Workplace

Refugee bonds can keep humanitarian corridors open

11 Mar 2022

Europe says 7 mln Ukrainians may flee Russia’s invasion. The 2015 refugee crisis showed migrants can boost workforces and economies. But integrating new arrivals is expensive. Impact bonds can pay for the upfront resettlement burden, limiting quarrels between host nations.

Capital Calls: Delta Air Lines’ vaccine stick

25 Aug 2021

Concise views on global finance: The U.S. carrier will charge unvaccinated stateside employees $200 per month towards healthcare. Adding some push to the pull of incentives makes sense.

Companies offering child care get grown-up payback

20 Aug 2021

The pandemic has deterred women from working. U.S. employers are short of workers and long on office space. Patagonia, for one, says providing for employees' kids is worth it over time, and government aid can extend the perk to lower-income staff. It’s a teachable moment.

Capitalism alone won’t deliver herd immunity

6 Aug 2021

Businesses from United Airlines to BlackRock want employees to get the shot or stay away. But bosses that face both staff shortages and low levels of vaccine take-up have less sway. Leaving mandates to companies will most hurt people already bearing the brunt of the pandemic.

Capital Calls: Uber union

26 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: UK union’s success in representing drivers may hit potholes in the United States.

Amazon win over union pits Bezos against Biden

9 Apr 2021

The $1.7 trln e-commerce giant’s aggressive campaign to stymie organized labor in Alabama paid off. But it puts the founder at odds with the U.S. president, who backed the effort to form a union. Biden’s broader employee-friendly plans may keep Amazon on the back foot.

Goldman’s glum juniors are a reversion to the mean

19 Mar 2021

A slide deck protesting 120-hour weeks and “inhumane” conditions elicits few tears – Wall Street analysts often bellyache but fare better than most. Still, self-pity signals the end of hard white-collar graft as a status symbol. It’s a reason banking is losing its shine.

Uber may be in the driver’s seat in labor dispute

21 Aug 2020

A California court gave the ride-hailing firm some breathing room to comply with a new law that turns gig workers into employees. Voters will decide in November if that should hold. The protracted mess gives Uber, DoorDash and others a reason to compromise on labor policies.

McDonald’s ex-CEO lawsuit provides takeaways

10 Aug 2020

The fast-food chain fired Steve Easterbrook last year over a consensual relationship with an employee. Now it’s suing him to recover severance pay, alleging he lied about other affairs. McDonald’s is doing the right thing, but maybe his earlier escape shouldn’t have been so easy.

Viewsroom: Reparations math, the coming WFH battle

25 Jun 2020

As America continues to grapple with the legacy of slavery, Breakingviews columnists debate the financial question of whether the government, and some corporations, have a debt to repay. And Pete Sweeney dives deep into the post-pandemic future of working from home – or not.

LGBTQ ruling adds to the great American workaround

15 Jun 2020

Outlawing workplace discrimination was a job for Congress, not the Supreme Court. But with government so dysfunctional, change had to come from elsewhere. Big companies know the feeling: they are already working around the political void on everything from climate to Covid-19.

Corona Capital: Tech diversity, CNN’s middle age

1 Jun 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: As big U.S. technology companies’ CEOs speak out about racial inequality, working from home trends could give them a chance to make a real difference; and 24/7 news network CNN feasts on Covid-19 as it turns 40.

Silicon Valley gears up to leave Silicon Valley

13 May 2020

Remote work has highlighted the Bay Area’s high costs. Some startups are closing San Francisco offices; giants like Facebook were already expanding their national footprint. Covid-19 will hasten the planting of tech flags across America, altering recruiting and local economies.

Viewsroom: Freebies no more

16 Apr 2020

Breakingviews columnists check in from home in New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong to discuss disappearing Silicon Valley perks like free meals and booze, office activism at tech firms, the mystery of China’s 20 million lost mobile-phone subscribers and an ascendant TikTok.

Culture is disrupted for coveted tech worker bees

14 Apr 2020

Silicon Valley companies offered perks like free meals, beer, and sweet pay packages to retain white collar staff in a tight labor market. Benefits will be cut as companies try to shore up cash. Office activism for pet issues will be replaced by traditional worker demands.

For staff, Jeff Bezos is more CEO than trailblazer

8 Apr 2020

The Amazon founder has transformed shopping. But the way the $950 bln firm treats its workers is not so futuristic. Like Walmart, it only recently provided protective gear to warehouse employees. That might fit with short-term profit, but not with long-term innovation.

The Exchange: Verizon’s HR chief

31 Mar 2020

Christy Pambianchi oversees the well-being of more than 100,000 people. She explains how Verizon quickly rewrote the rule book to address the coronavirus outbreak from getting people set up at home to ensuring the safety of field employees providing critical infrastructure.

Uber’s gig model mutates to meet virus challenge

13 Mar 2020

The ride-hailing app will give paid leave to quarantined drivers. It’s also mulling a compensation fund with Lyft, DoorDash and others who treat their labor force as contractors. Silicon Valley’s gig economy giants aren’t admitting workers are employees, but the line is blurring.

Review: Murdoch’s Fox News survives “Bombshell”

7 Feb 2020

A movie based on the downfall of the American network’s architect Roger Ailes is equal parts inspiring and depressing. Ailes left in disgrace after a brave anchor accused him of sexual harassment. The outcome didn’t weaken Fox News and the film captures the limitations of #MeToo.

Slack would be better off as part of a team

19 Nov 2019

Shares of the work-messaging service are down 45% since its June IPO. For all Slack’s charms, Microsoft’s alternative has nearly double the users, and is untroubled by the need to raise capital or turn a profit. Slack’s best course is to find a rich benefactor, like Salesforce.