some firms offer flat fee packages, like Merritt Bookkeeping at $190/month, for basic services. For extensive support, expect to pay around $625 monthly with firms like Ignite Spot. Always look for transparent pricing to avoid hidden fees that can affect your budget. What Type of Accounting Is Best for Small Business? For small businesses, the best type of accounting often depends on your specific needs. Bookkeeping services guarantee accurate financial records and assist with daily transactions, whereas tax accounting helps you navigate complex tax regulations. Management accounting provides valuable insights for decision-making, and CFO services offer high-level financial strategy. Furthermore, industry-specific accounting firms can address unique challenges within your sector, providing customized support for effective financial management. Conclusion In conclusion, choosing the right online accounting firm can greatly impact your small business’s financial health. Each firm mentioned offers unique services customized to meet various needs, from bookkeeping to CFO support. By evaluating these options based on your specific requirements, you can guarantee you receive the personalized assistance necessary for growth. Whether you prioritize automation, specialized services, or unlimited support, the right accounting partner will help streamline your finances and improve your business operations. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "Top 10 Online Accounting Firms for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

When managing your small business finances, choosing the right Intuit can make a significant difference. Various firms offer customized solutions, from bookkeeping to payroll services, designed to meet your specific needs. Comprehending these options is essential for effective financial management. Some firms excel in automation, whereas others provide personalized support. As you explore these top online accounting firms, you’ll uncover valuable insights into how they can help streamline your financial processes. Key Takeaways Bench offers reliable bookkeeping and monthly reports, making it ideal for freelancers and startups seeking consistent financial oversight. Pilot automates routine bookkeeping tasks, providing specialized accounting services and CFO options for high-growth tech startups. QuickBooks Live provides personalized bookkeeping with seamless integration for existing QuickBooks users, focusing on small business needs. Bookkeeper360 delivers flexible hourly services with payroll and tax preparation, ensuring clarity with financial dashboards tailored to business requirements. inDinero combines bookkeeping with CFO services, offering real-time insights and strategic planning for small businesses needing comprehensive financial support. Best Online Accounting Services Overview When you’re running a small business, finding the right online accounting service can make a significant difference in managing your finances effectively. Several top online accounting firms cater to diverse needs. Bench stands out for reliable bookkeeping and monthly reports, perfect for freelancers and startups. If you’re part of a high-growth tech startup, consider Pilot, which automates routine bookkeeping tasks, saving you time and effort. For those already using QuickBooks, QuickBooks Live offers personalized bookkeeping, ensuring smooth integration with your existing system. Bookkeeper360 provides thorough services, including payroll and tax preparation, along with financial dashboards to improve your organizational clarity. Finally, inDinero combines bookkeeping with CFO services, delivering real-time insights and strategic financial planning. By choosing the right outsourced accounting firm or virtual accounting firm, you can focus more on growing your business as well as ensuring your finances are in expert hands. QuickBooks Live: Cleanup Bookkeeping Excellence QuickBooks Live shines at providing cleanup bookkeeping services, ensuring your financial records are both organized and accurate, especially as tax season approaches. This accountant company specializes in helping small businesses manage their financial data effectively. They offer three online bookkeeping plans to cater to different needs, providing expert guidance and tax resources. If you need immediate assistance, the one-time Live Expert Cleanup service is available for just $150, making it an affordable option for those in a pinch. After the initial cleanup, QuickBooks Live’s services start at $300, positioning them competitively in the small business bookkeeping market. With a customer rating of 4.5, QuickBooks Live is recognized for its reliability and efficiency, making it a trusted choice for small businesses looking to streamline their bookkeeping processes. Botkeeper: Innovative Solutions for Accounting Firms Botkeeper provides automated bookkeeping solutions that can greatly streamline your accounting processes, reducing the need for manual tasks. It integrates smoothly with various accounting software, allowing you to maximize your existing tools as you benefit from advanced automation features. With pricing starting at $69 per license and professional support options available, Botkeeper offers a scalable solution customized to the needs of growing accounting firms. Automated Bookkeeping Solutions In today’s fast-paced business environment, many accounting firms are turning to automated bookkeeping solutions to improve their operational efficiency. Botkeeper offers customized solutions designed particularly for accounting firms, allowing you to streamline processes with minimal manual intervention. Starting at $69 per license, with a minimum of 10 licenses, Botkeeper’s scalable pricing model adapts as your firm grows. The platform automates routine tasks such as data entry and reconciliation, ensuring accurate financial records. Furthermore, Botkeeper provides monthly accounting team support, with pricing ranging from $999 to $2,499 depending on your needs. With a solid rating of 4.5, Botkeeper stands out as a top choice for firms enthusiastic to leverage technology in their accounting practices. Integration With Accounting Software Many small businesses find that integrating automated bookkeeping solutions with their existing accounting software can greatly improve their financial management capabilities. Botkeeper offers innovative solutions that seamlessly sync with various platforms, enabling real-time data access for informed decision-making. This integration considerably reduces manual data entry by up to 80%, saving you time and minimizing errors in financial reporting. With pricing starting at $69 per license for a minimum of 10 licenses, Botkeeper provides scalable solutions that can grow as your business needs evolve. Furthermore, you’ll gain access to a dedicated accounting team, ensuring you have the support and expertise necessary to manage client accounts effectively, without overwhelming your in-house resources. Ignite Spot Accounting: Certified Bookkeepers at Your Service Ignite Spot Accounting provides certified bookkeepers who specialize in customized bookkeeping solutions designed to meet your small business needs. With flexible pricing options starting at $625 per month, their services can adapt as your business grows, ensuring you receive the right support at the right time. From financial reporting to cash flow management, Ignite Spot is committed to helping you maintain accurate financial records crucial for your business’s success. Certified Bookkeeper Expertise In regard to managing the financial aspects of a small business, having a certified bookkeeper can make a significant difference. Ignite Spot Accounting provides certified bookkeepers who are not just trained but also experienced in handling the intricacies of small business finances. Their hands-on approach allows you to focus on growth as they manage daily financial operations. Here’s a quick overview of Ignite Spot’s offerings: Service Description Personalized Bookkeeping Customized financial management suited to your needs Strategic Financial Guidance Expert advice for better decision-making Cash Flow Forecasting Projections to help maintain financial stability With pricing starting at $625 per month, you can access top-tier expertise as your business grows. Personalized Bookkeeping