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Engineering company expects to suspend share trading at end of April because of work needed to prepare 2024 accountsView the full article

Private equity interest comes as UK’s largest water utility is fighting to avoid renationalisationView the full article

Paul Marchant leaves retailer after probe into allegation about his behaviour in a social environmentView the full article

And replies on CoreWeaveView the full article

According to some studies, the average person touches their phone 2,617 times every day. And, on average, we now spend an average of 5 hours and 16 minutes per day on our phones. When I was young, our phones were just a tool for communication with others, but those days are long gone. They are now an almost essential device to get through our days. Even more, when you think about it, they have become the screen and lens through which we experience life. We scroll, text, shop, track, plan, capture, play, and navigate every day—all from a device we carry in our pocket. With a device that has become so powerful in our lives, it is important that we are intentional in how we structure it and use it. Not just in terms of the amount of time we spend on it (although that is incredibly important), but how we use it. Are we setting up our phones, and the apps we download for it, in a way that improves our life or detracts from it? Are the apps on your phone helping you live an intentional life focused on the things that matter most—or distracting you from it? Distraction is everywhere these days. But unlike many of life’s interruptions, the apps on our phone are entirely within our control. Every single one is something we chose to download, chose to keep—and chose where to place on our screen. Some apps are helpful, no doubt. They serve a clear purpose—whether it’s finding directions, tracking habits, locating information quickly, learning a new skill, focusing on a hobby, improving productivity, capturing family memories, or connecting with others. These tools can absolutely improve our lives and drive an intentional life. But not all apps serve us. Some only consume our time and attention. They distract us from people and relationships. They steal our focus and dash our productivity. They compel shopping and poor financial decisions. Some stir up stress in our lives. There are some apps on our phones that do not motivate us to live our best lives. They offer the illusion of a better life while simultaneously pulling us further from the people and purposes that matter most. I encourage you to look at the apps on your phone in a new way today. Ask yourself about each one, “Is this app helping me live the life I want and achieve the dream I have for my life?” Because if it’s not, it’s distracting you from it. And the power to decide how your phone is going to serve you is in our hands today—literally. How to Use Your Phone More Intentionally Here are five simple but helpful ways to make sure the apps on your phone are contributing to a more meaningful life rather than keeping you from it: 1. Take Inventory Begin by taking a look at how much time you spend on each app on your phone. Don’t just guess, but actually look. Here’s where to check on an Apple phone and here’s where to check on an Android phone. Decide, right then and there, whether each app (starting with the most used) is one that is helping you live a more intentional life or keeping you from it. 2. Remove One App That Doesn’t Align with Your Values It’s okay to start small. Just choose one app (the higher up your time-used list, the better) that consistently wastes time, distracts you, adds stress, or leads to unhealthy habits. Just one. Delete it—and pay attention to what happens next in your life. If you like who you are becoming after the change, consider finding another… and then another. 3. Make Your Home Screen an Encouraging Place Your home screen receives more of your brain’s attention than anywhere on the phone. It is the first thing you see when you turn on your phone and has the potential to immediately encourage intentionality or distraction. Build it strategically. Fill it with the apps that reflect your desires and values: a calendar, a reading app, a journal, a health app, a shortcut to Becoming Minimalist… And move time-wasting, distracting apps—like social media, games, or shopping platforms—to your second or third screen. 