The relationship between job loss and health is well understood. Researchers have documented increased obesity, heart disease and hypertension, and mental illness associated with joblessness, particularly long-term unemployment. Less studied, however, is the relationship between unemployment and sleep.
Shares of Snowflake, a maker of cloud computing software, soared yesterday after the company’s initial public offering. The stock closed at $253, more than double the $120 the price at which the company and its bankers initially valued them.
Like thousands of US colleges and universities this spring, Simmons University in Boston had to adjust to Covid-19 on the fly, closing lecture halls and moving classes online. And like many of its peer institutions, Simmons is preparing for a remote fall.
It’s been a great month to be Zoom.
Last weekend, sitting at the breakfast table, my smart and sophisticated wife had a confession. “I miss Disney,” she said.
When Jack Welch retired from General Electric in 2001 after 20 years as CEO, he had been celebrated as a business demigod for years. Under Welch, who died yesterday at age 84, GE shares returned 5,200%—double that of the S&P 500—and he turned a slumbering industrial conglomerate into the most valuable company in the world. He did it, in part, through a ruthless focus on excellence, by embracing Six Sigma, a management technique borrowed from operational engineers, and by regularly purging the lowest-performing employees from the company. No wonder he was dubbed the “manager of the century” by Fortune and “the CEO of CEOs” by Forbes.
Clayton Christensen, one of the most influential management thinkers of the last century, died Jan. 23. He was 67.
The US drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s special forces, on Jan. 3 means the 2020s will continue an unbroken string of decades dating to the 1770s in which the US has deployed its military overseas.
It’s hard to overstate the shock created by Magic Johnson’s announcement he was HIV positive in November of 1991.
First sold commercially 119 years ago, aspirin is a remarkable drug. Cheap and with few side effects, its benefits include the ability to prevent blood cells from clotting. As a result, it’s given to patients who have suffered heart attacks, which are caused by clots blocking arteries leading to the heart.
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Quartz lifestyle correspondent Jenni Avins and culture and lifestyle editor Oliver Staley discuss the transformation economy—the trend toward selling customers a better version of themselves.
Decades only take shape with the clarity of hindsight. The artifacts that make a decade memorable don’t become obvious until long after it has passed.
Quartz culture editor Oliver Staley and At Work editor Heather Landy explore the new science of talent assessment, which is evolving beyond the tests and interviews we’ve all come to rely on to recruit and promote employees. In this new paradigm, increasingly sophisticated tools and systems are used to identify the specific skills and qualities required for different jobs.
Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis seats 67,000, but on a Monday morning in March, the stands were mostly empty—save for a collection of scouts and coaches scattered about the cavernous arena. On the field, Jordan Brown toed the starting line of a 40-yard stretch of artificial turf. He took his time as he settled into a sprinter’s stance. He knew the next five seconds could define his future.
Quartz culture editor Oliver Staley and entertainment reporter Adam Epstein discuss this fall’s television season, touching on the new shows to look out for, the imminent launches of Disney+ and Apple TV+, and how the traditional broadcast networks are trying to survive in the era of streaming. They also examine Disney’s decision to release its episodes weekly (rather than all at once, as Netflix does) and what that might mean for the future of how we consume TV.
In this Quartz membership conference call, culture and lifestyle editor Oliver Staley spoke with travel reporter Natasha Frost about the airline industry’s future. They discussed the growing awareness of air travel’s impact on the environment, alternatives to jet fuel and why US airlines are thriving.
All major US stock indices are slumping for the second day in a row, and there seems to be no reason. Or, perhaps, there’s every reason.
Quartz senior reporter Gwynn Guilford and deputy finance editor Oliver Staley discuss the state of global trade, amid the trade war, Brexit, and other developments.
Superhero comics have traditionally not been the place to look for progressive representations of gender or race. Originally written by men for boys, the heroes tended to be straight, male, and white. And not just white, but a certain non-ethnic, Protestant kind of white, despite (or perhaps because of) the ethnicity of their creators, who were often Jewish. At times, the Avengers had four blonde men on its roster and the Justice League frequently had more members who were aliens than were women.
In this Quartz membership conference call, finance editor Jason Karaian and deputy finance editor Oliver Staley discussed Oliver’s feature article about the rise and fall of Six Sigma, the management system popularized by General Electric and Jack Welch.
Twenty years ago, no company was flying higher than General Electric. In early 2000, GE passed Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company. The sprawling conglomerate, which sold everything from jet engines to mortgages to advertising on Seinfeld, was directed by a dynamic CEO, Jack Welch, and his unwavering faith in the power of Six Sigma.
The modern marathon comes with a healthy serving of virtue. Marathons have become venues to announce triumphs over disease, to mark an epic weight loss, to remember loved ones, to raise money for the less fortunate.
In this conference call, economics reporter Allison Schrager and deputy finance and economics editor Oliver Staley take your questions about negative interest rates.