Solutions When you’re running a small business, having personalized bookkeeping solutions can be crucial to your financial success. Ignite Spot Accounting offers customized services to meet your unique needs, ensuring high-quality financial management through certified bookkeepers. Here’s what you can expect: Customized Strategies: Receive cash flow forecasting and strategic financial guidance designed for your business model. Compliance Assurance: Professionals maintain accurate records, helping you stay compliant with regulations and facilitating smooth operations. Scalability: As your business grows, Ignite Spot adapts its services, offering flexibility and all-encompassing support when you need it most. Flexible Pricing Options Finding the right bookkeeping service for your small business often hinges on flexible pricing options that align with your financial capacity. Ignite Spot Accounting understands this need, offering pricing based on a percentage of your annual revenue. This model allows you to scale your bookkeeping services as your business grows, avoiding high upfront costs. Starting at $625 per month, their personalized services are provided by certified bookkeepers who tailor solutions to your specific needs. With a dedicated bookkeeper, you’ll benefit from expert financial management that understands your unique circumstances. In addition, Ignite Spot’s pricing structure adapts as your business evolves, ensuring you can modify service levels according to changing requirements without being tied to fixed fees. 1-800Accountant: Tailored Solutions for Small Businesses For small businesses seeking accounting solutions, 1-800Accountant offers customized services designed to meet specific needs in addition to ensuring compliance and financial health. Their mid-tier plans include thorough bookkeeping services, making them a solid choice for many small enterprises. Here are three key benefits you can expect: Dedicated Accountant: Each plan gives you access to a dedicated accountant, ensuring personalized support that understands your unique business challenges. Budget-Friendly Pricing: Starting at just $209 per month when billed annually, 1-800Accountant provides a cost-effective option for small businesses grappling with tight budgets. Expertise in Compliance: With extensive experience in small business accounting, they assist you in maintaining compliance and improving your financial health. While clients appreciate the service, clear communication about billing is vital to avoid confusion. Bookkeeper360: Flexibility in Hourly Services Bookkeeper360 stands out for its flexible hourly bookkeeping services, allowing small to medium-sized businesses to only pay for the support they genuinely need. With rates starting at $19 plus $150 per hour for additional help, you can manage costs effectively as you receive customized assistance. This service is designed to scale according to your specific bookkeeping requirements, ensuring you get exactly what you need without overspending. You can choose from a variety of services, including payroll, tax preparation, and financial reporting, which allows you to customize your support based on your unique business needs. Bookkeeper360 emphasizes personalized service, giving you direct communication with a dedicated team of bookkeepers. This model is particularly beneficial for businesses needing occasional help, as it eliminates the need for a full-time staff member, making it a cost-effective solution for managing your finances efficiently. Bookkeeper.com: Unlimited Support for Your Business When you choose Bookkeeper.com, you gain access to unlimited online support customized to your business needs. This service is designed to simplify your financial management by providing dedicated bookkeepers who are always available to assist you. Here are three key features of Bookkeeper.com: Monthly Meetings: You’ll have regular meetings with your dedicated bookkeeper to guarantee clear communication and personalized service that meets your specific requirements. Comprehensive Services: Starting at $399 per month, you receive a full suite of bookkeeping services that help maintain organized financial records and guarantee compliance with tax regulations. Onboarding Process: The onboarding can take up to three weeks, allowing time for thorough preparation and integration of your financial systems. Clients appreciate the continuous support, which facilitates timely resolutions to any bookkeeping challenges that arise, making it a reliable option for small businesses. Decimal: On-Demand Financial Reporting Decimal provides small businesses with on-demand financial reporting that streamlines access to crucial financial data, enabling you to make informed decisions quickly. Their service stands out in offering customizable reporting options, allowing you to tailor financial reports to meet your specific business needs and objectives. This flexibility guarantees that you can focus on what matters most to your business. Decimal’s platform improves the efficiency of financial reporting, greatly reducing the time you spend on traditional methods. With real-time data access, you stay updated on your financial performance, enabling timely adjustments as necessary. Even though pricing details for Decimal’s services aren’t publicly available, be aware that additional costs may apply for payroll and invoicing services, indicating a flexible pricing structure. This adaptability makes Decimal a valuable resource for small businesses looking to optimize their financial strategies and maintain a clear comprehension of their financial health. Pilot: Specialized Services for Startups For startups maneuvering the fast-paced world of technology, Pilot offers specialized accounting services designed to meet their unique financial needs. Here’s what you can expect: Tailored Expertise: You’ll benefit from dedicated finance experts and optional CFO services, guaranteeing you have the right guidance as your business grows. Automated Bookkeeping: Pilot automates routine tasks, freeing up your time to focus on strategic financial planning and core operations. Flexible Pricing: With pricing starting at $199, you can choose a plan that fits your startup’s financial situation, adapting as your expenses change. Moreover, monthly financial reports provide insights into your performance, helping you make informed decisions. You’ll also experience personalized onboarding to guarantee a seamless shift to Pilot’s services. This combination of support and automation makes Pilot an ideal partner for startups aiming to thrive in a competitive environment. Methodology for Evaluating Accounting Firms To effectively evaluate Deloitte accounting firms, a systematic methodology was employed that balances various critical aspects of their services. We used a scoring system that weighted general features at 50%, expert scores at 30%, supplementary features at 10%, and pricing at 10%. This approach guaranteed a thorough analysis of 13 firms across 15 categories, including invoicing capabilities and payroll services. The expert score component focused on each firm’s reputation, popularity, and perceived value based on client feedback. We examined pricing structures for transparency, which is crucial for small businesses to budget effectively and avoid hidden costs. Moreover, client satisfaction metrics provided important insights into the quality of service and overall effectiveness of each firm. This methodology allows you to make informed decisions when selecting an accounting firm that best fits your business needs. Frequently Asked Questions Which Accounting Package Is Best for a Small Business? Choosing the right accounting package depends on your specific business needs and budget. If you seek extensive services, QuickBooks Live’s starting price of $300 is appealing, whereas 1-800Accountant offers packages beginning at $209, including tax services. For personalized assistance, Ignite Spot’s $625 monthly fee provides certified bookkeepers. If flexibility is essential, Bookkeeper360 offers hourly services starting at $19, and Pilot caters to startups with packages starting at $199 based on expenses. What Is the Average Cost of a CPA for a Small Business? The average cost of a CPA for a small business typically ranges from $150 to $400 per hour, depending on service complexity and the CPA’s experience. For basic services like bookkeeping and tax preparation, you might pay annual fees between $1,000 and $5,000. Monthly ongoing bookkeeping services usually cost around $200 to $500. If you need specialized services, expect costs to rise, potentially reaching $1,500 to $10,000 annually. