Billed as a “no-holds-barred” chatbot to rival its more mainstream contemporaries, Grok was launched in 2023 by xAI, the Elon-Musk helmed AI startup. Upon its release, Musk referred to Grok as the “best [chatbot] that currently exists,” but it has since been eclipsed by the likes of DeepSeek and Manus.

By contrast, ChatGPT is heralded as the AI model that kickstarted the current revolution. Landing to great acclaim in November 2022, it remains the de facto chatbot among consumers and businesses alike, with the largest market share by far.

With the newest iteration of Grok landing in February and ChatGPT 5 on the horizon, there’s never been a better time to compare the two. In this guide, you’ll learn how the two models compare in terms of availability, pricing, language models, responses, data sources, and more.

Grok vs ChatGPT: At a Glance

In the table below, you’ll find a quick rundown of the key differences between these two chatbots. Read on for a more detailed breakdown, and use the links above to navigate to your preferred section, if you like.

Grok vs ChatGPT Pricing

Since the release of Grok 3 in February, Grok is now free to use for all X users. If you do pay for X, however, you’ll unlock more advanced functionality, such as increased usage limits and early access to Voice Mode. If you want those advanced features, you can expect to pay $7 per month for X Premium or $32.92 per month for X Premium+.

ChatGPT pricing starts with a free tier, which gets you access to a version of the chatbot running the older GPT-4o mini large language model (LLM).

Pony up $20 a month and you’ll get access to ChatGPT Plus. Primarily, this lets you use the chatbot with the latest version of OpenAI’s LLM, GPT-4, which means the responses you get will be better. It also lets you create your own AI chatbot, and gets you advanced functionality including the ability to install ChatGPT plugins, standard and advanced voice mode, and access to a research preview of GPT-4.5.

Above this, ChatGPT has Pro tier that starts at $200 per month, a Team plan for collaborating ($25 per user, per month), and an Enterprise tier with on-demand pricing.

Grok vs ChatGPT: Responses

Beyond the technicalities of large language models, a final key difference between Grok and ChatGPT is that Grok is being hyped for its sense of humor.

Musk promises witty, sarcastic responses from Grok, which he hopes will serve as an antidote to ChatGPT’s sometimes dry responses. Musk has also criticized ChatGPT and its parent company, OpenAI, for an alleged left-wing bias in the past.

However, the launch of Grok was a light-hearted rather than an overly political one. To highlight his new AI chatbot’s capacity for wisecracks, Musk shared how it helps users find out how to make cocaine.

xAI’s Grok system is designed to have a little humor in its responses pic.twitter.com/WqXxlwI6ef

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023

Grok vs ChatGPT: Pros and Cons

Both of these platforms have their respective strengths and weaknesses. In this section, I’ll outline some of the biggest examples of each, to help you make an informed decision about which chatbot is better for your needs.

Pros of Grok

• Real-time data access – While other models depend on pre-trained datasets, Grok has real-time data sourcing for up-to-the-minute information.
• Adaptive learning – Grok analyzes past interactions to gain a deeper understanding of user preferences, yielding more personalized results over time.
• Integrates with other Elon Musk platforms – Musk is on a mission to consolidate all of his properties under one banner, and Grok is no exception. The platform is compatible with Tesla, X, and more.

Cons of Grok

• Relatively limited adoption – Compared to some of the other chatbots on the market, Grok has pretty limited user uptake. Other providers have had more time to make an imprint, thus allowing them to build up developer communities and commercial applications.
• Data privacy concerns – Due to its real-time data harvesting, Grok is much more likely to fall foul of data privacy practices. Used on a corporate scale, this could create data protection issues.
• High operating costs – Because Grok has such sophisticated architecture, it commands high computational costs to operate.

Pros of ChatGPT

• Great value for money – ChatGPT has a great free plan that will satisfy most users. Its paid plans start at just $20 per month, meaning you’ll get some really robust functionality for a relatively low fee.
• Feature-rich – You get a lot of bang for your buck with ChatGPT. For example, subscribers will get access to Canvas, a workspace that resembles Google Docs and allows users to carry out AI-enhanced writing and coding tasks.
• Dedicated apps for different platforms – You can access ChatGPT on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Web, rather than just a blanket app for all programs.

Cons of ChatGPT

• Poor at producing long responses – At present, ChatGPT isn’t particularly effective at producing long, complex answers. Because it has to solve so many queries every day, it has to distribute its computational power across an extremely wide network.
• Lacks creativity – One of the big criticisms of ChatGPT is its lack of creativity. Detractors have pointed out that its responses can often be bland and unoriginal.
• Issues when switching between languages – While ChatGPT boasts a comprehensive array of languages, users have complained that it can take a while to adjust when switching between them.

Grok vs ChatGPT: Who Owns Them?

Grok is owned by Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, which was founded in March 2023 with the modest aim of understanding “the true nature of the universe.” As its name would suggest, it’s closely linked to X Corp (and X Holdings Corp), which is Musk’s larger company that owns social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

A statement on the xAI website reads: “[xAI is a] separate company from X Corp, but will work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to make progress towards our mission.”

When it comes to who owns ChatGPT, that’s a company called OpenAI. It was founded back in 2015 and is currently helmed by CEO Sam Altman. Like Musk, Altman is one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world and regularly speaks out on hot-button tech issues such as AI ethics.

Both of these companies are headquartered in the San Francisco area. A final wrinkle in the Grok vs ChatGPT rivalry is that Elon Musk plowed as much as $1 billion into OpenAI in the past, before a failed bid to take over management of the company in 2018 saw him step down from its board.

Relations between the two CEOs have not thawed in recent months. In February, Altman rejected Musk’s $97 billion bid for OpenAI, largely seen as an attempt to block OpenAI’s plans to pivot to a for-profit business model.

The now-famed “four-day workweek” is an arrangement where businesses allow employees to reduce their weekly work schedule by an entire day. In 2024, more businesses are offering a four-day week as an option than ever before.

What’s more, since the pandemic, a number of four-day work week trials have taken place across the globe, some involving hundreds of companies and thousands of workers. The results has been overwhelmingly positive.

So, which countries are taking the leap to the four-day week, and where’s the easiest place in the world to get a job that won’t make you work Fridays? Read on to find out.

• What Is a 4-Day Workweek?
• 5 Countries With a 4-Day Workweek
• 10 Countries that Are Trialing 4-Day Workweeks
• Countries With the Shortest Workweeks
• Should My Company Offer a 4-Day Workweek?

What Is a 4-Day Workweek?

As the name suggests, a four-day working week is a working arrangement that allows employees to complete their weekly hours within four days, rather than five, leaving them with an extra day off.

Not all four-day workweek arrangements are the same. Some actually involve employees working fewer hours in total over the course of any given week. Others require them to work the same number of hours, but over four days.

Many four-day workweek trials have deployed the “100-80-100” method.

This involves paying workers 100% of their existing pay, for 80% of their time, in exchange for 100% productivity/output.

5 Countries with a 4-Day Workweek

We’ll cut to the chase – although four-day workweeks have been creating quite a buzz over the last few years, there are very few countries that have actually implemented the concept nationwide or passed a law that grants it as a universal freedom for all workers.

That being said, there are some countries where it’s more common than others, and some nations where existing laws are helping speed up the transition toward a four-day week.

1. Belgium

Belgium became the first European country to legislate a four-day workweek back in 2022. Legally, Belgians can now complete the hours that would make up their standard, five-day workweek in four days.

“The goal is to give people and companies more freedom to arrange their work time,” Belgium prime minister Alex de Croo said in November of 2022 when the law was passed.

2. United Arab Emirates

In the United Arab Emirates, all government employees can now work a four-day workweek if they choose to. This has been the case since July 1, 2023.

While this doesn’t cover every single worker in the UAE, nearly 90% of the UAE’s workforce is employed by the government – so the vast majority of people can actually work a four-day week.

3. Iceland

Cold little Iceland – a country with just over 350,000 people living in it – actually has more workers working a four-day workweek than almost anywhere else in the world.

After running one of the world’s largest and longest trials into the four-day workweek between 2015 and 2019, it seems to have caught on. According to a 2022 Forbes article, almost 90% of Icelandic workers have reduced working hours every week.

4. Lithuania

Lithuania doesn’t have a blanket law enforcing a four-day workweek, but it enacted legislation in 2021 that now means parents with young children can just work 32 hours a week (the average workweek in the country is 40 hours long).

This effectively means that parents in Lithuania are working a four-day week’s worth of hours, even if they end up spreading the work across five days.

5. France

Although France doesn’t legally enforce a four-day workweek, it’s increasingly common for businesses in the country to offer a four-day workweek.

This is in part due to the fact that France famously enshrined a 35-hour workweek into law way back in 2000, and it is extremely unlikely to ever be overturned. France’s Labor Ministry says that 10,000 workers in France already work a four-day week.

This law makes transitioning to a four-day workweek quite easy – working for four 8-hour days totals 32 hours of work per week, which is only slightly less than the number of hours most workers do.

9 Countries That are Trialing (Or Have Trialed) 4-Day Workweeks

Multiple four-day workweek trials have taken place across the world, and on the whole, they’ve been very successful.

1. The United Kingdom (complete)

One of the largest, recent four-day workweek trials took place in the UK and involved 61 companies and more than 2,900 workers.

Remarkably, 92% of the companies that participated continued with the four-day week (92%) after the study was completed. 18 confirmed shortly after the study that this had become a permanent change to their company policy.

2 & 3. US/Ireland (complete)

In 2022, 900 workers across 33 companies based in the US and Ireland took part in a four-day workweek trial over a six-month period.

According to CNBC, participants rated the experience a 9.1 out of 10, while 97% said they wanted to keep the four-day workweek.

4. Spain (complete)

The Spanish city of Valencia was the home of another recent trial which took place between April 10 and May 7 of 2023. The city’s council scheduled four local holidays on four consecutive Mondays, giving 360,000 participating workers an extra day off per week.

The study found that the arrangement was better for Spanish workers’ health and benefitted their children too. There were some other interesting, positive results, such as reduced fuel emissions due to less commuting.

