SUCCESS
How Gen-Zs And Baby Boomers Can Both Benefit From ‘Reverse Mentoring’
When you think of traditional mentoring, you picture an older, more senior executive who provides advice and guidance to younger employees. Mentors, sponsors and coaches help workers improve their skills, fast-track their careers and avoid common pitfalls. By providing guidance, support, feedback and opportunities for skill-building, these programs help workers achieve their goals and succeed in their careers.
One seeks a mentor to gain insider industry knowledge and advice from a well-established executive who has been through the workplace trenches. They know the unwritten rules of the game and can share how to avoid making the same mistakes they made in their careers. A mentor will offer guidance, advice, constructive feedback and hand-holding.
According to Glassdoor’s 2024 Workplace Trends report, Gen-Z will comprise a larger portion of the labor force, overtaking Baby Boomers for the first time. With this shift in workplace demographics, this cohort is an untapped resource, as they have lived their entire lives as digital natives.
Reverse mentoring—a practice where junior staff mentor upward, typically in areas such as technology, digital media or other emerging trends—can help fill knowledge gaps for senior leaders, as well as bridge generational divides in the office.
Top U.S. Headlines For The Job Market, Economy And Stock Market
McKinsey Puts 3,000 Staffers On Notice
McKinsey & Co. has warned about 3,000 of the firm’s consultants that their performance was unsatisfactory and will need to improve.
The firm gave these employees a so-called “concerns” rating as part of their performance reviews in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter. With that rating, employees are typically given about three months to show improved performance. If they’re unable to do so, the firm may begin counseling some of them to leave the company entirely.
While the proportion of staffers receiving the “concerns” rating is largely in line with past years, the fact that the firm’s headcount has swelled so dramatically in recent years has meant that the ratings have been handed to far more employees than in prior periods, according to the people familiar with the matter. McKinsey’s headcount has swelled to about 45,000 employees, up 60% from the 28,000 it had in 2018.
Barclays’ Bonuses To Disappoint?
Barclays Plc is planning to hand dozens of investment bankers no bonus as the slowdown in dealmaking forces it to cut payouts for a larger-than-usual group of its lowest performers.
Executives are also planning to shrink the firmwide bonus pool amid a persistent slump in dealmaking and capital markets activity, according to people familiar with the matter. Junior bankers largely won’t be impacted by the moves and top dealmakers might still see an increase of as much as 10%, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing personnel information.
Grammarly Lays Off 230 Employees
Grammarly is laying off 230 employees worldwide as part of a “business restructuring,” the company announced this week. The layoffs are part of Grammarly’s efforts to advance its focus on “the AI-enabled workplace of the future.” the company says.
“To arrive at today’s decision, we took a look at our organizational design and the current skillsets of our teams through the lens of our company strategy,”Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury said in a memo to employees. “As we strengthen our focus toward driving the AI-enabled workplace and deepen our technical investments in AI, we will need a different mix of capabilities and skillsets. We also need to redesign our organization to improve the quality and speed of collaboration — and that means, among other things, restructuring roles and co-locating certain teams.”
Roy-Chowdhury went on to say that the layoffs are not a cost-cutting measure, noting that Grammarly’s financial position is “strong.” He says the layoffs affect most Grammarly functions and geographies.
S&P 500 Rises Above 5,000, Gains For A Fifth Week On Encouraging Inflation News
Stocks rose on Friday after December’s revised inflation reading came in lower than first reported, and the S&P 500 broke above the historic 5,000 level as strong earnings and economic news chugged on.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 80 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite added 1.1%. For the week, the S&P is up 1.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.2%. The Dow is flat week to date.
“At the end of the day, we’re still seeing whopping good news on an economic front, and the market is reacting to that,” said Dana D’Auria, co-chief investment officer at Envestnet. “The longer that story plays out, the more likely it seems to the market that we actually are sticking a landing here.”
The Shady Things You Felt Happening In The Job Search Are True
The ‘Super Bowl Flu’ Could Cost Businesses More Than $6 Billion
Super Bowl Sunday is just around the corner, quickly followed by an infamous workplace phenomenon: the “Super Bowl flu.” That’s the unofficial term for when a legion of workers call out sick on Monday following the weekend festivities.
This year, over 16 million U.S. employees plan to miss work on Monday after the game between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, according to a new survey conducted by the Harris Poll for the Workforce Institute at UKG—a think tank associated with the HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions company. Around 10 million of those workers have already requested the day off, and over 6 million plan to skip but haven’t requested a formal absence. To put that into perspective, that means around 14% of U.S. workers plan to miss at least some work on Monday.
Warner Music Group Plans To Cut 600 Jobs
Warner Music Group will part ways with approximately 10% of its workforce as part of the company’s latest efforts to keep up with a “constantly morphing” music industry.
Chief Executive Robert Kyncl announced the cuts in a staff memo on Wednesday. The cuts are expected to affect 600 employees, a majority of whom will come from the company’s “owned and operated media outlets, corporate and various support functions,” according to a letter shared with multiple outlets.
Binance Co-Founder Offers $10,000 Bounties to Employees Who Report Leaks
Earlier this week, Binance co-founder Yi He took to Twitter to comment on allegations the company might have an insider trading problem. Her solution: Paying bounties of $10,000 to employees who report dishonest co-workers.
The incident that prompted the long Twitter thread and policy changes were "irregularities" ahead of and right after Ronin being listed on Binance's exchange.
The token's price had pumped in the run-up to the announcement, but dropped 20% immediately after trading began. The going theory was that people who knew about the listing before it had been announced were accumulating the token and then sold once the price pumped.
Elon Musk Reportedly Quizzed Tesla Managers On Which Staff Could Be Fired—A Tactic He Used Before Twitter Firings
Tesla workers may have reason to fear for their jobs after EV production appears to have outstripped demand growth, leading to a glut in the market.
According to unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg, employee performance reviews that had already been completed were suddenly reopened with one new question: Is this employee’s role critical? Managers unable to convincingly answer that question for their superiors could see their headcount reduced.
While Tesla is still heavily recruiting in areas like artificial intelligence, the approach is eerily familiar to the strategy Musk used just before he began laying off staff at Twitter.
How To Get A Job In Tough Times: All The Advice You Need To Succeed From A Top Executive Recruiter
There’s an old saying, “Tough times make tough people.” In this book, Jack Kelly will help guide you every step of the way in your job search to ensure that you stay strong, resilient and positive, and get that great, new job.