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmdpQzURvDQ How Much Should an Accountant Cost for a Small Business? An accountant for a small business typically costs between $200 and $800 per month, depending on the services you need. Hourly rates can range from $50 to $300, influenced by the accountant’s experience. Some firms offer flat fee packages, like Merritt Bookkeeping at $190/month, for basic services. For extensive support, expect to pay around $625 monthly with firms like Ignite Spot. Always look for transparent pricing to avoid hidden fees that can affect your budget. What Type of Accounting Is Best for Small Business? For small businesses, the best type of accounting often depends on your specific needs. Bookkeeping services guarantee accurate financial records and assist with daily transactions, whereas tax accounting helps you navigate complex tax regulations. Management accounting provides valuable insights for decision-making, and CFO services offer high-level financial strategy. Furthermore, industry-specific accounting firms can address unique challenges within your sector, providing customized support for effective financial management. Conclusion In conclusion, choosing the right online accounting firm can greatly impact your small business’s financial health. Each firm mentioned offers unique services customized to meet various needs, from bookkeeping to CFO support. By evaluating these options based on your specific requirements, you can guarantee you receive the personalized assistance necessary for growth. Whether you prioritize automation, specialized services, or unlimited support, the right accounting partner will help streamline your finances and improve your business operations. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "Top 10 Online Accounting Firms for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

When companies rolled out return-to-office mandates starting in late 2024 and early 2025, labor force participation among mothers of young children fell from roughly 80% in 2023 to 77% by August 2025, reversing years of hard-won gains. Yet if you’re pregnant or postpartum, you have more rights than you may realize, including some that can help you keep your job while growing your family in a way that works for you. For all things working and mom-ing, we always turn to Daphne Delvaux, an employment attorney who represents working mothers, founder of the Mamattorney, and author of the new book Moms in Labor: An Employment Lawyer’s Secrets to Protect Your Baby and Your Career (That HR Won’t Tell You). In this multipart series for Two Truths, Delvaux will help you better understand your rights at work across various stages of motherhood. Part one: how to navigate return-to-work mandates, what to know about accommodations throughout the reproductive years, including the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and how to ask for what you are entitled to. We know that too many mothers leave the workforce due to the dual demands of paid work and caregiving. Tell us about what moms need to know about the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act—and how it can help them build some flexibility into their work life. In June 2023, Congress passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). It applies to any employer with 15 or more employees. It covers pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations unless doing so would create an undue hardship, which is a very high bar. In short, that means that pregnant and postpartum workers may be able to opt out of return-to-office mandates entirely. Remote work is a reasonable accommodation. Your company already knows it works because they just spent years building the infrastructure to prove it. Help us understand the PWFA a little bit more. How exactly can you qualify for accommodations under it? The PWFA is modeled after the Americans With Disabilities Act but designed specifically for pregnancy and postpartum. It requires that the mother has a pregnancy-related condition that is limiting one or more activities, and that a modification would allow her to keep doing her job. She does not have to have an official disability, just a pregnancy- or postpartum-related limitation. Conditions that qualify include morning sickness, pelvic pain, preterm labor risk, postpartum physical recovery, and prenatal or postpartum mental health conditions like anxiety or depression. Breastfeeding is explicitly covered, and so is the need to pump. So how do you suggest people make this request? The most effective thing a pregnant or postpartum worker can do is put the request in writing before the situation becomes adversarial. Start by emailing HR and your direct manager and stating that you are requesting a reasonable accommodation under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Describe the limitation (not the diagnosis) and the accommodation you’re requesting. Attach supporting medical documentation. Keep the language functional: “I am requesting the ability to work remotely during [duration] due to a pregnancy-related limitation.” Then what do you do? Essentially, you wait for the interactive process to begin. Your employer is required to engage. If they deny the request, ask for the denial in writing and the specific basis for the undue hardship determination. If they ignore the request entirely, document it and save the evidence. Both scenarios are actionable. The employer is not required to give you exactly what you asked for, but they are required to make a good-faith effort to find something that works. What they cannot do is nothing. What should people do if this process isn’t working—either their work isn’t being responsive or is being dismissive? Remind your employer that by law they have to engage in the interactive process to try to accommodate you. Mothers are also protected from retaliation, whether or not the accommodation is granted. As this is a newer law, it is possible that your employer is still wrapping their head around it. In your communications, make sure you are informing instead of asking, and do not assume they know about this. It’s possible that you are actually more of a subject matter expert than the person you are emailing. These rights are more acute to us moms, and it may just not be on their radar. However, if their behavior seems malicious or punitive in nature, make sure to consult with an attorney. View the full article

We talk a lot about visionary leadership. You know, the ability to see around corners, spot emerging patterns, and imagine futures that don’t yet exist. These are all very important activities for strategic work. But something we rarely consider is what happens when the physical instrument of vision itself is under siege. Said more bluntly, what happens when our eyes succumb to the daily assault of screen time? I recently spoke with Dr. Valerie Sheety-Pilon, SVP of clinical and medical affairs at VSP Vision Care, whose organization has spent three years tracking the state of vision health in the American workforce. The data she shared stopped me cold—and it reframed how I think about the infrastructure of creative, imaginative work. Here are three of my takeaways. Insight #1: The Visual Crisis Is Accelerating Faster Than We Think Three years ago, VSP’s Workplace Vision Health Report found that 50% of workers were experiencing at least one eye issue. I would definitely fall into that category—I have spare pairs of plus-one readers in every room in our house. But by last year, that number had climbed to 63%. Today it’s 66% and rising. That’s a 16-percentage-point jump in just three years, and it spans both desk workers and non-desk workers alike. The culprit isn’t mysterious. We are now spending upward of 100 hours a week in front of screens: phones, tablets, monitors, and televisions. That sustained “visual load,” as Sheety-Pilon calls it, is generating screen-related visual discomfort at a rate our workplaces haven’t been designed to absorb. The downstream effects, according to VSP’s