5. South Africa/Botswana (complete)

South Africa kicked off its own trial of the four-day workweek in March 1, 2023, involving 28 businesses based in the country and one from neighboring Botswana.

After the trial, most companies signaled that they wanted to continue on with the new working arrangements, with only three companies halting it outright.

BusinessTech reports that the experiment “showed a 40% decrease in stress, a 75% decline in burnout, fewer sick days, and an improved work-life balance.”

6. Japan (complete)

Despite its international reputation for having some of the most grueling workweeks on the planet, Japan is actually another country where a four-day working week has been trialed.

Microsoft Japan ran an experiment with its workforce back in 2019 to see if a four-day workweek would benefit them and the business.

The results were nothing short of incredible – participants in the trial were around 40% more productive after their hours were compressed, with much better results than the same month a year prior. However, the trend has yet to catch on nationwide.

7. Canada (complete)

In 2022, Canada ran a four-day workweek trial involving 41 companies, most of which had 11-25 employees on their payroll.

In this study, it was up to the companies to decide how to reduce their hours – the only task was to ensure it didn’t negatively impact output.

Out of those 41 companies, 35 reported that they were either planning to keep the change or leaning towards doing so.

8. Portugal (ongoing)

Portugal is one of the most recent nations to give a selection of their workforce the all-clear for a trial to take place. In June, a 6-month trial started involving 39 corporate businesses.

Almost three-quarters of Portuguese workers work more than 40 hours a week, so it’ll be fascinating to see how it affects productivity.

9. Brazil (ongoing)

Brazil’s four-day workweek trial is only just getting into full swing, having started on September 4, 2023. 20 companies are involved in the trial, and all of them employ more than 400 workers.

Hundreds of Brazilian businesses applied to participate in the study, but only a select few were chosen. It is the first four-day workweek trial to take place in Latin America.

10. South Korea (ongoing)

September 2024 saw South Korea kicking off a 4-day week trial, with 50 organizations in the Gyeonggi Province taking part, in a move to tackle a culture of burnout within the country.

It’s a sharp contrast to the proposal last year to extend the maximum workweek in the country to 69 hours (up from 52), which was met with strong criticism and quickly shelved.

Countries With the Shortest Workweeks

Along with countries that have actually instated a four-day week, or have a huge amount of companies that now offer it, there are other countries that have been gradually chipping away at the total amount of hours their workforce is required to work.

For example, Denmark has one of the shortest workweeks in the world. In the Scandinavian country, workers are only required to work a minimum of 33 hours a week. This would be the equivalent of just over 8 hours a day, for four days, or a half day on Friday.

However, in the nearby Netherlands, that’s even shorter. According to 4dayweek.io, the average workweek in the Netherlands is just 29 hours long. This is the shortest working week in Europe.

No one can beat island nation Vanuatu, which has an average workweek of just 24.7 hours – the amount of time many workers in the US will have already worked by mid-morning on Wednesdays.

Should My Company Offer a 4-Day Workweek?

Most of the evidence from the trials referenced above is remarkable. If the 4-day work week trials are to be believed, it seems workers are able to claw an extra day back to relax and recharge without harming a company’s productivity.

However, it completely depends on how your business currently operates. The first thing you have to consider is the financial aspect. Is your business in a stable enough stage of its growth to implement a trial, even if it is ineffective and doesn’t work out?

In the long run, however, a four-day workweek might help you cut down on office expenses such as electricity and other overheads.

Secondly, some businesses won’t be able to transition to a four-day week easily, if at all – a daily newspaper, for example, would always need some staff working every day of the week. Providing the arrangement to a workforce like this would be more complicated than simply shutting the office down on Fridays, for instance.

If you do end up implementing a four-day week for your staff, remember to consult them throughout the process and gather feedback – it might work for some departments and teams, but not others – and of course, there’s a chance it won’t work for anyone at your company.

Read our full guide on how to implement a four-day week

Other flexible working options

If you don’t think a four-day week is right for your business, there are other options. Most companies offer some remote roles, while others allow their staff to come into the office some days, and stay at home on others.

The concept of “Summer Fridays” – letting staff work a half day on Fridays during the summer months if they make up the hours in the week prior – is offered by the likes of Asos, Kellog’s, PwC, and Tech.co.

The bottom line is this: the way most companies approach their employees’ working patterns and arrangements has changed significantly since the pandemic.

Attracting the top talent in 2024 is much harder if you can’t provide some level of flexibility for your staff members – as is keeping them happy while they’re with your company.

Over the last year, artificial intelligence has taken over the business world. From chatbots to image generators, rapid advancements in the technology have created a substantial demand for employees with AI skills. Quite simply, companies hiring for AI jobs are now everywhere.

Why is this? The main reason AI jobs have been popping up at companies all over the world is to handle all that new functionality rolling out to popular platforms. Subsequently, if you’re an AI professional, it might be a good time to start looking for a new job.

In this guide, you’ll find 25 of the best AI jobs currently available in the US this month and learn about the notable companies hiring for them. Read on and discover the new role that’s right for you in November.

Microsoft

Microsoft is arguably one of the first big tech firms to jump on the AI bandwagon thanks to its lucrative partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

As a result, Microsoft has been rolling out new AI-powered features to its wide range of online products and services, from Microsoft Teams to the Bing browser. Subsequently, Microsoft is in dire need of employees that can handle all that AI power, and the company is currently hiring for these positions, among others:

• AI Researcher
• Applied AI Scientist
• AI Product Manager
• Responsible AI Governance Program Leader
• Director of Artificial Intelligence & Ecosystem Readiness

Even better, a lot of these Microsoft AI jobs are remote, so you can work from home while you take on the challenges of artificial intelligence.

Google

Microsoft may have been first out the gate, but Google is gaining on it fast thanks to the robust Google Bard platform that has come from the tech giant. Bard competes with ChatGPT in a major way, and given Google’s substantial amount of data, could easily become the go-to generative AI platform for users around the world.

Still, Google has a way to go before it can actually dethrone ChatGPT was the most popular AI platform around, which is why they need plenty of help in the department. Here are a few jobs at Google that focus on AI:

• Cloud AI Engineer
• AI Technical Solutions Lead
• Machine Learning Software Engineer
• Senior Privacy Engineer for Google Bard
• Director of Machine Learning Systems

It’s worth noting, however, that Google has been a riskier move lately than in the past. In fact, the company has gone through quite a few rounds of layoffs, with more than 12,000 Googlers losing their jobs this year.

Amazon

Amazon has admittedly been a bit behind when it comes to AI compared to Google and Microsoft. The ecommerce giant has only recently made a big push, entering a partnership with Anthropic, the company behind Claude 2, an AI chatbot that operates similarly to ChatGPT and Google Bard.

In order to catch up with Google and Microsoft, Amazon is hiring for AI jobs like it’s going out of style. Check out some of the Amazon AI jobs below and check out their website for a massive list of potential positions for you:

• Investments Manager
• Senior Applied Scientist 
• Software Development Engineer
• Senior Generative AI Specialist
• Machine Learning Compiler Engineer

If you were hoping to work from home while taking on these AI jobs at Amazon, you’re out of luck. Amazon has recently taken a firm stance against remote work, even giving the green light to manager that want to fire employees that aren’t in the office at least three days per week.

Apple

Compared to other big tech firms, Apple has been unreasonably slow when it comes to AI. Between Siri being a perennial disappointment and the complete lack of generative AI service available to iOS users, it’s seems like Apple is going to have to time travel if it has any hopes of staying competitive.

All is not lost, though, with Apple CEO Tim Cook announcing recently that the company would make a big investment in AI soon in the form of hiring AI professionals. Here are some of the jobs they’re starting off with, among others:

• AI Data Scientist
• Machine Learning Engineer
• Robotics Algorithms Engineer
• Generative AI Quality Engineer
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) Engineer

Worried that Apple might cut back on AI spending because of poor iPhone sales? Have no fear! The company has shown that AI spend is going to stay up, no matter what’s going on with the hardware department of the company.

Meta

Meta has been quick to get its services set up with some kind of AI-powered functionality, rolling out generative AI chatbots to its many social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The AI-powered chatbots on Meta social media platforms are being called Personas, and they can even take on celebrity appearances and personalities to engage users as much as possible. As you can imagine, this takes some serious work, which is why Meta has been posting AI jobs frequently. Here are some of the top options:

• AI Research Scientist
• AI Research Engineer 
• Computer Vision Engineer
• AI Specialist for Responsible AI
• AI/HPC Systems Performance Engineer

AI investment has been paying off big for Meta so far, which means that finding a job at the controversial social media company should be a safe bet for any professionals looking for a stable AI position.

Related: Companies Offering Remote Work From Home Jobs

While knowing how to ask to work remotely is a valuable skill, it’s easier to just work for a company that promotes remote working as part of its culture. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best fully remote jobs you can apply for in November 2023.

These include exciting vacancies at tech giants such as Salesforce, Intel and Nvidia, as well as fully remote job openings at companies with roots as a startup. Here’s lookin’ at you, Atlassian.

Whether you’re an experienced professional in your field or looking for a cutting edge internship coming out of college, this guide will help you find the right remote working from home job for you. With hundreds of positions currently open, here’s a look at some of the most exciting.

Atlassian

Software developer Atlassian has an impressive portfolio of products including Jira, Confluence, Trello and many more. It has also got a supremely attractive “work from anywhere” policy that it ushered in in 2020 and has never looked back on.

Currently, more than 8,000 Atlassian employees across 13 countries enjoy the ultimate flexible working setup, where they can choose to work remotely full-time or make use of the company’s offices. Some roles stipulate attendance at a quarterly on-site, but we can live with that.

Atlassian is hiring for a healthy amount of remote jobs right now, with over 90 roles advertised for in the US alone. From senior leadership role to machine learning internships that make us wish we were still in school, here’s our top picks.

• Senior Data Scientists
• Full Stack Software Engineers
• Machine Learning Interns (Summer 2024)
• Data Engineer
• Head of US Commercial Channels

Learn more about these positions and discover others on Atlassian’s careers page.