4. Do a Little Research on Apps that Support Your Goals Just like there are many time-wasting and distraction-filled apps on the market, there are also many, many wonderful apps and tools available for you to use to improve your life. I encourage you to not just delete time-wasting apps and leave a void, but fill your digital space with tools that help you in life. Whether you’re trying to exercise more, eat better, read more, write better, spend less, save more, focus more, grow in your faith, learn more, expand a hobby, build a habit, or declutter your home—there is likely an app that can help. Sometimes all it takes is thinking to yourself, “I wonder if there’s an app that will help me….” and then googling to see if any options pop up. If you find one that might help, put it on your home screen (see Step #3) to encourage your progress. 5. Review Your App Choices Regularly Apps seem to come and go pretty quickly in our affections and in our attentions. Removing one time-wasting app doesn’t mean we don’t default to another. Or trying out a habit-building app this week doesn’t mean we’ll still use it next week. Set a regular reminder to review your apps. Quarterly, at least. Maybe even more often at first. You can decide—just know creating a phone set-up that serves you isn’t a one-time decision. Take some time to ask questions like: What’s serving you well? What’s becoming a distraction? What’s no longer needed? There is no doubt our phones are powerful tools in our lives. In fact, most of you are reading this article on a phone right now. Let’s work hard to craft them into tools that help us live better, not more distracted. The post Are the Apps on Your Phone Helping You or Hurting You? appeared first on Becoming Minimalist. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Should I speak up about an inappropriate song in children’s theater? I’m a volunteer in a community theater production for young children between five and seven years old. Our current show involves a dance number that takes place in ancient Egypt, and there’s a recent change to the production that I feel uncomfortable with. The children were originally dancing to “Walk Like an Egyptian” by the Bangles, but then the coordinator changed it by “popular demand” to a different song called “Camel by Camel.” This decision on its own seems innocuous albeit strange. The song itself is alright, but I unfortunately know some outside context that gives me pause. There’s a famous meme of a video game character dancing to this song. The video is explicitly pornographic, which was an important part of the appeal. Although there are family-friendly versions of the meme, the adult aspect is always associated with it, and this song is now associated with that adult aspect by proxy. Something that eventually became part of the joke was that unsuspecting people (such as your grandma on Facebook) would share more appropriate parts of the meme saying, “Look at this adorable Egyptian cat I found!” And then all the grandkids would exchange glances wondering whether someone should break the news. This is what’s raising my eyebrows in particular, because I feel like if someone is making these kids dance to the song because of THAT, it’s a step too far, even if the children are completely unaware. The way the children are dancing is not the same suggestive way the character dances, although there is still clapping and hip-moving to the music. The coordinator is a kindergarten teacher in her 50s, and I don’t think she’s aware of the context behind the song. It perhaps wouldn’t bother me if she had chosen it herself, but I don’t know what she meant by “popular demand.” The other volunteers are all either high school or college-aged, which makes me concerned if one of them suggested it. Additionally, the parents in the audience will be Millennials and older Zoomers, who are more likely to know the meme. The last thing we need are complaints from parents because their five-year-old is dancing to THAT SONG. Is there a professional way to broach this topic to an innocent old lady? Is there a way to ask how the decision to change the song came about? What if one of the other volunteers suggested it as an inside joke to make children dance to a porn song? Or am I perhaps making a problem out of nothing and should just keep it to myself? Yes, speak up! If there’s a likelihood that some parents in the audience are going to know the meme and be upset, it’s far better for the teacher to hear that now than to be blindsided when parents are angry. Just be straightforward! “I’m guessing you’re not aware of this, but using that song might seem wrong to some parents — it’s part of a very adult-oriented internet meme, and that’s a lot of people’s first association with the song. Enough people know about it that we risk complaints and I didn’t want you to be blindsided if that happens.” (Note that this language doesn’t get into