research, are reduced productivity, diminished ability to focus, and a declining quality of work output. When I asked Sheety-Pilon whether visual fatigue might also affect higher-order thinking—the kind of imagination, problem-solving, and creative association that I call wonder —she didn’t hesitate. “There are studies that connect visual fatigue as a component of that imaginative deliverable of creativity,” she told me. “High visual load is impacting cognitive health as part of that.” Insight #2: The Body Is a System, Not a Collection of Silos This is the point where Sheety-Pilon’s perspective aligned deeply with my own perspective about what we need in our current Imagination Era. In my book Move. Think. Rest., I point out that our sentient intelligence constantly picks up cues and data through our bodies that inform and enrich our cognitive, rational decision-making. We are hardwired to use our whole selves, not just our prefrontal cortex. Sheety-Pilon frames it as the “visual sensory capacity,” one critical component within a dynamic, interconnected sensory system. “If we improve our vision, and then our hearing, and then the other senses that all come together,” she explained, “we can get that perfect package where we can be the best we can be every day.” In other words: The eye is not an isolated organ. It is a gateway to neural tissue, to sensory processing, and to the imagination itself. When we treat vision health as a stand-alone wellness checkbox rather than organizational infrastructure, we are, as she put it, failing to understand “the connection between ocular health, systemic conditions, and overall well-being.” This resonates with what neuroscientist John Medina writes about in Brain Rules for Work, which argues that ideally we should be stepping away from the desk every 35 to 40 minutes, not as a perk, but as a neurological necessity for sustained high performance. Insight #3: Vision-Forward Culture Is a Leadership Responsibility, Not an HR Benefit When I pushed Sheety-Pilon beyond ergonomic tactics—beyond the blue-light glasses and screen-distance reminders—and asked what a genuinely vision-forward organizational culture might look like, her answer was pointed: “Allowing the time and space, encouraging the moments of breaks.” Organizations that prioritize health literacy within the employee network can significantly shape work culture. She also introduced me to the 20-20-20 rule: For every 20 minutes of near-work screen time, take a 20-second break and look at something at least 20 feet away. It’s the ocular equivalent of what I call movement hygiene in the MTR framework: deliberately alternating between modes of engagement to preserve the capacity for both rigor and wonder. I’ve been giving this one a try and feel my eyes relax immediately! The leaders and organizations that will thrive in the Imagination Era won’t just invest in cognitive tools or AI capabilities. They’ll protect and cultivate the full sensory capacity of their people. Because you cannot lead with vision (metaphorical or otherwise) if you’ve systematically depleted the organ that makes vision possible. As Sheety-Pilon summarized near the end of our conversation, “You have better quality of work. You have the focus and the ability to deliver better work when you have a supportive employer that understands the importance of overall mental health and visual and physical well-being.” The hidden cost of screen-era work isn’t burnout or disengagement, it’s the slow erosion of the very sensory capacity leaders need most. Visionary leadership starts with healthy vision. It’s time to build the organizational infrastructure to protect it. View the full article

Ben McKenzie knows that his main claim to fame is, still, starring in The O.C., a Fox TV series that bowed out nearly 20 years ago. That’s why he begins his new documentary with a self-deprecating medley of clips featuring him being introduced as such. It’s a disarming transition to the film itself, which is a dire warning about what he views as possibly “the largest Ponzi scheme in history.” When the pandemic hit, and acting work vanished, McKenzie, who majored in economics at the University of Virginia, began a now six-year-long quest to understand the crypto industry, a research odyssey that he developed into a 2023 book, Easy Money. Now he’s turned that book into a scathing new documentary that he wrote, directed, stars in, and funded called Everyone is Lying to You for Money. It hits theaters in New York and Los Angeles on April 17, followed by Boston, Washington D.C., Austin, San Francisco, and Portland. The movie depicts McKenzie’s journey toward trying to understand crypto, one that took him from Miami to London to El Salvador. It includes footage from interviews he did with victims and fraudsters alike, including the industry’s now-fallen hero, Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried spoke with McKenzie in July 2022, months before being arrested and consequently beginning his 25-year federal sentence for seven counts of fraud, including stealing $8 billion from customers. Since Bankman-Fried’s conviction, decentralized digital currency has risen again, and McKenzie believes that his movie is even more relevant now. The documentary’s basic thesis is that no matter what crypto can make possible in theory, in practice it is barely a currency; it is used for digital payments far less often than crypto boosters claim. Rather, it’s just a form of gambling. Cryptocurrency is a “weird” investment because “you don’t own anything,” McKenzie tells me when we meet at a Brooklyn café in March. “You own a piece of code.” What’s more, he says, the crypto companies know this and exploit the individuals buying in, like a classic pyramid scheme: People are paying to have their real money turned into magic numbers. The industry’s “entire existence depends on misinformation, hype, and fraud,” McKenzie says. Beer, Matt Damon, and an airport in El Salvador McKenzie is aware that the concept of cryptocurrency can be complex to the point of brain-boggling. To make it accessible to filmgoers, he includes light moments with dark humor, such as a scene of him not being able to buy beer with Bitcoin at the Bitcoin conference, and a bit where his wife, actress Morena Baccarin, asks him if he’s just mad at Matt Damon—who did a TV ad for Crypto.com—because he’s more famous. (“And taller?” she adds.) He also makes effective use of real victims’ often touching stories, such as those who invested in Celsius in order to set up a passive investment for retirement or spend more time with their kids. (According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Celsius was found to have “artificially inflated” and “illegally manipulated” the value of its coin; the company froze user account access in June 2022, and customers lost billions.) He also speaks with an El Salvadorian citizen kicked off his land after the country’s pro-crypto president, Nayib Bukele, decided to build an airport for his so-called Bitcoin City. And then there are the simply outrageous moments, such as when Alex Machinsky, the CEO of Celsius—who was later sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud and market manipulation—justified crypto scams by saying, “If you left money on the street, do you expect it to be there in the morning?” (That footage, which McKenzie captured at SXSW in March 2022, is what gave him the idea to turn the project into a film in the first place.) But what stands out as the movie’s tense climax is McKenzie’s candid, one-on-one interview with Bankman-Fried. Everyone Is Lying to You for Money Seeing Sam Bankman-Fried squirm Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the crypto exchange company FTX and trading firm Alameda Research, was on a high in July 2022—”on top of the world,” as McKenzie says now. Bankman-Fried had just hosted a crypto conference in the Bahamas, with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair as guests, and Fortune had proclaimed him “the next Warren Buffett.” The crypto market had just started to crash, but Bankman-Fried, with a reported net worth of $20 billion and the full attention of the media and Capitol Hill alike, seemed golden. “The PR machine was in full blast,” McKenzie says, which may be why he accepted McKenzie’s Twitter DM invitation to meet. McKenzie was astonished at how open