PayPal

You’ve heard of PayPal. You probably use PayPal. Why not work for PayPal?

If fully remote working is what you’re after, you certainly could do worse. Right now, the online payments giant is hiring for over 60 remote working from home jobs

From senior positions to internships, PayPal seems to be hiring for it all right now having topped its Q3 earnings under new CEO Alex Chriss.

Here are some of the PayPal jobs being hired for.

• Staff Software Engineer
• Inside Sales Intern
• Senior Auditor
• Social Media Manager
• Accounting Manager

There are many, many more jobs at PayPal, especially in certain fields like engineering. Head over to its website for more information.

Salesforce

Of the many companies offering remote work, Salesforce really has to walk the walk when it comes to its working from home policy. That’s because larger than life CEO Marc Benioff proudly stated that he has “always been a remote worker” at Dreamforce 2023 earlier this year.

Its official policy, therefore, is that any employee can work fully remotely, so long as they have approval from their line manager. In practice, some roles are back to a hybrid model requiring some office attendance, but many aren’t. Better still, some come with generous six figure salaries in addition to other Salesforce employee benefits.

In fact, in November 2023 it has no less than 205 fully remote jobs listed on its website. Some of the best ones are:

• Platform Engineer
• Senior Researcher
• Data Cloud Solution Engineer
• Strategy and Analytics Director
• Account Executive

Check out the Salesforce careers website to learn more.

Zapier

For a history lesson in remote working, look no further than Zapier. The company behind the popular workflow automation tool has been living its best WFH life since way back in 2011.

It’s a small company compared to many others in this guide, with just over 800 employees spread across 38 countries. However, it punches well above its weight and has shown that remote is a winning way to work by inking big name clients like Zendesk over the years.

With a $5 billion valuation and heavyweight VC backing, it’s one of the rising stars of the tech world. Fortunately for those looking to join an exciting new company, it’s currently got a handful of jobs going in its engineering and design departments.

• Principal Designer
• Director of Production Engineering
• Engineering Manager (multiple roles)
• Senior Engineer (multiple roles)
• Engineer

Check out Zapier’s job listings page to learn more, or you can also register your general interest in working for the company with an eye to future vacancies.

Intel

Intel is a bona fide blue chip company with over 130,000 global employees. As such, it has a healthy amount of fully remote jobs currently going.

It has been operating what it calls a “hybrid-first” model of working since 2021, and when employees were surveyed about the policy a whopping 90% said they approved of it.

At the time of writing, there were more than 65 positions at Intel that offer outright home working. Some of the best are:

• AI Algorithm Engineer
• Performance Researcher
• Data Architect
• Brand Strategy Analyst
• Senior Program Manager

You can find all of Intel’s remote vacancies on its jobs website.

Shopify

Shopify doesn’t just make one of the best ecommerce website builders, it has one of the best remote working ethos.

The company proudly tells its employees to “do your daily work wherever you work best” as part of its wider “digital by default” strategy. This was first introduced in the pandemic era, but the company is sticking to its home working guns in 2023.

That said, it has re-opened its global offices for those who appreciate such an option and maintains this physical presence in 19 key markets .

With dozens of remote-first vacancies currently being hired for at Shopify, it’s simply one of the best companies you can look at if fully remote work is your thing.

Here’s some the top jobs at Shopify this November:

• Engineers (“always hiring”)
• Marketing Automation Manager
• Senior Lead, Affiliate Partner Growth
• Sales Lead
• Campaign Operations Lead

You’ll find full details and more openings on the Shopify careers website.

In the wake of several high-profile cyberattacks exploiting various aspects of Microsoft’s security and cloud infrastructure in the past few years, the tech giant has decided to launch a new initiative that seeks to overhaul the company’s approach to software security.

One of the highlights of the new initiative is Microsoft’s plans to use Artificial Intelligence – including Microsoft Secure Copilot – to improve its resolve as it fends off attacks from sophisticated, state-backed actors.

Microsoft Launches Secure Future Initiative

“In recent months, we’ve concluded… that the increasing speed, scale, and sophistication of cyberattacks call for a new response,” Microsoft said in a blog post published this week announcing the new Secure Future Initiative.

The company also revealed that “new nation-state cyber activity targeting critical infrastructure organizations across the United States” utilizing “sophisticated, patient, stealthy, well-resourced, and government-backed techniques to infect and undermine the integrity of computer networks” have proved to be the catalyst behind the security overhaul.

Along with these larger, state-backed threats, Microsoft notes that the company is tracking more than 120 smaller-scale (but still very sophisticated) ransomware-as-a-service affiliates, which also have the power to wreak havoc on critical infrastructure and are still very much at large.

The new initiative will be made up of three different pillars: AI-based cyber defense, advancing software engineering and development, and advocacy for better protection for civilians through the implementation of international cybersecurity norms.

How Microsoft Plans to Use AI to Battle Threats

A key part of Microsoft’s secure focus initiative involves harnessing the power of AI to make its systems safer – the company is taking “new steps” to use AI within Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence framework.

Microsoft says it plans to provide customers with some of these capabilities too and use AI to reduce the current delays experienced during vulnerability patching processes.

The tech behemoth is also using AI to assist security analysts and make them more effective at their jobs. Microsoft Security Copilot – a security-focused AI tool that launched in March 2023 – can make security and system management recommendations based on analysis of vast amounts of complicated data.

Microsoft notes that the company is deploying its AI technology in accordance with its rules of responsible AI, but said its AI code of ethics may have to evolve and change alongside the technology, which is developing at a rapid pace.

Will the Attacks Keep On Coming?

Microsoft has been targeted in a number of high-profile cyber attacks over the past few years, with the most recent involving a flaw in Microsoft’s cloud-based messaging platform Exchange Online (OWA)” and their email service, Outlook.com.

Microsoft was widely criticized at the time, with Tenable CEO Amit Yoran calling the company’s sluggish response “grossly irresponsible, if not blatantly negligent.”

Preceding this was the SolarWinds attack in 2020, during which Microsoft’s systems were used to continue what turned out to be one of the most sophisticated, damaging cyberattacks to ever take place.

These sorts of threats aren’t just going to disappear. But perhaps the biggest change to the way the company has approached security and cyber threats for almost two decades is quite an emphatic response.

A US-based poll found that only 31% of respondents say that someone in their organization has asked for their input when it comes to their remote and hybrid work preferences.

The research commissioned by management consulting firm, Eagle Hill Consulting, included 1,350 survey respondents from a random sample of employees across the US in October 2023.

The study comes at a time when return to workplace mandates have been coming in thick and fast, much to many employees’ dissatisfaction. This polarizing debate rumbles on, as the pros and cons of each side are clear and valid, it now looks like a case of who can hold their nerve longer until a middle (or hybrid) ground is reached.

Bosses Prepared to Lose Talent

As well as almost 60% of respondents not being asked for their preferences, the Eagle Hill Consulting study also found that nearly half of the workforce (47%) say they would consider looking for a new job should their employer reduce remote and hybrid work flexibility, up from 43% just six months ago.

According to this study, it seems as though those companies rolling back on flexible working environments are hellbent on implementing a return to office policy regardless of the potential regret that comes along with it.

Millennials currently make up the majority of the US workforce, and according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, they will make up 75% of the US workforce by 2030.

Of the respondents who would consider alternative employment opportunities if their working environment were to become office-based, 60% of Millennials and Gen-Zers were among them, whereas only one third of boomers felt the same.

This demonstrates that there is an ongoing power struggle between employees who enjoy the freedom of remote or hybrid working, and their organizations, who wish to buck the trend despite the lack of support from the biggest section of the workforce.

The “Genie’s Out the Bottle”

This study shows that many workers’ opinions regarding working environments are not being heard, which can often be damaging to productivity and loyalty, particularly because many become accustomed to the benefits of remote work.

“Many workers learned during the pandemic that two things can be true at the same time: they can get their job done and have improved work-life balance via hybrid or remote work. It’s hard to put that genie back in the bottle, so work flexibility often is a way to meet in the middle. Our research finds employees deeply value in-person work, but they don’t want strict mandates, nor do they want long and expensive commutes every day.” – Melissa Jezior, president and chief executive officer of Eagle Hill Consulting

There are many nuances to this debate. While on one hand there are many valid concerns about increasing in-person work requirements, the survey respondents cited that work-life balance (43%), higher costs (34%), stress (34%), and commute times (33%) were the main issues.

On the other hand, two thirds of respondents also said that those who work more in the office rather than remotely are more likely to be successful in their jobs.

Indian IT Services company Infosys has told some of its employees to return to the office with a hybrid work pattern of 10 days in office per month.

Reports say that an email was circulated among entry to mid-level Infosys employees in yet another effort by a tech company to see a return to the office.

Like many companies, Infosys relaxed its remote working policy during the global pandemic, but despite this latest move to reduce remote work, Infosys CEO, Salil Parekh, insists the company is still “flexible” in relation to working from home or office.

Not a Complete WFH U-Turn from Infosys CEO

India’s No.2 software-services exporter is asking some workers to work from the office some of the time in line with its main competitor Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

According to the Business Today report, band 5 and 6 employees (which includes mid-level managers, project heads, and entry-level employees) received the email asking them to comply with a minimum of 10 days in office per month.

During the company’s Q2 FY24 earnings call, CEO Salil Parekh said: “there are some instances, for example, with specific client work or specific type of engagement where we feel it’s better that everyone is working together. But in general, our view is we want to support this flexible approach. It’s something that we believe is appropriate given how we’ve set up the work-from-home infrastructure.”

Asia’s Rising Economic Powerhouse – Thanks to Indian Work Ethic?

India’s economy is flourishing with annual GDP growth of 6% to 7% since the start of the 21st century.

India is expected to be the fastest growing nation in 2023 among the G-20 grouping of the world’s largest nations with foreign direct investment inflows reaching new highs in 2023. Foreign investors announced a total of 628 projects worth about $60bn between January and October 2023, according to fDi Markets data.

