Pope Francis passed away this morning in Rome at 7:35, marking the end of a papacy that influenced far more than just the Catholic Church. In his 12 years as pope, he led with a style that offers enduring leadership lessons for anyone in a position of authority,
James, a deli worker at Meijer, the midwestern supermarket chain, stole a fruit cup and some chicken. Over a few months, that added up to $110 worth of theft—and that’s when a Meijer manager called the police and had him arrested. When you suspect an employee is stealing,
“I’ve never cared what my barista is wearing when she hands me my drink and my breakfast.” “This will make a big difference. A touch of professionalism goes a long way.” These two very different responses span the range of reactions to Starbucks’ announcement that it is updating its dress code for in-store staff. Employees will
One of the nice things about being an adult is we generally don’t need to ask anyone’s permission to go to the bathroom. It’s a basic necessity that we take for granted. A woman recently turned to Reddit’s legal advice subreddit with a disturbing question: Can her employer fire
If you work in compensation planning, you may think, how much damage can one spreadsheet do? In 2012, JP Morgan Chase lost $6 billion–that’s billion with a B–in the “London Whale Disaster. It had a complex model called the Synthetic Credit Portfolio Value at Risk (VaR) Model that was manually
A small electrical contractor that had never had an HR department before hired me as their first HR manager. He says he sincerely appreciates his employees but needs someone to focus on them. My first endeavor is to find out what they are currently happy with working there
When it’s time to trim payroll, a $25,000 payout can feel like a generous, clean exit. That’s one of the things Kristi Noem, head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is offering employees in exchange for their resignations. If you’re thinking of reducing your headcount, you need to know
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) broke the record for the longest filibuster on the Senate Floor. His goal, according to political analyst Ed Kilgore, was to “dramatize the scope and intensity of the threat that Trump, Elon Musk, and other presidential stooges pose to government as we know it
When companies run into trouble, the C-suite often defaults to secrecy, sharing updates on a need-to-know basis. But when that happens, people make stuff up to fill the information vacuum—and it’s never good. While I’m never glad to see layoffs, Jack Dorsey’s email to Block, the fintech firm
Every once in a while, we hold what we call “Pop Up” improv shows. These are 45-minute free shows in the basement of a local bar (Valhalla at 7:30 on April 24, 2025, for those of you who live in Basel). We practice new material in these shows