Bankman-Fried was—and how trusting his PR representative was, staying outside the hotel room during the video interview, and letting it go on for a full hour. (She was a fan of The O.C.) “In retrospect, I would have been more aggressive,” McKenzie says, but he certainly applies the pressure. Their conversation—which runs for six minutes in the film—makes for awkward viewing. “He’s very hard to edit,” McKenzie says, “because he talks in a very long-winded, circuitous way, [with] lots of caveats, lots of clauses.” Bankman-Fried is visibly perturbed. He admits that crypto has little public utility thus far as a real currency, that “the majority of people today are using it as a financial asset,” and that there needs to be more oversight. He gets particularly squirmy when McKenzie asks about his political donations and admits, after some prodding, to contributing “in the tens of millions” of dollars. McKenzie didn’t know at the time of the interview that Bankman-Fried had ordered a line of code that allowed Alameda to “withdraw effectively unlimited amounts of cryptocurrency” from FTX, according to the DOJ. “His empire was collapsing,” McKenzie says. “They were really in shit’s creek already.” Two days after Bankman-Fried’s arrest, in December 2022, McKenzie testified to the U.S. Senate, recommending that cryptocurrency be reclassified as a security, and be regulated as such. (After having seen Congress host pro-crypto hearings, including with Bankman-Fried, McKenzie had approached multiple representatives about sharing his perspective. It wasn’t until after the arrest that they acquiesced.) McKenzie also attempted to reach Bankman-Fried in jail, via a note, but received no reply. “They’re clinging onto hope” Even after writing a book and making a film, McKenzie feels powerless to change people’s minds: “I was more right than I thought I’d be, and I had less of an effect.” All the Celsius victims he interviewed—bar none—were still pro-crypto. To them, Celsius itself was just an anomaly. Most are invested in Bitcoin. “They’re clinging onto hope,” he says. “They’re so invested in the idea” that abandoning it would be painful. Since shooting wrapped in the fall of 2024, he’s grown even more disappointed. Despite the crypto market crashing in 2022, and Bankman-Fried’s sentencing to federal prison, no broader change has come. Partly, that is because Donald The President was re-elected. The President took in a reported $18 million in inauguration donations from crypto firms, passed the first-ever crypto legislation, and has pardoned crypto leaders including Binance founder CZ, who pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. He also launched the The President meme coin, which House Democrats have called a “pump-and-dump scheme.” Meanwhile, crypto recovered and surged again; in 2024, Bitcoin’s price had increased more than 400% compared to where it was in 2022. Crypto “is going to be with us for a while,” he says. Most ironic is how the resurgence affects selling his own documentary. It played at half a dozen film festivals over the past year, and indie film distributor The Forge is helping with the theatrical release. But he knows that a streaming deal will be crucial in getting people to see the film. Although he won’t name specific streaming companies, he says he’s had meetings with multiple, it’s “crickets.” He senses that they don’t want to touch it given the administration’s crackdown on the media, with the FCC investigating networks, cutting funding, and pressuring for the reshaping of editorial content. Other movies have struggled in that environment, including 2024’s The Apprentice, about The President himself and his relationship with lawyer Roy Cohn, which initially couldn’t land a distribution deal. And even after winning an Oscar, Palestinian documentary No Other Land had to self-release after the major streamers declined. “I think people were afraid,” McKenzie says, adding that “That’s the death of art. That’s the death of free expression.” For now, McKenzie is looking to get back into acting (especially after having just watched crypto investor and former FTX ambassador Kevin O’Leary appear in an Oscar-winning movie. “It’s a fucked-up world when [he] has a hotter acting career than me”). Still, he knows he’ll be paying attention to crypto “potentially forever.” The best he can do, he continues, “is say what I saw to the people who are willing to hear it.” View the full article

I started working as a remote employee back in 2006, long before it was common. I talked to my colleagues during the day, sure, but they were all in an office with cubicles. I worked alone. Later in my career, I was part of an executive team at a software company, making decisions about budget and strategy. So when I started my own business in 2022, many aspects felt like a natural extension of the way I’d always worked. Most advice about leaving corporate life focuses on the financial safety net: savings, pricing your services, and side hustles. But money isn’t the only reason people leave solopreneur life and go back to a nine-to-five. Some people are genuinely not wired for the day-to-day reality of working alone. Before you make the leap, it’s worth being honest about whether the nonfinancial parts of solopreneurship are a fit for you. You’ll be making every decision In corporate jobs, decisions get distributed across teams, managers, and leadership. As a solopreneur, every call is yours. You’ll face decisions daily, without the option for a second opinion. You don’t have a colleague to gut-check an idea or a manager to absorb some of the risk. It’s just you. Some people thrive on this autonomy. Others find it paralyzing. Procrastination and indecisiveness become real problems when there’s no structure forcing you to make a call. In a corporate job, deadlines and approval chains keep things moving, whether you feel ready or not. When you’re solo, nothing moves unless you do. What to ask yourself: Will I feel confident making decisions without a team to weigh in, and will I be able to move forward even when I’m unsure? Loneliness is a real consideration Solopreneurship can be isolating in a way that catches people off guard. I’ll have entire days go by without a single meeting. A survey from Founder Reports found 26% of solopreneurs feel lonely or isolated. Some people manage this through communities, like Slack groups, virtual coworking, or networks. I’ll have an occasional “coffee chat” via Google Meet with solopreneurs I meet online, just to connect with others. But these require effort to maintain, and they’re not the same as having colleagues who share your day-to-day context. What to ask yourself: Do I feel energized when working with other people, or do I do my best work alone? You have to sit with uncertainty Even experienced solopreneurs deal with income volatility, slow seasons, and the ongoing question of whether a particular business strategy will pay off. The difference between “keep going” and “go back to corporate” is tolerance. In a corporate job, uncertainty is usually someone else’s problem. Your paycheck still clears. In solo work, you absorb the uncertainty directly. It’s hard to think clearly when you’re worried about your business. Everyone’s tolerance for risk is different. Even with the most conservative decision-making, you won’t always get it right. And a lot of things are outside your control. What to ask yourself: How would I feel if I didn’t have enough clients for a month . . . or two? The financial question isn’t the only question Solopreneurship is often framed as something anyone can do if they just plan well enough. While it’s true that planning can make a solo business more stable, planning can’t change your wiring. Being honest about what solo work actually demands—emotionally and psychologically—is one of the most practical things you can do if you’re thinking about going solo. The financial aspects matter, of course. But so do the questions of whether you’ll be okay on the days when the work is quiet, the decisions are yours alone, and the path forward isn’t obvious. View the full article