Co-founder and former Infosys CEO, Narayana Murthy, made some controversial remarks about the work ethic of young Indians shouldering the burden of the economic progression the country is expecting.

In a Youtube interview posted last Thursday by a venture capital company, the tycoon said “our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hardworking people and that transformation has to come to youngsters.”

Many people in India already work six days per week, which might go some way to explain the country’s rapid economic growth but it seems that is not far enough for Murthy.

He continued: “My request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country, I want to work 70 hours a week’. This is exactly what Germans and Japanese did after the Second World War.”

“We need to work very hard, we need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity,” he said.

Tech Bosses Pushing for a Return to Office

There is a ripple effect among tech bosses either encouraging or enforcing a return to office working, with growing resistance from employees.

Keep up-to-date with the latest companies that have made recent U-turns on remote work, with our regularly updated list including the likes of Starbucks, Disney, Amazon and UPS.

Elon Musk has been one of the most vocal about the matter, recently calling remote workers “detached from reality” in his latest missive during Tesla’s Q2 earnings call.

If working from an office is a deal-breaker for you, there are still many companies offering remote working in 2023, the likes of Airbnb, Slack and Dropbox among others are still offering 100% remote roles.

The latest iPhone battery ‘throttling’ lawsuit has been cleared to proceed to court, with Apple potentially facing a $2 billion settlement over claims it knowingly used defective batteries in certain devices.

The Apple battery lawsuit has been filed by consumer champion Justin Gutmann in the UK, where the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London has now denied Cupertino’s request to throw out the legal action. It will proceed at a currently unspecified date.

Gutmann brought the action on behalf of up to 25 million iPhone owners in Britain. He alleges that the batteries used in three successive generations of older iPhones were unfit for purpose, resulting in overall iPhone performance that degraded to the point the devices were unusable, forcing owners to shell out for expensive battery replacements or phone upgrades. The lawsuit echoes similar past rulings against Apple.

Apple in Dock Again Over iPhone Battery ‘Throttling’ Allegations

First filed in 2022, Gutmann’s iPhone battery lawsuit claims that the hardware used by Apple in seven iPhone models were unable to cope with the demands of these device’s processor and operating system.

It further alleges that the iOS updates pushed automatically by Apple on iPhone users included a “power management tool” that slowed their performance and led many owners to have to pay for replacement batteries or buy new phones entirely.

This practice is often called ‘throttling’ and it’s something Apple is no stranger to, with the electronics giant have paid out in multiple similar “batterygate” lawsuits in the US in the past, as well as a $27 million fine for battery throttling from France in 2020.

Is My iPhone Eligible for Compensation in the Apple Battery Lawsuit?

Maybe. The iPhones mentioned in the UK iPhone battery lawsuit were released between 2014 and 2016 and include seven models, ranging from Apple’s flagships (at the time) to the first iteration of its more affordable iPhone SE handset.

Here are the devices eligible for compensation in the Apple iPhone battery lawsuit:

• iPhone 6
• iPhone 6 Plus
• iPhone 6S
• iPhone 6S Plus
• iPhone SE
• iPhone 7
• iPhone 7 Plus

The good news for those affected is that the Apple battery lawsuit is currently filed as opt-out claim, meaning if you owned one of those iPhones you don’t need to register to join the case. Instead, you’ll be invited to claim any damages that may be awarded at a later date.

More recent Apple smartphones haven’t been affected as badly by poor battery performance, though that’s not to say you should upgrade to the iPhone 15 by any means.

What Happened in Past Apple iPhone Battery Lawsuits?

One of the reasons the UK iPhone battery lawsuit is so interesting is because Apple has priors in this department.

In 2017, the original iPhone “batterygate” saga broke and wasn’t resolved until earlier this year. Apple is now finally on the brink of starting to send out compensation, according to the website tracking the proceedings, with the bill for total damages understood to be up to $500 million – or about $65 a head based on estimates.

That case was based out of the state of California, where Apple’s headquarters is located, while a separate lawsuit in Arizona saw Apple settle for over $100 million. It’s also currently in the dock over “abusive” iPhone and iPad app charges.

Apple has dismissed the latest UK lawsuit as “baseless” and vowed to continue to fight the charges.

Finding a job just got a whole lot easier, with LinkedIn launching new AI-powered features for its Premium users that can take the grunt work out of your employment search.

AI-powered features have been rolling out for a wide range of business platforms over the last year. These tools utilize the power of generative AI to speed up everyday processes, like content creation and coding. LinkedIn now counts among their ranks, having finally unleashed features announced last month utilizing generative AI chatbots to assist users.

In this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to take advantage of the new AI-powered features from LinkedIn, so you can speed up your job search. That is, of course, if you’re a Premium subscriber.

What Is LinkedIn Premium?

LinkedIn is a popular social media platform that focuses on networking and professional development. It acts as somewhat of a digital resume, allowing users to post job histories, skill lists, and a wide range of other professional content that can help you get a job.

The platform, which is owned by Microsoft, has recently surpassed 1 billion users, which puts it in the upper echelon of social media platforms that have reached the highly sought-after milestone.  Microsoft is partnered with OpenAI, which explains how LinkedIn is getting these AI-powered features, as they are derived from the ChatGPT system.

Like many online platforms, LinkedIn offers a free plan, which is how it has amassed so many users. However, it also offers paid plans, one of which is the Premium plan, costing $40 per month. This plan offers advanced features, including access to the new AI-powered features mentioned below.

Takeaways for Me

If you’ve ever used LinkedIn, you know that posts are far from the 140-character limit that used to define Twitter. In fact, the majority of posts are multiple paragraphs long, more closely resembling middle school book reports than social media posts. As a result, it can be pretty hard to find the valuable information you need for your job search through all the noise.

That’s where the Takeaways for Me feature will come in handy. You’ll be able to click on a single button and receive personalized advice and takeaways on the content within. The feature will read all the content for you and distill it into a more manageable response that you can digest much faster.

How to use: For starters, find a post on LinkedIn that you’d like to read, but you simply don’t have the time. Scroll down to the bottom of the post, and you should see a button that reads “Takeaways for me” along with the LinkedIn Premium yellow logo. Simply click on this button, and you’ll get a condensed look at the content, as well as other questions you can ask for more information.

Am I a Good Fit?

There are a lot of job listings on LinkedIn, for everything from AI jobs to work from home jobs. Like, seriously, there are 15 million job postings on the platform at any given time, which means it can be hard to find a role that fits your specific skillset. Even worse, job listings are so lengthy, it can be hard to know if the role is right for you in the first place.

Fortunately, the Am I a Good Fit? feature will help you narrow it down a bit. By clicking this button on job postings, you’ll get a recap of the experience required and whether it lines up with your personal job history. Even better, once you’ve started, the feature will recommend other ways to engage with the posting, including how to a personalized message to the hiring manager and seeing who works at the company already.

How to use: Much like the Takeaways for Me feature, the Am I a Good Fit? button, with the accompanying LinkedIn Premium yellow logo, will appear directly under job listings. All you have to do is press it and you’ll be taken to the loading screen. In just a few seconds, it will provide you with a personalized explanation of the role in terms of your experience.

Profile Enhancement

Searching for a job yourself is one thing, but LinkedIn also allows you to create a full-on profile which acts as a digital resume for recruiters and hiring managers to see what you’re all about.  That means you want to be sure that your profile is up to date with all your recent history, as well as specifically catered content to attract your ideal job.

To make sure that is indeed the case, the new profile enhancement feature can help. You’ll be able to use generative AI to suggest changes to your headline or your About section, which will give you the best chance of finding the job of your dreams.

How to use: On your profile page, there should be a large box at the top of the screen with a button that says Enhance. Once you press on that, you’ll be informed that you can improve your headline and your About page. The feature will then open your headline and About section, completely rewriting and adding content that will help you land a job.

Top Choice Job

Finding a job is all about standing out. Unfortunately, with dozens and sometimes hundreds of applicants vying for the same position, it can hard to make the hiring manager see you among the other choices.

The Top Choice Job feature can help. You’ll be able to signal to hiring managers that, of the many job postings you have applied for, this one is in your top three, giving them more incentive to pursue you as a candidate. And for hiring managers, it will help them narrow down the field a bit based on candidates that are particularly interested in the job.

How to use: When you’re on the apply page for a job posting that you’re particularly interested in, all you have to do is scroll down past the basic information to the “Top Job Choice” section. There, you’ll find a tick box that you can check off, which will also give you an opportunity to write a short message to the hiring manager. The company will then see that this job is a top choice for you. Take note, though, as you can only list three jobs as your top choice, so choose wisely.

The internet might look a little different soon, as Google unveiled the .ing web domain is now available for users that want to spice up their URL.

There are a lot of ways to make a good website. Stellar design, engaging content, and responsive customer support are important factors to consider if you’re building out your online presence.

However, your chosen web domain could actually have an impact, and Google just made things a little more interesting for those trying to make a good first impression.

Google Launches .ing Web Domains

Announced in a company blog post littered with delightful iterations of the new URLs, Google announced that the .ing web domain is now available for users.

“There’s a new domain launching today that lets you build your website in a single word: .ing. This top-level domain is ready for whatever you’re interested in, whether it’s mak.ing a fun website, giv.ing to a good cause, design.ing something beautiful, or edit.ing an existing document.” – Google announcement

Starting on October 31st, users are able to access .ing web domains for their website building needs, but you will have to pay an additional fee for early access for your URL.

However, starting December 5th, public access will be unlocked so anyone can starting build.ing their website for the standard base cost.

Who Is Already Us.ing the New Web Domain?

There are some businesses that were happy to take the additional fee to get their .ing web domain live as soon as possible. Here are some websites featuring the new URL that you can access right now:

• Canvas – The popular web design platform has snatched up the design.ing and draw.ing web domains for their respectively tools.
• Adobe Acrobat – Edit.ing and sign.ing PDFs is easy with this platform, particularly with the new, easy to access web domains.
• Giving Tuesday – Hopefully you can guess this one, with the popular charity organization snagging giv.ing for its site.