trying to sort out who first suggested the song, since ultimately that’s not yours to sort out; you’re just alerting her that there is in fact an issue with it.) Also, um, women in our fifties are not “innocent old ladies,” WTF. If she can’t handle this news, it’s not because of her age. (Although it does remind me of this.) 2. We’re feds with a coworker who won’t stop insisting everything is fine I’m a fed. My office of less than 20 people has a director (who took the fork in the road deal), a deputy (who lives several states away from the rest of us), and two team managers, Arwen and Fergus. Fergus suffered an unimaginable personal tragedy less than six months ago. We all think this is why he can’t handle what’s happening now. (He may have also voted for this, so there’s that.) He’s constantly telling us that we’re blowing things out of proportion when we raise concerns about losing our jobs or other things that are happening. My manager, Arwen, has talked to him on more than one occasion, but he just doesn’t get it. Listening to him go on and on (unprompted!) about how we’re all going to keep our jobs and we have nothing to worry about makes us more anxious! We’ll all be back in the office soon, and avoiding him is going to be harder. Arwen is my direct manager, so I’m shielded a little bit, but our teams are small and most of us do work for both teams. The deputy is not very hands-on about this stuff and will not be physically in our office. Is there any way to get through to him? Is there any way I can politely get out of conversations with him? We’re all at a loss. Your manager, Arwen, is the one best positioned to handle this, and since she’s done it in the past, you have evidence that she shares your concern about it and is willing to address it — so you should go back to her and let her know that it’s still happening and it’s incredibly demoralizing at an already stressful time, and ask if she can tell him that he needs to cut it out for everyone’s mental health and ability to focus on their jobs. That said, what would happen if you also addressed it in the moment when it’s happening? “It’s hard to navigate this with you denying it’s happening. If you’re not concerned about it yourself, please respect that the rest of us are” would be a reasonable thing to say. Of course, it’s also true that if the rest of you are talking about it, Fergus is entitled to share his perspective, and so it likely makes sense to avoid raising it around him at all, to the extent that you can. But given that it’s affecting actual work, your ability to plan, etc., you presumably can’t avoid the topic with him entirely and you need him to be able to engage with reality for those conversations — and plus you said he’s doing this unprompted too. Related: I manage an employee who pushes too much positivity on her team 3. Who pays for coffee in informal business meetings? Relatively minor question, but who pays for coffee in informal business meetings? Is it who is more senior, who makes more money, or who asked for the coffee? The context is that it is common in my profession to work for a couple years and then go get your PhD. That is what I did, and I am currently in a well-regarded PhD program. Some people from my former organization have since gotten into the program and want to talk to me about my experience. So I’m technically more senior, but they asked for the coffee, and we both know that they make significantly more money than me. I’ve just been paying for myself, but am I committing a faux pas? Also, I don’t know if gender dynamics come into play at all. The etiquette is that the person who asked for the coffee is supposed to pay for both of you; you are taking your time to do them a favor (letting them pick your brain) and so they cover your drink. That said, in situations where the person asking is, say, a 20-year-old college student, you might still cover it anyway because you more senior and clearly better paid. But they should come prepared to pay, and they should proceed as if they are paying until and unless you announce that you’re covering it. You don’t have that factor in your mix, though, so it’s just the standard rule — the person who invites the other and is requesting the favor pays. You’re not committing a faux pas by paying for yourself, but it’s also fine to let them get it. Gender doesn’t come into it at all. Related: who should pay at a networking coffee or lunch? 