On the heels of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war—which requires reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil passageway—benchmark U.S. crude oil prices sank to $94.98 a barrel on April 8, down 16%. That’s left many Americans wondering when fuel prices—and therefore airline ticket prices—might come down. The answer: probably not anytime soon. First, let’s take a look at gas prices. On Wednesday, the day after the ceasefire was announced, gas prices went up 2 cents, not down, hitting an average of $4.16 a gallon nationwide. Why aren’t we seeing prices fall? There are a few reasons. For one, reopening the Strait of Hormuz is only the first of perhaps many steps needed to getting oil flowing out of the Middle East, which could take days or weeks, according to regional oil executives who spoke with The New York Times. They noted a full recovery could take months. Then, there is the issue of damage to the region’s oil and gas infrastructure from U.S. and Israeli air strikes in Iran and Iran’s retaliatory strikes on the United Arab Emirates and a number of other oil-producing nations. That could also take time to repair. Turning to the airline industry: The conflict has sent jet fuel prices skyrocketing, sticking airlines with unwanted added costs, according to The Washington Post. Jet fuel prices hit $195 a barrel at the end of March, up nearly $100 from the beginning of the war. Those prices aren’t expected to change anytime soon, and remain hovering at $4.81 a gallon, according to Airlines for America’s Argus U.S. Jet Fuel Index. It begs the question: How are airlines dealing with those additional costs? One way is through higher fares and reduced flights, which Delta Air Lines recently announced it is doing, despite reporting strong profits. Another way is by raising checked bag fees, which Southwest, United, JetBlue, and Delta have all done in recent weeks—with Delta raising its checked baggage fee by $10. Finally: Expect more canceled flights or fewer scheduled flights overall, at least in the foreseeable future. View the full article

Below, Nir Eyal shares five key insights from his new book, Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results. Eyal is a best-selling author, former Stanford lecturer, and one of the world’s foremost experts on behavioral design. His previous books, Hooked and Indistractable, have sold more than a million copies and been translated into 30-plus languages. Next Big Idea Club readers can get an exclusive free download of Eyal’s 5-Minute Belief Change Guide at: NirAndFar.com/beyond-belief-live/. What’s the big idea? The best beliefs are both practical and provisional. They offer just enough certainty to act, yet enough flexibility to adapt when new evidence arrives. Choosing your beliefs wisely may be the most important skill nobody ever taught you. Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Eyal himself—in the Next Big Idea app, or buy the book. 1. Beliefs are tools, not truths. Most people picture motivation as a straight line: If you want the benefit, then you’ll do the behavior. You do the work; you get the reward. Simple cause and effect. But this model is incomplete. Knowing what to do and why you should do it isn’t enough. If it were, we’d all follow through on everything we know is good for us. You can have a perfect plan, backed by solid reasoning, but if you don’t believe your effort will make a difference, you won’t persist. And without that belief, even the best advice becomes wasted breath. I learned this the hard way through 30 years of failed diets. Every plan worked until it didn’t. Every approach succeeded until I abandoned it. The pattern wasn’t about calories or carbs. It was about belief. When I truly believed in a diet, I followed it with near-religious devotion. But the moment doubt crept in, the commitment collapsed. In the 1950s, biologist Curt Richter discovered something remarkable about rats swimming in glass cylinders. The ones who gave up and drowned weren’t physically weaker than those who survived. The difference was entirely in their minds. With one simple intervention, Richter transformed how long these animals could persist by a factor that still astonishes researchers today. I explain what that intervention was in the book. The real question isn’t Is this belief true? but rather Does this belief serve me? Like a carpenter choosing between a hammer and a saw, we can select beliefs based on how well they serve our goals. Beliefs are tools, not necessarily truths. 2. You don’t have relationship problems; you have perception problems. Think about the last time you had a heated argument with your partner, perhaps over something as mundane as household chores. You go to get a glass of water, and your spouse says, “All the glasses are in the sink.” You perceive their tone as accusatory. Within minutes, you’re in a full-blown argument. Meanwhile, your partner is genuinely confused by your defensive reaction, believing they simply made a neutral statement of fact. Despite experiencing the same 30-second interaction, the same words, the same environment, you each walk away with entirely different perceptions of what happened. You’re sure they were attacking you. They’re equally sure they were just stating an observation. Neither of you is lying nor deliberately misinterpreting. Your differing beliefs about each other’s intentions created two versions of the same reality. Your conscious mind can process only about 50 bits of information per second. But your senses are collecting 11 million bits at that same moment. We live life through a keyhole of attention. Your brain fills in the gaps with beliefs, essentially hallucinating much of what you think you’re experiencing. This is why two people witnessing the exact same event walk away with entirely different experiences. And it’s why the path to better relationships isn’t just better communication skills. It starts with examining the beliefs that shape what you see and hear in the first place. 3. Lies can become reality. When Serena Williams was preparing for Wimbledon, she found herself trapped in a cycle of self-limiting beliefs. Her nerves were affecting her play at the net, causing her to hesitate. With only two weeks before the tournament, her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, made a bold decision. He told her that the statistics showed she was winning 80% of points at the net. It wasn’t true. Not even close. But from that day forward, her performance transformed. She approached the net more frequently and more confidently. Her physical play underwent a dramatic change. As Mouratoglou later confessed, “The lie became the reality.” Williams went on to win the tournament. This pattern appears consistently in research on performance. In one study, men who believed they were taking performance-enhancing steroids gained significantly more strength than a control group, even though the pills contained nothing but sugar. Their belief didn’t just make them feel stronger. It made them actually lift heavier weights because they trained with greater intensity and pushed harder. Your expectations shape your effort, and your effort shapes your outcomes. This applies whether you’re negotiating a salary, building a business, or asking for the sale. The research shows that what you anticipate has measurable effects on what you achieve. The question is: What beliefs are you carrying into your most important moments? And are they helping you or holding you back? 4. Your beliefs can become your biology. What if your thoughts could influence not just how you feel, but how long you live? Researchers have found that people seem able to postpone death until symbolically meaningful occasions. When three American presidents all died on July Fourth, it suggested something profound about the connection between mind and body. But the science goes far deeper than historical coincidence. In rigorous studies, researchers discovered that beliefs about aging predict longevity better than cholesterol levels, blood pressure, or whether someone smokes. People who held positive views about getting older lived, on average, seven and a half years longer than those with negative views. That’s a bigger effect than you’d get from exercising regularly! Now, the field of mind-body research is filled with exaggerated claims and studies that don’t hold up. I spent considerable time separating wishful thinking from real science. Some famous studies you may have heard about, like elderly men “thinking themselves younger” or hotel cleaners losing weight just by viewing their work as exercise, haven’t replicated well under scrutiny. But the research that does hold up is remarkable. Your beliefs trigger real physiological changes through specific, measurable pathways. The key is understanding which mental interventions work and which are nice stories that crumble under scientific rigor. 