If you’re thinking about joining the ranks of these .ing businesses, you better have a hefty budget, because these new .ing web domains are not cheap. The Verge did some digging and found that URLs featuring popular words like buy.ing cost as much as $129,999.99 per year to register.

How to Make a Good Website

While an .ing web domain seems like a fun way to build your website, the cost is likely a bit too prohibitive for the average business owner. Fortunately, there are plenty of other ways to go about building a website that can attract customers and keep your business growing.

For starters, you are definitely going to want to start with a top tier website builder. These platforms are designed to help you get your business the attention it deserves online with simple interfaces and plenty of features to get the job done. Our top pick for most businesses is Wix, as it offers a simple drag-and-drop editor and the most features of any option in our research.

After that, you’ll want to follow best practices for getting your site online and noticed. This can range from following SEO guidelines to utilizing proper web design protocols. For a little help, check out our website building help guide for more information.

Meta’s paid plans for Facebook and Instagram have officially launched following last month’s report that it was on its way.

From today, users in the European Economic Area (EEA), European Union (EU), and Switzerland will be able to pay €9.99 — roughly $10.53 — for an ad-free experience on both of the social media platforms. 

While people are subscribed, their information won’t be used to serve personalized ads. However, a free, ad-supported service will resume as normal.

How the Paid Plan Works

For those in the EU interested in opting out of targeted ads, here are all the need-to-know details.

At the moment, subscriptions will be for users over the age of 18 only. However, Meta is looking into how it can serve ads to people under the age of 18 without breaking any EU rules.

The monthly cost will work out at €9.99 for a web-version or €12.99 if being used on iOS and Android. That extra €3.00 will account for the additional app store fees.

Users will be given the choice to continue with personalized services — being served ads based on their preferences and habits — or asked whether they’d like to subscribe to stop seeing ads. As long as they’re subscribed, any data or information gathered will not be used by the platform for advertising purposes.

The official statement from Meta also announced that while this subscription currently covers all linked accounts in a user’s Accounts Center, they will be subject to an additional fee of €6.00 and €8.00 a month for the web and iOS respectively, starting in March 2024. 

The Statement from Meta

Meta has stated that the introduction of a paid subscription is actually to ensure it complies with evolving European regulations, rather than specifically to make money. Back in January, it was fined €390 million by the Irish Data Protection Commission for breaking EU data rules and “forcing” users to accept targeted ads. 

At the time, Meta was adamant it wasn’t “forcing consent” by saying users could either accept how their data was used or leave the platforms. However, based on the swift creation and implementation of a subscription, it’s since confirmed that it made a change to “address a number of evolving and emerging regulatory requirements in the region.”

According to the statement, Meta “believes in an ad-supported internet, which gives people access to personalized products and services regardless of their economic status. It also allows small businesses to reach potential customers, grow their business and create new markets, driving growth in the European economy.” 

“The option for people to purchase a subscription for no ads balances the requirements of European regulators while giving users choice and allowing Meta to continue serving all people in the EU, EEA and Switzerland.” – Meta statement

Will Other Social Platforms Follow Suit?

This latest paid-for service comes hot off the heels of Elon Musk’s ad-free Premium+ plan for X/Twitter, costing users up to $168 a year for a blue checkmark and the ability to edit posts, among other benefits.

TikTok has similarly followed suit, toying with the idea of a $4.99 monthly subscription model to remove ads. However, this is very much still in the testing phase with no word on if or when it’s to be rolled out.

While this latest turn from Meta centers around EU regulations, US users should expect to see similar plans creep in if the subscription model is proven to be a success. For now, though, continue to watch this space — alongside your in-app adverts.

Following hot on the heels of President Joe Biden and the US government announcing a ban on tech companies shipping advanced AI chips to China, authorities north of the border in Canada have revealed an immediate ban on Chinese-owned app WeChat on official devices.

WeChat is a free messaging, social networking, and calling app – think Facebook, Amazon, and WhatsApp all rolled into one – has been subject to recent scrutiny from Western governments over the fear it could be used maliciously to spy on its users.

Commenting on the news, WeChat spokesperson Wang Wenbin said: “We hope that the Canadian side will discard ideological prejudices, abide by the principles of market economy and provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises.”

Russia’s Kaspersky Also Falls Foul of Canadian Government

The ban also includes Russian-owned Kaspersky, which is an antivirus and cybersecurity software provider. One of the biggest names in that industry for decades, Kaspersky is no longer regarded as one of the best antivirus software solutions due to its alleged links to Moscow.

Going forward, Canadian government workers who currently use WeChat or Kaspersky will have the apps removed from their devices, and be blocked from downloading them again in the future. 

While there’s no evidence to suggest any information has been already compromised, according to the Canadian government’s statement, the data collection methods of both Kaspersky and WeChat provide “considerable access” to the devices contents.

The President of Canada’s Treasury Board, Anita Anand, stated: “We are taking a risk-based approach to cyber security by removing access to these applications on government mobile devices.”

Security or Politics?

With more than a billion users in mainland China alone, WeChat is one of the world’s most used apps. Meanwhile, over 400 million people and 240,000 companies are said to use Kaspersky security solutions across the globe.

Like WeChat, Kaspersky has released a statement blaming rising geopolitical tensions as the real reason behind the ban, rather than genuine security concerns. In it, the company called the Canadian ban “…a response to the geopolitical climate rather than a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky’s products and services.”

However, Canada is hardly the only country to have cracked down on the Russian cybersecurity software provider. Kaspersky has been subject to a ban on government devices in the US since 2017, while the European Union followed suit a year later, banning its use and publicly calling the software “malicious.”

As Ever, TikTok Started The Craze

Back in February, the Canadian government banned TikTok on government devices, citing similar security concerns. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the time called this a “first step” in the “protection of data, protection of Canadians’ safety and security.”

Both US and allied officials have been similarly concerned that the app, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, could be forced to hand over personal information of its users to the Chinese government. In fact, back in 2020, former US President Donald Trump signed executive orders to ban WeChat and TikTok in US app stores. 

This was ultimately lifted in 2021, but both apps are now subject to a national security review by the Commerce Department.

As demand to ditch the traditional 40-hour workweek persists, and companies continue to test and toy with the idea, the results just keep on stacking up in its favour. 

In a recent month-long trial, workers in Valencia, Spain, have shown that reducing the current working week provides overwhelming benefits for health and wellbeing, as well as environmental perks.  

While academics, governments, and companies the world over discuss the pros and cons of a reduction in days, Spain has sat at the forefront of these trials, with major companies taking part across the country. 

4-Day Week Results are In…

Valencia City Council chose to run the trial between April and May this year, as there were already three holidays within the month. This meant companies only needed to remove one extra day to make it a month of four-day working weeks.

Around 360,000 workers took part in the trial, which is just one of many currently happening across Spain right now. 

Despite it being short in length, the trial’s results highlighted several significant benefits for both employees and the country as a whole.

Personal and Environmental Benefits of 4-Day Week

So, what exactly are these much-coveted benefits? 

Those taking part reported a 35% reduction in stress levels, alongside a 64% increase in the amount of sleep they got. The two of course go hand in hand and are both major contributors to the health and wellness of employees. So already that’s a massive tick for companies who have experienced staff sickness or leave due to burnout arising from poor sleep and too much stress.

Socialising and leisure activities were also on the up, with 72% of participants spending more time with friends, 46% increasing their time spent reading, and 37% upping their physical activity. All of which contributes to happier, healthier people, and therefore more productive employees if the science is to be believed. And spoiler alert, it should be.

Benefits didn’t stop on a personal level either, as the city itself reaped environmental rewards thanks to workers taking that extra day off. A 58% reduction of Nitrogen Dioxide concentration was found in the air, along with a 9.5% decrease in traffic. 

Similarly, the study showed a positive effect on companies in the leisure and hospitality sectors, as people made the most of their additional free time by going out to eat or enjoy the city. However, this did highlight one downside, in that people were smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol more. We guess you can’t have it all.

4-Day Week Findings are a “New Milestone”

Spain’s progressive attitude to working and giving employee’s more flexibility and autonomy should come as no surprise, as the country also claims the number two spot for ‘best country in the world for remote working’. 

Former Valencia Mayor and Speaker for the City Hall’s Compromís electoral coalition, Joan Ribo stated: “The trial has been an enormous success and has provided significant empirical evidence of the positive impact of the four-day week on workers’ health and city-wide dynamics. We have seen a sharp decrease in traffic intensity and air pollution, a broad improvement in overall health perception by workers and more free time dedicated to cultural and leisure activities.”

Ribo went on to call the findings a “new milestone” in Spain’s move towards a four-day working week. And they’re not the only country to say the same.

In the UK, where the largest 4-day working trial ran, none of the companies who took part planned on going back to a 5-day working week. While productivity remained stable, employee satisfaction dramatically shot up, highlighting the gains to be had both personally and societally.

WeWork, one a venture capital success story valued at up to $47 billion, has officially filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US with a similar filing to follow in Canada. The firm has announced the dramatic restructuring move having seen its market cap drop to below $50 million recently.

In a statement, the beleaguered co-working company insists that “global operations are expected to continue as usual” and that its co-working spaces “remain open and operational.” It adds that WeWork’s international franchises will not be affected by the proceedings.

In October it appointed a new CEO, David Tolley, in an attempt to rebuild for a post-pandemic world where trends like fully remote jobs and the 4-day workweek have fundamentally changed how (and where) we work.

WeWork Feels Weight of Property Footprint

Last week, WeWork let the US financial regulator know it had agreed with creditors to temporarily postpone payments for some of its debt. A day later, its shares fell by more than 40% during after-hours trading.

Concerns about WeWork’s debts, losses, and management, have plagued the company for some time now, leading to difficulty in it selling shares on the stock market back in 2019.  This comes despite tens of billions of dollars being pumped into the company from Japanese conglomerate, SoftBank.

As of June, the company’s net long-term debt had risen to $2.9 billion. It’s further weighed down by than $13 billion in long-term leases, something which filing for bankruptcy will allow it to request the option of rejecting.