4. How can I keep track of what I’ll want to remember for future reference checks? I manage three to six interns a year, which became part of my job about a year ago after having managed intermittently before then. So far, it’s been very easy to keep track of them; a potential employer for my first intern here just asked me for a call, and I feel confident that I remember enough about that intern’s strengths, weaknesses, etc. to give her a useful reference. But as a person with a fairly average memory and a lot on my plate in addition to one or two interns a semester, I imagine that it’s eventually going to get hard! What if she stays at that job for a few years and needs a reference after that, because I’ll still be one of her most recent bosses other than the one at her current job? That’s about 10 to 15 former interns at a time whom I might feasibly serve as a reference for and need to remember reasonably well! I’d love to hear about common strategies people use to keep track of past interns, or past short-term employees more generally. Should I just write down everything I think I would want to say in a reference call around the end of an internship? Maybe I’ve answered my own question there, but I still think learning about how others do it would help me — my predecessor here had an obnoxiously good memory, so his “system” was just to remember everyone in detail. I have an answer to this that kills two birds with one stone. (What a horrid expression, can we please come up with a better one? I went looking and saw someone suggest “feed two birds with one scone,” which I enjoy.) At the end of each person’s internship, ideally you’d give them some feedback on how things went. As part of that, jot down some notes for yourself about what you saw as their strengths, areas where they should work on improving, feedback on big projects, etc. Meet with them as their internship is ending and talk through that feedback! That’s a big benefit to them; it’s the sort of feedback you should be providing anyway, and summing it all up can help them synthesize useful takeaways from the experience (and so often at that stage, they’re just figuring out what they’re all about as professionals and what they’re good at, so having someone talk it through with them can be hugely helpful). And then save those notes, because those will jog your memory when you’re asked to give them a reference later on. Two birds, one scone! 5. Employee keeps working unpaid overtime and lies about it A manager position below me is currently vacant, and so the team that person would normally manage doesn’t have a manager right now. We have a supervisor from a different team floating around occasionally for general supervision in their area. I saw one of the employees on that team, Pam, working several hours past her normal finish time. (She is paid hourly.) As with previous occasions when she did this, I told her to stop working and go home. She insisted she had clocked out already and was simply staying behind to “help out” and didn’t want to be paid past her normal hours. Since this wasn’t the first time we had this exact conversation, I called her aside for a meeting the next day. I explained she wasn’t allowed to work extra hours for free. Bizarrely, she flatly denied this ever happened. She claimed she properly reported and was paid for all overtime. When I mentioned prior examples that proved otherwise, she gave nonsensical excuses for each occasion. This wasn’t an “oh, I see where you might have misunderstood” situation. She outright lied. As an example, she said the unpaid overtime she did a couple of weeks ago was because the roster was printed incorrectly and that she emailed payroll about it already and payroll responded. This … just didn’t happen. Both the alleged incorrect printing and the email with payroll. Also, she knows how to put through changes on the time sheet, and it is never, ever done by email. I’m at a loss. We have dealt with employees faking time sheets by adding hours they never worked. We never had anyone illicitly trying to perform free labor. If this happens again, how should we deal with Pam? You’ve got two big problems here (and sadly, no scone): first, Pam is exposing your company to legal liability if you don’t pay her for all the hours she works, whether she reports them or not. Second, Pam apparently tells bizarrely flagrant lies. At a minimum, you should tell Pam that working unreported hours is a fireable offense, that this is her final warning, and that if it happens again you will need to let her go. That part is simple. But beyond that, I’d start poking around in Pam’s work more deeply, because the lying is weird enough that it’s very, very likely that there are other significant problems in her work that you’ll uncover if you start looking for them. Every time I’ve seen someone lie in this way, it’s been the tip of the iceberg. View the full article

