Along with government sanctions, we've seen a huge number of corporations shut down business in and with Russia. While some of the companies have made the move for ethical reasons, many have done so for public relations. And in those cases, the PR teams have been moved in part by appearing on a list compiled by Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team. This is one spreadsheet you don't want to appear on. A Yale professor's list of companies staying in Russia has put the business world on notice. One of the most important aspects of these shutdowns is that they make it harder for Vladimir Putin to sell Russians the idea that his maniacal war is just a minor incursion. And it looks like that facade has been punctured. NYT: More than 13,000 people have been arrested in antiwar protests in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began. And that's in the face of potentially stiff prison sentences.
+ "One post-invasion poll found that 86% of Americans saw the invasion as unjustified – with broad bipartisan agreement – and another showed that half of the respondents would compare the actions of Vladimir Putin with those of Adolf Hitler." In other words, this is one of the easiest stands many corporations have ever had to take.
+ "The Venezuelan government has freed two jailed Americans, including an oil executive imprisoned alongside colleagues for more than four years." (This is a sign that the US is looking to Venezuela to make up the difference when it comes to lost oil supplies from Russia. That moves us from one thug dictator to another, all of which makes renewables seem like one hell of an option - with the bonus that we just might save the planet.)
+ "Joe Biden hasn't received the full credit he deserves for his statecraft during this crisis, because he has pursued a policy of self-effacement. Rather than touting his accomplishments in mobilizing a unified global response to the invasion, he has portrayed the stringent sanctions as the triumph of an alliance. By carefully limiting his own public role ... he has left Vladimir Putin with little opportunity to portray the conflict as a standoff with the United States, a narrative that the Russian leader would clearly prefer." Franklin Foer in The Atlantic: Biden Answered the 3 a.m. Call. (Compare that with Trump's "perfect call.")
+ For now, Putin continues to respond to the international pressure by doubling down and targeting civilians, including bombing a children's and maternity hospital. Here's the latest from CNN and BBC.
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COPS AND ROBBERS
The perpetrators of police misconduct often get away scot-free. The same is not true for the taxpayers who live in their jurisdictions. "More than $1.5 billion has been spent to settle claims of police misconduct involving thousands of officers repeatedly accused of wrongdoing. Taxpayers are often in the dark." A special report from WaPo (Gift Article): The hidden billion-dollar cost of repeated police misconduct.
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CRYPTONITE?
"The executive order had been widely anticipated by the finance industry, crypto traders, speculators and lawmakers who have compared the cryptocurrency market to the Wild West. Despite the risks, the government said, surveys show that roughly 16% of adult Americans — or 40 million people — have invested in cryptocurrencies. And 43% of men age 18-29 have put their money into cryptocurrency." Biden signs order on cryptocurrency as its use explodes.
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THE JOHN HOLMES SIGNATURE COLLECTION
"Around September, mating season begins, and bulls use their antlers to spar with one another when vying for breeding rights with cows. 'There's a relation between antler size and sperm counts,' Matthew Metz, a wildlife biologist and research associate with the Yellowstone Wolf Project, told me. 'It's an honest advertisement.' When bulls are done breeding, their testosterone levels fall, and so do their antlers. In the spring, the bones are cast off, leaving behind bloody pedicles. The wounds heal, regrowth begins, and people start searching for the antlers that have been shed. The bones are valuable: last summer, top-grade elk antler sold for sixteen dollars a pound. (A large shed antler might weigh ten pounds.) Collectors are known to pay upward of fifteen hundred dollars for a particularly desirable pair of antlers, and tens of thousands of dollars for deadheads—skulls with the antlers still attached." Abe Streep in The New Yorker: The Great American Antler Boom.
+ Utah Struck: "Parent-hired transporters can pull kids from their beds, handcuff them, hold them down or blindfold them. In Utah, a legislator who recently sponsored a bill that brought regulatory reform to the state's booming teen-treatment industry said he wants to take a closer look at how kids from all over the country are getting to the state for treatment." APM Reports: 'Blindfolds, hoods and handcuffs': How some teenagers get to Utah's youth treatment programs.
