$600 weekly jobless benefit will likely lapse before more aid is passed     Laid off workers would see a lapse in the additional benefits reducing their weekly income by more than two-thirds in many states.   Despite the overall success Washington has had getting aid to the jobless through this crisis, many Americans still appear to be suffering. More people are reporting trouble getting enough to eat. Households have been skipping loan payments, and many are worried that the U.S. may be on the verge of a housing crisis this summer as eviction moratoria are lifted. Cutting people off from aid will only make those problems worse, while pushing the wider economy...

If you can't pivot, tack     When discussing the difficulties of running a business during the COVID-19 crisis, many have urged us to "pivot". Pivoting, in the sense that you need to alter what you do, or change the direction your company is taking. In a recent Facebook posting, the idea of business pivoting was taken to task, and an alternative was suggested.   The word “pivot” can be used as either a noun or a verb. When used as a noun, pivot is defined as “the central point, pin, or shaft on which a mechanism turns or oscillates”. When used as a verb, it...

What You Don't Say Is Important Too!   Strength is admired and sought after. Everyone wants to look strong and confident. This is true in personal relationships as well as in business. The words you use with your employees and your coworkers need to be convincing and devoid of ambiguity.   Judith Humphrey, writing in Fast Company, makes the case for losing your dependence on certain verbs that can all too easily creep into our lexicon. These words are common, but also lazy. Don’t forget that one of the important uses of verbs is to convey “action”.  In business, you’ll want to be seen...

The Black-White Wage Gap     Attribution: Current Population Survey - photo from Daily Kox, 1/28/17     David Leonhardt, writing in the June 25, 2020 NYT   One remarkable sign of the racial inequities plaguing the United States: The wage gap between black and white men is as large today as it was in 1950.   If you look at the government’s official wage statistics, you’ll see a somewhat different story. Those number show that the wage gap is smaller than in the mid-20th century.   But the official statistics are misleading. They exclude people who are not working — and there has been a sharp rise since the 1980s in...

The 10 Commitments Companies Must Make to Advance Racial Justice     Jorg Greuel/Getty Images     Mark R. Kramer, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, and a cofounder and managing director of FSG, a global social impact consulting firm, recently penned an article for the Harvard Business Review (June 4, 2020). In it, he outlines 10 commitments companies must make to advance racial justice.   In the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, many major corporations are tweeting out statements of concern and support for the Black community. That’s a start, but what is needed at this moment is action. We cannot pretend that most major...