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Fast Company

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February 23, 2025  12:00:00

Middle managers are struggling. Hereā€™s how employers can better support themā€”and help prepare the young employees who might take their place in the future.

Middle managers have had a hard go of it over the past five years. There was the upheaval of the pandemic, followed by ongoing changes in the workplace as companies adjusted to remote work and then, in many cases, eventually brought employees back into the office. Amid all these fluctuations, managers have been tasked with mitigating low morale, parrying employee discontent, and juggling their mounting responsibilities, especially as recurring layoffs thin their ranks.

February 23, 2025  11:30:00

From how to find more clients to how to prevent AI from taking your gigs, here are tips from a longtime freelancer on improving your freelance business.

Longevity with freelancing is entirely possible if youā€™re intentional, adaptable, and development-oriented. Freelancers should think of themselves as a business of one as opposed to an outsourced employee for other companies. And it’s import to always be improving that business. As E-Myth Revisited author Michael Gerber once wrote, ā€œMost entrepreneurs fail because they are working in their business rather than on their business.ā€

February 23, 2025  11:04:00

The Screen Actors Guild Awards will stream on Netflix once again this year. Hereā€™s everything to know about the celebration of on-screen talent.

Itā€™s almost time for the most heartfelt accolades of Hollywoodā€™s award season. The Screen Actors Guild Awards, hosted by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), is set to take place tonight (Sunday, February 23) at 8 p.m. ET. This tribute to actors gets its emotion from the fact that it is put on by actors.

February 23, 2025  11:00:00

You donā€™t need a degree in advanced mathematics to determine how much insurance you need, when you need it, and how long to carry it.

Your insurance needs change over time. The policies that work for a single, 20-something professional renting an apartment with three roommates may be completely wrong for the same person after marriage, babies, and a cozy mortgage in a good school district.

February 23, 2025  11:00:00

A roundup of quarterly mortgage rate forecasts shows that most forecasters still expect mortgage rates to gradually decrease over the next 18 months.

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambertā€™s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.

February 23, 2025  10:00:00

The QR codes show the name of the person buried in the grave and its location in the cemetery.

Police in Munich are investigating a mystery: More than 1,000 stickers were put on gravestones and wooden crosses at three cemeteries in the German city, without any indication of where they came from or why.

February 23, 2025  09:30:00

Fortunately for managers and workers, thereā€™s a lot of research into how to be a more trustworthy leader.

National Leadership Day, which takes place every Feb. 20, offers a chance to reflect on what truly defines leadership ā€“ not just strategy or decision-making, but the ability to build trust. In an era of rapid change, when teams look to leaders for stability and direction, trust is the invisible currency that fuels organizational success.

February 23, 2025  09:00:00

We have all become virtual communicators, and with this comes a new set of rules for interpersonal success.

Andrew Brodsky is a management professor at McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also CEO of Ping Group and has received numerous awards, including being chosen byĀ Poets & QuantsĀ as one of the Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors of 2023.

February 22, 2025  12:30:00

The PokĆ©mon card boom is getting bigger, with overall value of cards rising recentlyā€”and some individual cards increasing by as much as 150%.

It might sound a little silly that thereā€™s an entire subgenre of influencers who offer investment advice around PokĆ©mon trading cards. Probably because it is a little silly. The idea of some YouTube Jim Cramer breathlessly warning viewers that ā€œSurging Sparks is setting a fire under collectors and investorsā€ is the stuff Saturday Night Live sketches are made of.

February 22, 2025  12:00:00

Zillow projects that U.S. home prices will rise 1.1% between January 2025 and January 2026.

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambertā€™sĀ ResiClubĀ in your inbox?Ā SubscribeĀ to theĀ ResiClubĀ newsletter.

February 22, 2025  11:30:00

The proliferation of third-party payment apps combined with a lower income threshold set by the IRS means you may receive a 1099-K this year. Hereā€™s how it may affect your 2024 tax return.

Somewhere between 25% and 35% of working Americans are gig workersā€“either as a supplement to their primary income or as their full-time job. And for many gig economy workers, cash apps and marketplaces offer a simple and convenient way to receive payments. Enter the IRS form 1099-K.

February 22, 2025  11:01:00

Salt and lime can solve many of lifeā€™s problems.

While Valentineā€™s Day and football get the majority of publicity during February, thereā€™s more to this month than love and sports.

February 22, 2025  11:00:00

The portfolio operations lead has a love-hate relationship with being labeled ā€˜a creative.ā€™ Creativity for her is as much about solving problems as it is building things from scratch.

Kate Aronowitz tells me she first set out in graphic design because it felt like a discipline that helped her bring order to things. Many years later, she has a love-hate relationship with being labeled ā€œa creativeā€ because the creative process, as she sees it, is not just about art and designā€”itā€™s as much about solving problems as it is building things from scratch. She also believes everyone can be creative under the right circumstances.Ā 

February 22, 2025  11:00:00

Take Google Maps, add a dash of ChatGPT, a pinch of Perplexity, and a hint of Wikipediaā€”and PamPam is what you get.

I donā€™t know about you, but I tend to think about my favorite tech tools as being split into two separate saucepans: the ā€œclassicā€ apps weā€™ve known and relied on for ages and then the newer ā€œAIā€ apps that have shown up over the past several months to serve some super-specific purpose.

February 22, 2025  11:00:00

A chief data officer explains why you need to pay attention to the rise of autonomous AI agents.

The relentless hype around AI makes it difficult to separate the signal from the noise.Ā So itā€™s understandable if youā€™ve tuned out recent talk about autonomous AI agents.Ā A word of advice: Donā€™t. The significance of agentic AI may actually exceed the hype. Ā 

February 22, 2025  10:00:00

I use Background Sounds to improve my focus. Hereā€™s how you can use it, too.

As I write this, the most pleasing sound is washing over meā€”gentle waves ebbing and flowing onto the shore. Sadly, Iā€™m not actually on some magnificent tropical beach. Instead, the sounds of the sea are being generated by my Mac.

February 22, 2025  09:30:00

Presidential libraries in the United States today follow the same principle: They become monuments to the former presidents, while giving back to their local communities.

Here in Atlanta, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum has been part of my daily life for years. Parks and trails surrounding the center connect my neighborhood to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park downtown and everything in between.

February 22, 2025  09:00:00

Having more choices doesnā€™t enhance our freedom and well-being on an individual or societal level.

Sophia Rosenfeld is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Her previous books include the award-winning title Common Sense: A Political History. Her writing has appeared in scholarly journals, such as the American Historical Review and the Journal of Modern History, as well as in media publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Nation.

February 22, 2025  00:20:00

Yes, thereā€™s fear of change, but there are also emerging playbooks where everyone wins.

Clearly, automation will affect labor in 2025. But we maintain that when implemented well, automation elevates our employees and empowers our American workers to make U.S. businesses more competitive on the global stage.

This is our ā€œwhy.ā€ Now Chang Roboticsā€™ president, Kate McAfoose, will address the ā€œhow.ā€ These are remarks she shared at a recent Delaware Valley Goods Movement Task Force quarterly meeting panel.

February 21, 2025  23:55:00

How AI will ensure the hospital of the future is no hospital

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