SINCE THE START of the pandemic, traditional business hours have gone out the window. Many professionals are working around family schedules, working times can vary wildly within the same business and bosses and managers often have no direct control over the schedules of their employees.

These days, some people in your company are probably online in the early morning, while some are online late into the evening, and others, well, they’re the strange work-all-weekend folks.

During the pandemic, “business hours” has morphed into “any hours”—or, more precisely, “all hours”—so it should be no surprise that burnout has become a serious and growing problem.

In late-October, the Ontario government introduced the Working for Workers Act 2021, which, among other measures, proposes to give employees in Ontario the right to disconnect from work ― it would be the first law of its kind in Canada.

Legislation aside, at this time of tremendous transition, business leaders have a critical responsibility to be deliberate and clear about expectations of availability ― and to define exactly what “business hours” means to their organization. There is now ample evidence to show that, despite how it may seem, working more hours doesn’t necessarily increase our productivity. In fact, it’s often the reverse. Studies indicate that after 50 hours a week, productivity starts to decline.

Leaders have an opportunity to make company culture much more supportive of employees’ work-life balance. And yes, despite all the pre- Covid talk about “work-life integration” and “work-life blending,” the pandemic has shown that work-life balance is more important than ever.

RETAILING

Reimagining the third place

With its latest store, Starbucks just threw out a strategy it spent 40 years perfecting

FOR 40 YEARS, Starbucks has built a business on the premise that it could be the “third place” for its customers. The idea was that you spend most of your time at home or work, but Starbucks would be the third location you spend time working, studying or just hanging out with your friends. 

Now, after being battered around by the pandemic, the java giant is trying out another idea. Earlier this month, Starbucks opened a concept store in partnership with Amazon Go markets. Located in Manhattan, the store utilizes Amazon’s cashier-less tech which uses cameras and shelf sensors to keep track of what customers put in their cart and charges them automatically when they leave.

In other words, it’s a store where customers can pick up their favourite drinks or snacks without ever having to interact with other people. And while the concept store does include some seating, there’s a totally different vibe about a store where you can order and pick up a drink without ever interacting with a person ― especially when that's by design.

During the pandemic, many Starbucks stores have been open only for pickup or drive-through orders. And as it turns out, people have kept going to Starbucks. Now the company seems to be anticipating that shift could be permanent.

If visiting a Starbucks in the past was all about the experience, the company seems to be anticipating that, instead of trying to be the place you go to spend a little time, it now wants to be the place you go when you’re on your way to wherever it is you spend time. 

ADVANCING

Irritating, attention-seeking ... and successful

New research shows people with a high degree of narcissism get promoted faster. Why?

PERHAPS YOU KNOW a person like this: someone self-absorbed, maybe even to a fault, who sees themselves at the centre of the universe. Perhaps you’ve even grumbled under your breath as this person gets a promotion, and then another, until you are in the unenviable position of having a narcissistic boss.

In a business culture that loves to talk about teamwork, this might intuitively like a grand unfairness. And maybe it is. But researchers are starting to figure out why it's so common.

A recent paper from the University of Amsterdam found that people with narcissistic tendencies tend to have a faster path to positions of influence. In trying to answer ‘why?’ they found that narcissism “produced both higher self-promotion toward the supervisor and greater sense of power,” which in turn explained why there appeared to be a correlation between employee narcissism and perceived promotability. Often, this doesn't even correspond with actual performance metrics ― as a study from 2017 found.

Now, the moral of this story definitely isn't that we should all run out and develop narcissistic outlooks on the world ― but there might be a few nuggets of wisdom that anyone can use here. What narcissists and genuinely high-performing workers tend to share is an air of confidence ― or, as the Dutch researchers put it, “employees high on narcissism act as if they have more power in organizations, and thus, demonstrate behaviour that would be expected in higher level positions.”

After all, what is this if not a flowery version of those old chestnuts ― "fake it till you make it”, “walk in like you own the place” and “if you want that promotion, act like you've already got it”?

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Hacking our dreams

The next frontier for advertising isn’t virtual reality or holograms — it’s your dreams

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