5. Helplessness is your default. Hope must be learned. In the late 1960s, researchers Martin Seligman and Steven Maier conducted famous experiments showing that animals who experienced uncontrollable negative events eventually stopped trying to escape, even when escape became possible. They called this “learned helplessness,” and the concept transformed our understanding of depression, trauma, and resilience. But a detail buried in their data haunted the researchers for decades. Some animals never gave up, no matter what. Only with modern brain imaging technology did Maier discover the stunning truth: The brain’s first response to difficulty is always to freeze. What appears to be learned helplessness is actually the brain’s default state. The animals who kept trying had learned something that overrode this default. They had learned hope. Think about what this means for your own life. Those moments when you feel stuck, procrastinating on an important project, delaying a difficult conversation, hesitating to make a career change, aren’t evidence of personal weakness. They’re your brain’s ancient operating system doing exactly what it evolved to do. But here’s the liberating part: If hope is learned, it can be taught. There are specific experiences that build what researchers call the “hope circuit” in your brain. Each time you prove to yourself that your actions matter, you’re not just solving a problem. You’re rewiring your capacity to persist through the next challenge. The question is how to create those experiences systematically. We all face the same fundamental challenges: building meaningful relationships, creating financial security, maintaining our health as we age, and finding the motivation to pursue what matters most. Research reveals that our beliefs underlie all these outcomes. Not as magical thinking or empty affirmations, but as practical tools that shape what we notice, what we feel, and what we do. Enjoy our full library of Book Bites—read by the authors!—in the Next Big Idea app. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission. View the full article

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One of the biggest barriers people face to their productivity is an inability to focus. Most people are highly distracted and distractable, which makes it hard to sustain the level of attention required to complete complex tasks and to think through difficult problems. Chances are at least part of your problem is self-inflicted. We have created environments with lots of attention-grabbing information. You have learned to seek out that information regularly. Indeed, your brain has timing mechanisms in it, and the desire to check your phone or your web browser may interrupt you at regular intervals, even when you’re trying your best to get something else done. Here are a few things you can do to train yourself to focus when you need to. Look before you leap Getting distracted from what you’re working on is such a deep habit for so many people, that they may not even be aware how often they are getting off-task. If you’re going to change the behaviors that are ruining your focus, you must start by becoming mindful of the mindless things you have been doing. Before you intervene and try to change, spend a week or two just observing your behavior. How often do you grab your phone or go to a website when you should be reading, working on a document, or engaging in some other more important task? When you notice yourself switching away from a task, make note of what you were doing, how you were feeling, and how long it took you to get back to what you were doing. After you finish this habit diary, look it over. Look for insights that may help you to figure out ways to intervene so that you can remove some of the sources of distraction from your world. Clear the decks Next, you want to make it as easy as possible to start your journey to greater concentration. There is no benefit in staring down your temptations. If you lose focus because you want to check your phone, then put your phone out of arm’s reach. If you flip from a document you need to complete on your computer to a social media site on your web browser, then close all the unnecessary tabs on your browser. Over time, you may be able to face your temptations directly. There is no reason to start your journey to greater focus by creating a mental obstacle course. Start small Your goal is not perfection. You don’t necessarily need to be able to complete a long task without ever switching away from it. You just want to improve. If you get distracted every 3 minutes, then even going 5 minutes working on something is a significant improvement. When you start to improve your ability to focus, you are likely to get sidetracked by your failures. It may even feel like a hopeless task. Bear in mind that you did not lose your ability to concentrate overnight. You may have spent years training your brain to interrupt you from what you’re working on. It may not take years to get back to a long attention span, but it won’t happen immediately either. Reassociate the urge The most important thing you can do is to work a bit longer when you feel the urge to move away from a task. Essentially, your brain interrupts you and suggests that you look at something else. When that happens and you then move off the task you were working on and do something else, you are reinforcing the connection between the feeling you should do something else and the action of doing something else. Instead, when you feel like you should look away from what you’re doing to focus on something else, continue working on the thing you’re currently doing for another 30 seconds. What that does is to associate the feeling that you want to work on something else with persistence rather than with a change in task. Over time, you’ll start to learn to continue working on something even when your brain interrupts you. That builds a new set of habits that will extend your concentration time. View the full article

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It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Should you fire someone you wouldn’t hire now? I recently attended an event where a speaker said that if a manager is evaluating to let go a lower-performing employee, they should ask themselves, “Would I hire them now?” And if the answer is no, then let them go. I don’t believe in black and white decisions. The presenter probably didn’t think of it that way but it feels that way. What is your take on this? If you’re trying to decide how to proceed with a low-performing employee, “Would I hire them today, knowing everything I know now?” is a useful question to ask yourself. I don’t agree that “no” should always point immediately to firing them, but it’s a useful question to reflect on. Very often, managers hold on to low performers long past the point that they should, and that type of question can be a way to bring clarity to the situation. The question I prefer (and it’s discussed more extensively in the book on management I co-authored) is, “If you had a button which, if pushed, would lead to your staff member being replaced instantaneously, without any difficult conversations or the hassles of interviewing and training someone new, would you push it?” Very often, the main thing holding managers back from acting when they need to is not wanting to deal with what they imagine it will entail. Also useful is, “If the person walked into your office and told you she was leaving to take another job, would you feel concern or relief?” But none of these mean “then you absolutely should fire the person.” They’re all just ways to get clarity on your thinking. 