Internal questioning could lead to independent probe after high-profile bungles View the full article

The bank’s integration of Credit Suisse is going well. It’s everything else that’s the problemView the full article

The government must embark on a much more radical programme of structural reformsView the full article

State election has become most expensive judicial race in US history as Tesla boss spends unprecedented amountView the full article

Investors warn that higher bond yields could make it harder for members of the bloc to increase defence spending View the full article

Finance minister says Lisbon will not let rearmament costs threaten budget surplus secured after years of austerityView the full article

Meta has announced a suite of new features for its Threads app aimed at enhancing personalization and user control. The updates, launched March 20, 2025, include expanded topic tagging, follower-only interaction settings, a customizable feed experience, and improvements to video playback. According to Meta, these features are designed to help users express themselves, manage their online interactions, and better connect with communities of shared interest. Enhanced Topic Tagging and Discovery Users can now add up to ten topics to their bio, enabling others to discover shared interests directly from profile pages. Tapping one of these tagged topics leads to ongoing discussions related to that subject, creating an easy pathway to connect with like-minded individuals. The post creation process now includes prompts for trending or previously used topics, making it easier for users to attach relevant tags. Meta noted that internal data shows posts with tagged topics tend to receive more views than those without. Additionally, the redesigned timely topic tags are more visible in the For You feed, streamlining access to trending discussions and encouraging broader engagement. New Controls for Replies and Feeds Users now have the option to restrict replies and quote-posts to followers only. This builds on the Quote Controls feature introduced in November 2024 and gives users more control over who can interact with their content. Meta also introduced the ability to customize feed order. Users can now set a custom feed as their default view when opening the app, tailoring their Threads experience to their preferences. In a continuation of changes announced earlier this year, Meta confirmed it has started phasing civic content back into Threads with a more personalized approach, following updates to its policy on political posts. Improved Video Playback Features Threads’ media player now includes updated pause, play, and skip controls for easier navigation. A pinned progress bar has been added to allow users to move backward and forward through video content more efficiently. Meta stated it will continue to evolve Threads based on user feedback, with the goal of making the app the preferred space for sharing thoughts, ideas, and personal perspectives. Image: Meta This article, "Meta Rolls Out New Threads Features for Personalized User Experience" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Meta has announced a suite of new features for its Threads app aimed at enhancing personalization and user control. The updates, launched March 20, 2025, include expanded topic tagging, follower-only interaction settings, a customizable feed experience, and improvements to video playback. According to Meta, these features are designed to help users express themselves, manage their online interactions, and better connect with communities of shared interest. Enhanced Topic Tagging and Discovery Users can now add up to ten topics to their bio, enabling others to discover shared interests directly from profile pages. Tapping one of these tagged topics leads to ongoing discussions related to that subject, creating an easy pathway to connect with like-minded individuals. The post creation process now includes prompts for trending or previously used topics, making it easier for users to attach relevant tags. Meta noted that internal data shows posts with tagged topics tend to receive more views than those without. Additionally, the redesigned timely topic tags are more visible in the For You feed, streamlining access to trending discussions and encouraging broader engagement. New Controls for Replies and Feeds Users now have the option to restrict replies and quote-posts to followers only. This builds on the Quote Controls feature introduced in November 2024 and gives users more control over who can interact with their content. Meta also introduced the ability to customize feed order. Users can now set a custom feed as their default view when opening the app, tailoring their Threads experience to their preferences. In a continuation of changes announced earlier this year, Meta confirmed it has started phasing civic content back into Threads with a more personalized approach, following updates to its policy on political posts. Improved Video Playback Features Threads’ media player now includes updated pause, play, and skip controls for easier navigation. A pinned progress bar has been added to allow users to move backward and forward through video content more efficiently. Meta stated it will continue to evolve Threads based on user feedback, with the goal of making the app the preferred space for sharing thoughts, ideas, and personal perspectives. Image: Meta This article, "Meta Rolls Out New Threads Features for Personalized User Experience" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Japanese and Korean equities hit as concerns grow over impact on exportsView the full article

Beijing’s reliance on overproduction to offset weak demand at home stokes grievances among trade partnersView the full article

Mortgage lenders and vendors are waiving fees and enhancing program criteria, looking to reduce costs for borrowers and increase their business. View the full article

Google updates its Unfair Advantage Policy, clarifying ad slot dominance rules. Here's what it means for advertisers and how the PPC community is reacting. The post Google Updates Unfair Advantage Policy, Advertisers React appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

North Sea steering group calls on ministers to ‘act now to restore investor confidence’View the full article

President has repeatedly mused about a move that would breach the US ConstitutionView the full article

Håkan Samuelsson replaces Jim Rowan at Swedish carmaker after the share price fell 66% over three years View the full article

US president says he is ‘pissed off’ with Vladimir Putin for dragging feet in ceasefire talks View the full article

Is the American postmortem dream dead or just drifting? By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

Is the American postmortem dream dead or just drifting? By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

Action against Eni and Global Oil Terminals follows cancellation of Chevron’s licence in Latin American countryView the full article