Corinne Purtill

In the classic 1969 business book parody The Peter Principle, the Canadian educator Laurence J. Peter took aim at an “ever-present, pestiferous nuisance” found in industries of all sorts: managerial incompetence. The explanation for it, Peter wrote, was his titular principle—that any employee in a hierarchy will rise to the level of his or her own incompetence. (“This Means You!” the book noted cheerily in a subhead.)

Meetings are a serious drain on an organization’s time and resources, consuming up to 17% of the workweek and an estimated $37 billion per year.

For a time in the late 20th century, a Successories poster was an essential feature of office décor. The format never varied: a black border, a bold-type word, and a forgettable platitude, like “Take the initiative and lead the way” or “The strength of the team is in each individual member.” The posters evoked a particular strain of management culture: earnest, a little out of touch, and resolutely unremarkable.

Parents: the advice you’re doling out on how to seek and secure a job is bad. It’s really bad. It’s outdated and counterproductive. If you love your adult offspring and would like to see them succeed, you must cease and desist immediately.

A new paper from the US National Bureau of Economic Research (not yet peer reviewed) finds that a national policy of generous paid parental leave isn’t enough to combat the “motherhood penalty”—the gap in men’s and women’s wages that opens once a woman has a child.

A “bucket list,” if you don’t know already, is a list of things to do before you die. It’s a document that’s meant to name the big adventures life might feel incomplete without—getting a degree, finding a spouse, seeing the Great Wall of China, leaping from an airplane. The concept appeared in the public consciousness with an eponymous 2007 film in which Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson play terminally ill men chasing the last few goals they want to achieve before they “kick the bucket.”

If stability is your thing, then really, this isn’t the greatest time to be alive.

Women, you know how it is. You want a snack, and those potato chips in the vending machine look so good, but you’re worried. What if the salt gets all over your fingers? What if the crunch is really loud and people look at you and then everyone knows the terrible secret that you eat food?

Advocates of paid parental leave maintain that giving both mothers and fathers the opportunity to care for a child early in life ensures fair distribution of caregiving responsibilities later on—and a better shot for both men and women at maintaining their earning power.

Journalist Carrie Gracie resigned from her role as the BBC’s China editor earlier this month after discovering that she was paid considerably less than male counterparts in similar roles. When the BBC offered a raise that still gave her less than male peers she declined, and instead filed a grievance against what she called the company’s “secretive and illegal pay culture.”

ESPN.com, Jan. 23: LeBron James, never short on confidence, congratulated himself for reaching 30,000 career NBA points on Tuesday before he actually reached the milestone.

Parents: butt out of your adult children’s job searches.

In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, actor Ellen Pompeo lifted the curtain on years of behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to the $20 million contract she signed late last year. The deal makes her the highest paid actress on a television drama.

Staying at home to raise a child is very much a full-time job, as anyone who’s done it or seen it up close can attest. Once a parent who has stepped out of the workforce is ready to step back in, however, finding the right words to describe that time at home to a potential employer can be a tricky prospect.

Scientists looking to understand the evolutionary roots of human behavior have frequently looked to bonobos, the great ape native to the Democratic Republic of Congo. From a human perspective, bonobos appear a peaceful species. They live in matriarchal, highly-cooperative groups, share food and mates with outsiders, and often resolve conflicts through sex instead of aggression.

Later this year, a new law will go into effect in New York City, allowing workers to use paid family leave to care for anyone they personally define as family, regardless of whether that relationship falls into neat biological categories.

A US federal court has thrown out a class action lawsuit against Starbucks that alleged that the beverage chain was cheating customers by under-filling drinks and overdoing it with the foam.

Carrie Gracie is a British journalist who has worked for the BBC for 30 years, most recently as its China editor. She stepped down from that position this week and took a public stand against her employer for what she calls a “secretive and illegal pay culture” that systematically discriminates against women.

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month shrinking the size of the Bears Ears National Monument, the outdoor retailer Patagonia replaced the photos of colorful parkas and sweeping outdoor vistas usually found on its website with a stark headline: “The President Stole Your Land.”

Each January, the American Dialect Society selects a single word or phrase that best represents the mood and interests of online discussions in the previous year. From a nominee list that included “blockchain,” “rogue,” and “digital blackface,” the society has selected “shitpost” as the “Digital Word of the Year” for 2017.

Being a manager inevitably entails an uncomfortable talk with employees, be it a bad performance review, a delicate personal situation, or unpleasant news from higher-ups.

A strong ethos of corporate social responsibility can be good for a company’s bottom line. Employees who believe in their company’s environmental and social values are more loyal, more satisfied, and in some cases more productive than those uninspired by their employer’s moral standards.

Here is a simple three-step plan to boost your lifetime earnings. First, be a man. Second, go to college. Third, join a fraternity.

A supermoon is breathtaking. The vision of the moon at the fullest part of its cycle, at its closest point to Earth, filling the sky, is mesmerizing. And for some people who encounter the attention-grabbing sight at the wrong time, it is also a stone cold killer.