2. My coworker wanted to step back and then changed his mind, but I’m taking his job I work as a middle manager. My department is fairly large, but most people only report to me for a small percentage of their time (i.e., they work in my department four hours out of their week, and the rest in their primary job). Last year, my supervisor let me know that my colleague (Alf), who is at the same level but over a different team, was experiencing burnout and wanted to step back. Alf’s team works in an area related to the one I currently supervise, but is actually more aligned with my background and professional interests. There are also three full-time reports in his unit (or four with Alf returning to the team as a regular employee). I have been interested in getting more involved in managing the work of that unit, and my supervisor and I came up with a proposal to combine the two units under me (and dropping some other parts of my job that are not my favorite to ensure I had a reasonable workload). I love managing people and have been told many times that I am good at it and that the organization would be excited for me to be in this new role. I thought things were pretty set to transition this summer. But now Alf has said that he wants to stay in his current manager role after all. However, our director (my boss’s boss) wants me to take this new role on anyway and for Alf to step down. Alf is a decent manager, but he’s not a big picture thinker, which we need due to massive changes coming in our field. My director feels I am the right person for the job at this moment. Still, I feel extremely awkward about this. I agreed because I was under the impression Alf wanted to step down. I don’t want him to feel like I am stealing his job against his will. To complicate things further, Alf was my supervisor for about seven years before I got my current job. This is the kind of organization where people stay for their whole careers, so I will likely need to work with Alf for some time. It’s also possible he may continue doing work in one of the two units I oversee. Any advice for how I should approach him? Acknowledge that this is awkward AF? Reassure him I wasn’t trying to steal his job? Let him feel his very understandable feelings for a while before approaching? We are friendly, but don’t talk regularly now that I don’t report to him. The primary messaging on this really needs to come from your director, who should be transparent with Alf about why this change is happening and what it means for his career there. Once that’s done, your approach with Alf should be a positive one — you’re excited to work with him, he should let you know what he needs, etc. I would not say anything about it being awkward or reassure him that you weren’t trying to take his job; there’s too much risk that will make things more awkward for him than if you just keep things positive, matter-of-fact, and forward-looking. Give him some time to adjust to the change and operate as if of course he will adjust; if that doesn’t happen, you’ll have to address it at that point, but it’s a kindness to him to move forward without anticipating/assuming weirdness if you can. 3. HR thinks I completed an engagement survey but I didn’t My organization recently used an outside company to conduct an employee engagement survey. I was on the fence about completing the survey because of how it was handled last year. I opened my unique survey link to click around and read the questions, but never submitted it. At various points during the survey period, HR sent emails about survey completion by department. I noticed in one of these updates that my department had a 100% completion rate. I’m the head of the department, so I thought perhaps my own survey was not meant to count here and maybe rolled up into leadership instead, but none of the other categories made sense for where my survey would be counted. I assumed my survey results were slated to be yeeted into the abyss and decided not to submit it. Today, I had a meeting with HR to review the results of the survey. They started the meeting by saying that my team had five people, including me, invited to take the survey and that all five, including me, did so. I didn’t confess that I didn’t because I didn’t want to derail the whole meeting or be slapped on the wrist for not participating, but I couldn’t help thinking that the results cannot possibly be accurate. Should I have told them? I’m questioning if there are other issues with the survey or its analysis based on my knowledge that what I’m being presented is incorrect. What could have possibly happened?! Is it worth being chided by HR for my delinquency in order to shine a light on problems with the survey process? Separately, what’s your take on employee engagement surveys? Are they valuable? Do organizations/companies make meaningful changes based on feedback provided in this manner? As a department head, yeah, I think you should have flagged it. You’re part of the organization’s leadership and if you’re aware of major inaccuracies with the survey, you should say something. It doesn’t need to be a big deal — just, “Are you sure that’s right? I actually didn’t complete mine — happy to talk about why if you want — so I’m concerned that might indicate our numbers are off in other ways.” And then if they wanted to know why you didn’t complete it, you could have explained the emails saying 100% of your department already had made you assume yours wasn’t being counted and thus wasn’t needed. Or you could have talked about whatever the issues were that made you on the fence about doing it in the first place, if that’s something you were willing to get into. As for the value of these surveys, they vary widely by company. If your company is a place that welcome dissent and takes feedback seriously, they can be worthwhile. If they’re not, then they usually just breed cynicism and can in some cases make disengagement worse if feedback is solicited but always ignored. 4. My contact’s mentee thinks we’re hiring, but we’re not A former coworker reached out asking if I’d do an informational interview with someone he’s mentoring who is applying for an open entry-level position in my division to talk about my work and the company. I am, of course, happy to meet with them. Except I asked around about this position, including to the head of our division, who said she didn’t know what this job posting is because we are not hiring. I’m not sure how it got posted or if it got posted for the wrong division, but we are not hiring for any positions at this time due to budget issues. I will still meet with this person, and they should probably still apply just to be in our system and perhaps they’d be considered for a real opening in another division. How transparent should I be that my understanding is that we are not actually hiring for this role? The job market is hard enough so I don’t want to give false hope or waste anyone’s time, but I’m also not really authorized to speak on hiring in this way. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “As far as I know, we’re not currently hiring for this position. Where did you see the posting?” And if you wanted to, you could check with your manager to ask if it’s okay to officially relay that your division isn’t currently hiring; they may be fine with that. 5. What questions should I ask in an interview with a recruiter? I’m searching for a new job and, after several years out of the interview process, I’ve noticed that many of my first-round interviews are now brief phone screens with HR recruiters rather than conversations with the hiring manager. I know it’s important to ask thoughtful questions at the end of an interview, but recruiters often don’t have deep insight into the day-to-day responsibilities or team dynamics of the role. What kinds of questions are most appropriate and effective to ask in that setting? Is it still important to have questions for recruiters? Yes, you should still have questions — and most likely, you do have things you’d like them to answer if you think about it! It’s true that anything nuanced about the job or the team is better saved for the hiring manager, but recruiters will be equipped to answer things about what qualifications and experience are most important for the role, the size and structure of the team, and why the position is open, as well as anything logistical, like the salary, remote vs. hybrid vs. in-office, the likely timeline for making a hire, and what they expect the process to look like. The post should you fire someone you wouldn’t hire now, coworker wanted to step back and then changed his mind, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

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