"It looked arch and irreverent, so we decided to keep watching. But first -- and I know you do this too -- we checked how long it was. Nine episodes? Sorry, but that's way too much." A Streaming Plea: Stop Making TV Shows That Shouldn't Be Full Shows. Seriously, it took Anna less time to invent herself than it's taken me to get through Inventing Anna.
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A lot of people are talking about the four-day workweek, but I think it's more revealing to talk about the 20-hour workweek.
For people who want flexibility, 20 hours a week is a really manageable number. It's particularly good for young people, who often want a solid gig but also value the side hustle that helps them find their purpose. And it's excellent for older people who have recently retired. A huge part of their social life may well have been tied up with work. They might like to continue collaborating with peers, colleagues, and friends. And the work benefits may be better than what they'd get as retirees.
This should be a win–win. If a company could get access to loyal—not transactional—people who are excited to be at work, why wouldn't it want that?
However, most companies don't want to deviate from what they consider "normal"—a five-day, 40-hour workweek. (Which, by the way, is an artificial creation enshrined by laws passed more than 80 years ago.) Employers think anything else would be too complicated. But if they really examined what their talent force looks like, they'd see it's quite complex already, full of "full-timers" with special arrangements, contractors deeply entwined with the company, freelancers who were once full-timers, and so on.
Another big convention that most employers don't want to alter is offering benefits only to people working a standard 40-hour week. But perhaps that's short-sighted. By lowering the bar to 20-hour weeks, they probably create a more reliable workforce, full of people who know the company and its culture and who are committed to it, because the company is helping them have a happier, more flexible life.
One outcome of the pandemic is that the employee–employer power dynamic has really shifted toward employees. Offering flexibility with benefits would go a long way to showing talent that employers are truly "invested in you." Research clarifies that benefits are an even bigger "tie that binds" than hourly wages.
82
years ago, the Fair Labor Standards Act enshrined the 40-hour workweek
Now, 20 hours isn't some magical number. My beef with the five-day workweek is that it's a norm from long ago that hasn't been adjusted to reflect the way that work has evolved. Like many proposals for four-day workweeks, it's a mandate handed down from on high. So, maybe 25 hours is right. Maybe 30, even though that seems too high to me. The point is that affording employees this kind of flexibility would be both an honest recognition of today's talent market and a way for companies to build lasting loyalty from employees—at a time when loyalty to corporations is at a low.
When it comes to having to go into an office every day of the week, the genie is out of the bottle. When we next hit a downturn in the economy, some employers will be tempted to think, "Now is our chance to get back to everyone in the office every day." If that happens, you'll see a bifurcation between those companies and more flexible firms. And I think those companies will be hurt because people no longer accept the idea that a company owns them. They think they deserve choice, and they're not going to relinquish that easily. They're going to get on social media and talk about their employers, and there's going to be a cost to that.
But companies that are less entrenched in tradition and that offer workers real flexibility are going to create a workplace that's compelling. At those companies, people will enjoy the feeling of going into the office.
I think there's a good chance that within five years, employers offering 20-hour workweeks with benefits will become more of a norm. For the past two years-plus, employees have made their independence clearer than ever. It's time for employers to acknowledge that reality and adjust their policies and expectations. Believe it or not, the workplace has changed from 80 years ago.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bill Schaninger is a senior partner in McKinsey's Philadelphia office.
A record number of employees are quitting or thinking about doing so. Organizations that take the time to learn why—and act thoughtfully—will have an edge in attracting and retaining talent.
Our latest transformations research confirms that success remains elusive and reliant on a holistic approach. Yet some actions are especially predictive of realizing the financial benefits at stake.
Deep new McKinsey research on CEO performance over the decades reveals that six mindsets distinguish the very bestCEOs.
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