However, trouble for the firm properly came to light back in August this year, when it raised “substantial doubt” that it could continue operations. A decrease in demand – likely a hangover from 2020’s work-from-home orders – alongside a “difficult” operating environment were behind this. 

Revolving Door of Top WeWork Execs

The exit of several top executives this year has understandably contributed to instability across the firm and many insiders say the onetime co-working giant has never really recovered from the departure of charismatic but controversial co-founder Adam Neumann.

Neumann stepped down as CEO in 2019 after scrutiny of his leadership had “become a significant distraction” for the company and its plans for an IPO.

Since then, Chairman Sandeep Mathrani – who led the company as Chief Executive during the pandemic – left back in May. During his tenure he had eliminated $2.3 billion in costs and over $1 billion in debt.

WeWork’s Cautionary IPO Tale

Some are attributing the remarkable reversal of fortune to WeWork’s 2019 plans to go public. Despite investors’ skepticism of taking long-term leases and renting them for a short-term time period, the company pressed on after the aforementioned saga surrounding Neumann’s departure.

Following the pandemic, it did manage to go public in 2021 but at a significantly reduced valuation. By the end of June, the firm reported having 777 locations in 39 countries through franchising agreements.

WeWork’s full official statement on its bankruptcy can be found in its Newsroom.

With many companies ending fully remote work in 2023, jobs that let you work from home at your discretion are getting slightly harder to find. Which makes all these current remote Apple job vacancies even sweeter, as they’re offering generous salaries of $100k or more.

Staying remote has plenty of health benefits, with most people agreeing it gives you a better work/life balance including more time to spend with friends, family, and of course, yourself. Then there’s the many people who rely entirely on working from home, whether due to chronic illness, disability, or the need to care for an elderly family member.

Working remotely from home is no reason why you shouldn’t earn the big bucks. With an eye-watering $2.67 trillion market cap, Apple can easily afford to dole out six-figure positions and has plenty of demand for them. Check out our list of the biggest Apple job openings available at the global company this November.

For all positions, you can learn more and see additional opportunities on the Apple careers page.

1. Cryptographic Engineer

Engineers are always in demand, and this one role is particularly specialized: A Cryptographic Engineer focuses on “solving” code, dealing with matters involving data confidentiality, data authentication, or data integrity. For a tech giant as big as Apple, that’s always a top concern. Figuring out top-notch secure protocol engineering for Apple devices is important, given the 1.46 billion active iPhone users worldwide.

Key Qualifications

• Expertise in fundamental cryptographic algorithms and underlying mathematics, such as finite field arithmetic
• Understanding of side channel attacks and other challenges to modern applied cryptography
• Experience with formal methods applied to software or cryptography
• Excellent C and systems programming skills

Average salary: $111,309 per year (Glassdoor)

2. Healthcare Enterprise Account Executive

Executives need a top-level understanding of how to run a business, and this position calls for core managerial needs such as balancing short- and long-term goals, running presentations, market analysis, honesty, and accuracy. You’ll only need a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience for the role, but it calls for eight years working in a sales environment.

Key Qualifications

• Proven consultative selling experience in business transformation solutions for large enterprises
• Strong sales background including 8+ years as an Account Executive for large Enterprises. You are familiar with the Healthcare provider industry.
• Strengths in relationship development/management, teaming across functions, deal making and negotiations.
• A strong self-starter who is able to work independently.

Average salary: $104,003 per year (Salary.com)

3. Named Account Executive

Sales positions are great for remote work, given the volume of calls and emails that keep you connected to your clients. As a named account executive, you’d be handling a team at a focused territory, selling to K20 Education customers. You’ll be keeping a lot of plates spinning for both internal and external partners and working at a fast clip the whole time.

Key Qualifications

• People know you as a true collaborator who knows what it takes to win.
• You are able to develop business cases for investments or value based proposals, that include Apple products, services and and all third party education ecosystem solutions relevant to your market.
• You appreciate the importance of disciplined sales pipeline governance to achieving your goals.
• You understand the importance of account planning to understand customers’ needs and how to build leading solutions and proposals.
• You have a minimum of 7 years experience leading large Education or public sector Enterprise customers through transformation, from strategy development to implementation or have 8-12 years of experience as an Industry expert.
• Experience selling education technical, services, or hardware is preferred.

Average salary: Up to $121,633 per year (Salary.com)

4. Vulnerability Researcher

Apple’s Security Engineering & Architecture organization safeguards security for Apple products, and they need someone to hunt down vulnerabilities before they turn into massive problems. That’s a pretty wide scope, covering microarchitecture, iOS and macOS kernels, boot ROMs, firmware, hardware, and applications like Safari, Mail or Messages. You’ll need the technical skills to handle it all, as well as the creativity to find outside-the-box vulnerabilities. For the right person, that’s a fun job.

Key Qualifications

• Proven experience in vulnerability research and binary exploitation
• Significant understanding of common vulnerability classes and exploitation techniques
• Creative & effective problem-solving and analytical skills
• Experience with reverse-engineering tools (IDA Pro, Ghidra, etc.) and techniques
• Excellent knowledge of the security architecture of at least one complex operating system. Knowledge of macOS/iOS is nice-to-have, but not required.
• Familiarity with tool development, using programming languages such as C, C++, Python, Swift, Objective-C

Average salary: $104,558 per year (Glassdoor)

5. Higher Education Business Development Executive

Apple’s Higher Education sales operation is hiring, and they need an exec who can manage sector-wide teams. Building relationships while streamlining sales is another tough task that requires a team player. You’ll help transform the teaching world while, of course, accelerating Apple’s marketshare growth.

Key Qualifications

• You adapt to change
• You analyze the market and think beyond the short-term.
• You see the world through the eyes of the customer by deeply understanding their business needs, challenges, and concerns.
• You believe that communication is key to Apple’s success.
• You are an expert at presenting and making the complex simple.
• Minimum 8-12 yrs in a role driving top line growth in the Higher Education market.

Average salary: $103,034 per year (Zippia)

6. Global Head of Events & Experiential Production

Operating a team of event producer means wearing a lot of hats: This role requires handling all creative elements, within budget and on time, for all the live production, experiential, events, and editorial video content needed for Apple services. You’ll guide a single creative vision through the red tape that comes with a global tech company, leaning on partnerships with the Design Studio, logistical and technical event management, as well as security, legal, and event operations teams. You’ll report to the Senior Director of Creative Services and Production.

Key Qualifications

• Minimum 20 years of experience in producing world class experiences, events and activations for music, film, television and entertainment brands.
• Strong background in building and managing budgets.
• Strong roster of production and creative partners.
• Shown experience working as part of multi-discipline, multi-faceted teams in order to deliver on global programs.
• Proficient in Keynote, Microsoft Office, Pages and Numbers.
• Strong written, verbal and visual communication skills.

Salary range: $216,831–$325,247 per year (Apple)

7. Education Leadership & Learning Executive

As a Learning executive at Apple, you’ll help advise education leaders to scale up and transform their teaching processes with Apple products and services, designing and implimenting the strategies that work best. The end goal is adoption and implementation of Apple Education, but you’ll succeed by helping your customers meet their own goals of improving education for all.

Key Qualifications

• “Extraordinary” knowledge of the K-12 education market and a deep understanding of effective classroom technology.
• Experience in an educational leadership role. School Board leadership level preferred.
• Experience in business development.
• Excellent presentation and storytelling skills; able to motivate and inspire others.
• Proactive; takes initiative and challenges the status quo.
• Solid understanding of the Apple ecosystem.

Average salary: $161,419 per year per year (Glassdoor)

8. Ad Revenue Planning & Analysis Lead – Media & Sports

There’s an opening at Apple for someone to spearhead global revenue forecasting for emerging media products and growth segments, and it could be a role for you. You’ll need the managerial chops to lead analytical projects, as well as the fintech skills to develop financial models yourself. You won’t be alone, though, as you’ll team up with Sales and Business Development organizations when tackling your short-term and long-term goals.

Key Qualifications

• 5+ years of work experience, with a preference for FP&A or Ad Sales Finance backgrounds in AdTech, Sports, or Media/Entertainment
• Familiarity with accounting and financial principals coupled with significant experience in business modeling
• Exceptional analytical competence and the ability to generate concise takeaways from large datasets
• SQL experience is preferred but not required, however must have a willingness to learn
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to author and deliver presentations to multiple levels of management
• Detail oriented & thorough, with ability to think “big picture”

Average salary: $100,000–$150,000 per year (Apple)

9. UI Engineer, Apple Services Engineering

Apple’s big on maintaining a sleek user interface, so joining as a UI engineer is about as high-profile a gig as you can get. Right now, the company’s Pricing and Partner Monetization team is on the lookout for someone to manage a range of online tools, both internal and public facing. If hired, you’ll build web pages, work across multiple teams (design, operations, QA, editorial, marketing, business), and address system evolution across DSCE. And that’s a software with an over-15-year history, so you’ll have no shortage of challenges.

Key Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience working in UI and front-end web engineering
• Experience with React and TypeScript
• Understanding of design/UX principles and ability to participate in design discussions.
• Experience working within an organizational code base in multiple environments across numerous ongoing release cycles
• Experience integrating front-end web/UI interface with back end application server technologies
• Strong communication, organization, and leadership skills required

Average salary: $108,415–$162,623 per year (Apple)

Not seen anything that’s right for you? Here are some great current Microsoft job openings that also pay really well.

We’ve abolished the 6-day workweek, fought for a national minimum wage, and now the next major labor movement is upon us: the campaign for a 4-day workweek.

As demands for flexible working conditions and healthier work-life balances reach a fever pitch, ditching the 40-hour workweek has proven to be a wildly popular concept among employees. And after the landslide success of multiple global trials, many business owners are warming to the idea too – with major names like Microsoft and Amazon recently rolling out compressed hours.

But even if you believe that the 5-day workweek is outdated, your employer might not agree. In these cases, putting your case forward and educating your boss about the benefits might help tip the scales in your, and your workforces, favor. Not sure where to start? Learn how to ask for an extra day off in seven simple steps.

How to Ask for a 4-Day Workweek

Scrapping the 5-day workweek requires a convincing case. Follow these steps when asking your boss for a 4-day workweek:

In this guide:

1. Make Sure a 4-Day Workweek is Right for Your Company
2. Build Your Case, Lead With Facts
3. Make the Case Personal To Your Business
4. Explain How it Could be Implemented
5. Suggest a Trial Period
6. Rejected? Consider Asking For a Personal 4-day Workweek
7. Explore Other Options

1. Make Sure a 4-Day Workweek is Right for Your Company

Unfortunately, not every business will be able to implement a four-day week. So before you even consider putting your case forward you need to make sure scrapping a working day is plausible for your company.

While multiple trials have found that reducing hours consistently makes employees more productive, companies that manage intense workloads may struggle with tighter time constraints. For example, in the UK’s largest four-day weekday pilot, engineering and industrial supplies company Allcap was forced to abandon the trial early after staff started becoming overworked.

“As opposed to 10 normal workdays, we found that employees would have nine extreme ones – once they got to their scheduled day off they were exhausted.” Allcap’s CEO tells the BBC.

Businesses in industries that provide round-the-clock coverage, like healthcare and transport will struggle to make the change too. This can also extend to hospitality businesses operating on traditional service schedules, like retail stores, restaurants, and hotels.

2. Build Your Case, and Lead With Facts

If you think your company has the potential to embrace a four-day workweek, you’re off to a good start – now it’s time to make your case.

Instead of approaching your employer and simply asking for a three-day weekend, you need to put forward a convincing case. Don’t be shy to mention how working reduced hours can benefit employees – including the impact it can have on job satisfaction, physical health, and burnout – but try and pivot the case around the advantages it can bring to the company as a whole.

For example, mention the impact working a four-day week can have on employee retention, productivity rates, cost reduction, and worker engagement. And don’t be vague. Back your case up with hard evidence from previous success stories. To make your case more convincing, find businesses with a similar structure to yours that have successfully pivoted to a four-day workweek and use them as a case study.

Lots of this information is publicly available, but you can also reach out to company employees directly to enquire about how the switch benefited them.

3. Make the Case Personal To Your Business

In order for your campaign to be effective, you need to address real issues your business is grappling with, and explain how they could be solved – or at least addressed – with the flexible work arrangement.

For example, if your business struggles to consistently meet its targets, lead with real-life examples of how businesses increased productivity levels during and after the four-day pilot. Or, if your company has a high turnover rate, center your case around the positive impact the arrangement can have on recruiting and retaining top talent.

It’s important to touch on practical issues too. There are lots of reasons why an employer might be hesitant to introduce the working model, including the nature of your industry, the hours you need to operate, and the size of your current workload. Before heading into the meeting, try and pre-empt these concerns and devise an answer for them ahead of time.

4. Explain How a 4-Day Workweek Could be Implemented

A four-day workweek will look slightly different for each business. After you’ve made your argument clear, you should tell your manager which form you think it could take for your company.

Clarify the different types of four-day models, including the “normal days” version where employees work four eight-hour days, the “shorter days” version where employees work five, six-hour days, and the “longer days” version where employees work four ten-hour days – shortening their workweek without trimming down on hours.

If your company isn’t able to shut down its operations during regular business hours, briefly explain how this can be achieved through alternating shift patterns. Breach the topic of salary reductions too. Most companies that have converted to a four-day week have kept employee salaries the same. However, if this is in no way an option for your employer, you can bring up the option of a salary reduction and mention whether you think the proposal would be accepted by your team.

Critically, when explaining how a four-day week could be implemented, point out what parts of your business could change, and which would remain the same. This will help your manager see it in practical terms, and understand what the adjustment would look like in reality.

For more tips on how to action the changes, read our guide on implementing a 4-day workweek.

5. Suggest a Trial Period

Kickstarting a four-day workweek without trialing it beforehand would be foolish. So, instead of asking your boss to trust you blindly, request a trial period where you’re able to test out the success of the new arrangement before making any long-term commitments.

When planning your trial, it’s important to establish which metrics will be used to assess the success of the trial. For example, are you going to focus on productivity rates, employee satisfaction, cost reduction, profits, cases of burnout, or a mixture of the above?

If your manager is open to the idea, you could also address the practicalities of launching a trial by discussing which time of the year would be best for your company, how long it would be, what support is available in your state, and how you would go about joining the pilot program.

6. Rejected? Consider Asking For a Personal 4-day Workweek

If your case was rejected, try not to be disheartened. Cutting a day off a workweek isn’t feasible for every type of business, and if you’re serious about carving out a healthier work-life balance there will always be other options to explore.

For example, while your boss may not be on board with a company-wide four-day workweek, there’s always scope to put your case forward individually. In this instance, you may have to make some type of sacrifice to ensure you don’t get an unfair privilege over other employees. For example, you could suggest keeping up your current hours by working four ten-hour days or cutting down a day in exchange for a salary sacrifice.

While making these requests may feel uncomfortable, remember that you’re well within your right to campaign for more flexible working conditions – especially if you’re a loyal member of your company.

7. Explore Other Options

If your employer is completely closed to rolling out any form of a 4-day workweek and you can’t come to some kind of compromise – it might be time to look elsewhere.

Companies that offer this working privilege are still majorly in the minority, but thanks to the success of multiple trials, the concept is gaining popularity at a rapid speed. Workplaces that offer this perk will likely better reflect your values and have a more favorable company culture too, making the employment pivot even more worth it.

Remember that dropping a working day isn’t simply an excuse to slack off though, as most companies are looking to maintain or increase levels of productivity despite fewer hours being worked.

If you’re curious about what options could be awaiting you, check out our regularly updated guide to companies currently offering a 4-day workweek.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT are being used to streamline workplace processes, write code, and even write scripts for stand-up comedy sets. In the US, where cases of anxiety and depression are reaching record highs, and professional support remains stretched, it’s no surprise users are also utilizing the technology to help manage their mental health.

AI chatbots like Elomia, Pi, and Woebot offer affordable, personalized support 24/7, based on tried and tested therapy techniques. From helping users skirt long wait lists to reducing the stigma around accessing help, their benefits are huge. Can generative AI – which is still prone to mistakes, hallucinations, and bias – ever compare to the empathy of the human ear?

We spoke to academics, psychologists, and practicing therapists to shed light on how the emerging tech is likely to shape the future of therapy. We also discuss the shadier side of AI therapy and pinpoint which ethical concerns need to be addressed today. Here’s what we found.

AI Chatbots: The New Generation of Robot Therapists

Since OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT first launched last November, an army of chatbot copycats have cropped up on app stores – from general use apps like Google Bard and Claude AI to less conventional Marvel character simulators.

This burgeoning market has also led to the rise of AI therapy chatbots – apps that use generative AI to mimic advice and guidance offered by qualified therapists and mental health professionals.

Major examples include Pi a self-proclaimed “friendly chat companion” that acts as a sounding board and offers emotional support; Replika, a chatbot program that mimics the speaking style and personality of its users; and Earkick, an anxiety tracker designed to help you log and work through difficult emotions.

“AI-based platforms offer privacy, reducing the stigma often associated with seeking help for mental health concerns.” – Ryan Sultan, Certified Psychiatrist and Professor at Columbia University

Like the best mental health apps, many of these apps already boast six-figure downloads – and their popularity is hardly surprising. Due to a dearth of qualified psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers, plus a spike in demand for services across the country, the US is currently grappling with one of its worst mental health crises on record.

The high cost of traditional therapy and taboos around mental health are also deterring many from pursuing conventional options, creating a gap for more discreet, affordable alternatives.

Early evidence suggests they’re effective, too. AI Chatbot’s Earkick’s own findings revealed that its user’s mood improved by 34% and anxiety levels dropped by 32% after sticking with the app for five months. However, as successful as these apps might be in quelling minor anxieties, they definitely aren’t the mental health panacea we’ve all been waiting for.

AI Chatbots Unsuitable for Serious Mental Health Conditions

Receiving sensible, therapist-approved advice from a pocket-sized chatbot will undoubtedly be helpful for many. However, those suffering from severe mental health conditions like depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder will likely be left short-changed.

Mental disorders are complex, heavily nuanced, and unique to each person they affect. In some cases, they are best managed with medication that can only be correctly prescribed by qualified medical professionals. While large language models (LLMs) have evolved leaps and bounds in recent years, their output will never be able to replace the clinical expertise, empathy, and compassion provided by psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists.

“I appreciate the algorithms have improved, but ultimately I don’t think they are going to address the messier social realities that people are in when they’re seeking help,” – Julia Brown, anthropology professor at the University of California, San Francisco

Strategic psychic healer Aanant Bisht also believes that AI, in its current state, will be incapable of aiding every user’s complex healing journey. “It’s also еssеntial to avoid ovеrsimplification of complеx mеntal hеalth issuеs and еncouragе usеrs to sееk profеssional hеlp whеn rеquirеd,” Bisht tells Tech.co.

Another common concern expressed by experts we spoke to is medical misdiagnosis. The mental health community has a long-standing issue with correctly identifying complex and severe psychiatric disorders, and heavy reliance on AI could likely exacerbate this problem, due to the technologies limited, unrepresentative data sets and inability to interpret human nuances.

The results of this can be stark, too. Mental health misdiagnosis often leads to inadequate treatment and support, additional mental pressures, and long-term skepticism towards the medical system. This isn’t the only reason why artificial intelligence isn’t fit to overtake the therapist’s chair in its current form.

AI is Flawed and Shrouded in Ethical Challenges

The rapid rise of generative AI hasn’t come without consequences. As the technology continues to develop at a breakneck speed, regulation around its use has been slow to catch up, contributing to a string of ethical challenges relating to data privacy, embedded bias, and misuse.

These concerns aren’t unique to therapy, but the sensitive nature of mental health means that ethical frameworks are at the heart of any good therapeutic relationship. With an official AI ethics code currently non-existent, users relying on chatbots instead of qualified professionals for counselling or other mental health support is highly problematic.

Data privacy is one major issue. Chatbots like ChatGPT have frequently landed themselves in hot water for failing to protect user data. In order for users to feel comfortable discussing private, personal information, AI companies will need to have a foolproof data protection strategy that prioritizes confidentiality.

“The intimate and sensitive nature of therapeutic conversations demands an unparalleled level of data protection.” – Dr. Langham, psychologist at Impulse Therapy

Another important factor to be aware of is machine learning bias. All AI systems rely on predetermined training data, which often include embedded human biases even if sensitive variables like race and gender are removed.

According to Bayu Prihandito, CEO of life coach company Life Architekture, if AI is trained on biased data, “it might perpetuate or exacerbate existing biases, leading to inequitable treatment recommendations”. These built-in prejudices are likely to impact people from minority groups more too, highlighting the importance of human oversight and diverse and representative training datasets.

AI as a Therapists’ Assistant, Not Replacement

Friendly companions like Pi and Woebot will only grow in popularity as users continue to seek accessible ways to supplement their mental well-being. However, due to a wide range of ethical concerns, artificial intelligence isn’t ready to replace the role of traditional therapy, nor should it ever.

This isn’t to say the emerging technology won’t have a massive impact on the practice as a whole, though. Most of the practitioners we spoke to believe that by carrying out the grunt work such as triaging, AI tools will be able to give them more time and energy to put into other areas of the practice.

“Whilе it cannot rеplacе thе dееp human connеction that thеrapists offеr, it can sеrvе as a complеmеntary tool.” – Aanant Bish, business psychic coach

“AI could handle initial assessments, ongoing monitoring, and provide support for less complex cases, allowing us to focus on more severe or delicate situations,” Bayu Prihandito told Tech.co, adding “It’s like having an extra set of hands that are always available.”

Columbia professor and certified psychiatrist Sultan agrees, telling Tech.co that in five years time, AI will likely complement traditional therapy by streamlining administrative tasks, helping practitioners to create more personalized treatment plans, and “creating hybrid models that combine human expertise with AI-driven tools to enhance treatment”.

This suggests that far from draining the practice of its humanity, AI actually has the power to free up human skills like empathy, connection, and compassion, helping clients get even more out of the service.

However, caring for mental health is serious stuff and can often be a matter of life and death. Before AI becomes every therapist’s assistant, or indeed replaces them, strict regulations around its deployment and use need to be considered.

Until such a time arrives, the clear potential for AI chatbots to improve access to mental health support can’t be fully reconciled with the risks they pose. In a world where ethical dilemmas are often par for the course, this one is simply too big to ignore.

The four-day workweek is no longer a utopian concept. Thanks to the success of multiple global trials and the rapid deployment of AI, companies offering a four-day workweek now include tech heavyweights like Microsoft and Amazon alongside neighborhood mom-and-pop stores.

The incentives are clear – from improved mental health to bolstered productivity, its benefits are both practical and personal. This doesn’t mean implementing a four-day workweek comes without challenges. Not every company is cut out for working compressed hours, and this potentially revolutionary new way of working can actually have an adverse impact on employee well-being and profitability if implemented poorly. 

To help you avoid common pitfalls, this guide offers advice on getting it right – with the help of HR professionals, academics, and business owners who have recently joined the four-day workweek movement. Read on to find out if your business is ready to drop a working day, and how it can become a reality in seven simple steps.

How to implement a 4-day workweek:

1. Check if a 4-Day Workweek Will Work For Your Business
2. Define Your Businesses Goals
3. Make Practical and Legal Considerations 
4. Agree on a 4-Day Workweek Schedule
5. Launch Your 4-Day Workweek Pilot
6. Assess The Success of Your Pilot
7. Set Your 4-Day Workweek in Motion

Why Should Businesses Operate a 4-Day Workweek?

Trimming down the workweek and expanding leisure time unsurprisingly benefits employees in myriad ways. Recent research from the University of Cambridge found condensing the 40-hour workweek into 32 decreased levels of stress by 39%, and cases of burnout by 71%, while also having a positive impact on sleep quality and physical health.

It’s not just employees that should be calling for a three-day weekend. Reducing the workweek can bring a lot of benefits to companies too.

Happier and better-rested workers are more likely to perform better and call in fewer sick days, with 95% of the businesses that took place in the UK’s Four-Day Week Global trial seeing productivity stabilize or grow throughout the pilot and revenue growing by an average of 35%.

“We have had zero employees resign in nearly two years, which is pretty unheard of for early-stage startups, that typically have higher rates of turnover.” – Founder of software startup Super and four-day workweek advocate, Lindsay Liu

Due to its resounding popularity among workers, companies implementing a four-day workweek are more likely to retain staff and attract top talent in the first place, as being seen to be at the forefront of this progressive workplace trend is great PR for organizations. Four-day workweeks aren’t a silver bullet, though, and won’t be conducive to every type of business, as we explore next.

1. Check if a 4-Day Workweek Is Right for Your Business

The harsh reality is a four-day workweek won’t work for every business. Before you begin rolling out your pilot, you need to establish whether scaling back working hours is actually realistic for your business.

For industries that provide 24/7 hour support like transportation and healthcare, the arrangements won’t be suitable for obvious reasons. Hospitality businesses like retail stores, restaurants, and bars also tend to be bound to more traditional schedules to meet consumer demands.

“Does the four-day workweek work? Yes it does. But not for everyone.  Some companies in some industries simply can’t. You have to be prepared for the challenges. It adds a level of complexity you have to be aware of.” – Cat Goulbourne, HR and Recruitment Manager at SEOMG!

Large organizations may also be held back by bureaucratic challenges and the scale and complexity of the project. However, according to a survey by the open-access journal Open Access Government, 22% of UK workers claimed they were simply too busy to condense their workload into four eight-hour days, while others had too many meetings in their schedule.

With these hurdles in mind, before you steam ahead it may be a good idea to ask yourself these questions:

1. Does your workforce have a track record of consistently hitting targets under pressure?
2. Are all roles in your company capable of being flexible?
3. Is your business capable of dealing with complicated time and people management?
4. Are you able to reduce the quantity or length of team meetings?
5. Will your business be able to reduce working hours while still meeting customer expectations?

If the answer to most of those questions was no, it’s likely your company isn’t ready to cut down its workweek just yet. We’d communicate this choice with your workforce anyway, while being as transparent about your decision-making process as possible. If most of your answers were affirmative, move on to the next tip.

2. Define Your Businesses Goals

Think you’re cut out for a four-day workweek? Congratulations! Now you need to decide what you want to get out of the arrangement.

Most companies that have successfully brought down working hours have done so with specific goals in mind. Whatever “success” means to your business – whether it be employee happiness, productivity, or staff retention – your goals should align with these priorities.

“Define the goals and objectives of the trial period. Are you aiming to improve work-life balance, boost productivity, or reduce operational costs?” – Eric Sornoso, CEO of food delivery service Mealfan.

The rest of your strategy will depend on these objectives, so make sure you use SMART goals that are time-based, specific, and measurable. Don’t create them in a vacuum, either. Establish an open dialogue with all levels of your company to gain a consensus on desired outcomes, timetable preferences, and levels of commitment.

3. Make Practical and Legal Considerations

Launching a four-day workweek can be exciting, but you need to make sure you follow all the checks and balances before taking the plunge. This includes taking stock of the job roles in your company, and making sure every single one is suitable for a condensed week. If certain workers are dealing with heavier workloads, the roles will need to be redesigned to ensure the pilot is accessible to everyone.

If you employ part-time employees, you’ll need to work out how this transition will work for them too. There are two main routes you can take – reducing their hours worked in a week by 20% to align with the reduction for those on full-time hours, or increasing their pay proportionately. The changes you agree on now are likely to have long-term implications for the worker and your bottom line so make sure they’re properly considered.

“Organizations must be no less mindful of legal obligations during a four-day workweek when compared to more typical scheduling arrangements. Wage and hour laws will still apply to a four-day workweek.” – Robert Bird, business law Professor at the University of Connecticut

Employers will also need to make sure they adhere to local and federal working laws. Policies like overtime, paid time off, and vacation days are all likely to be affected by the switch so it may be wise to consult with an employment lawyer before setting anything in stone.

4. Agree on a 4-Day Workweek Schedule

There’s no right or wrong way to switch to a four-day workweek. When it comes to drawing up your schedule, it really depends on the unique needs of your business and the preferences of your employees. With this in mind, here are some popular four-day work schedules to consider:

1. No Fridays or Mondays

Since a major appeal of working compressed hours is extended weekends, most companies choose to drop Fridays or Mondays from the working schedule. Choosing one day for everyone ensures works the same core hours. However, it doesn’t offer flexibility for employees or lend itself well to industries that deliver goods or services on an ongoing basis.

2. Flexible days off

If it’s conducive to your business, it also may be worth considering implementing a flexible schedule. Flexible 4-day schedules allow workers to take time off when it best suits them. This could include staggered starting times, early finishing times, as well as the typical four days on, one day off.

“Set expectations for certain hours when everyone must be available, and grant autonomy for the rest of their time. Doing so will help ensure that everyone is on the same page while still allowing for flexibility.” – Jack, HR Manager at ExpenseOnDemend

3. The 4-10 model

Finally, if compressing hours worked isn’t an option for your business, but you still want to benefit from a three-day weekend a 4-10 workweek might work best for you.

Ideal for businesses with heavier workloads, the 4-10 model refers to working 10-hour days for four days a week. It’s a solid way to get a taste of the four-day week without risking sacrificing hours worked. However, note that with productivity rates typically dropping off after the eighth hour of the working day, and some states enforcing daily overtime laws, it definitely won’t be right for everyone.

After you’ve agreed on your schedule, you’ll need to communicate it with your team and with external clients and stakeholders. Make sure you do this al least a month in advance to avoid any confusion or scheduling clashes.

5. Launch Your 4-Day Workweek Pilot

You’ve done the hard work and made the tough calls. Now you need to launch your four-day pilot.

To give your trial the best possible chance of succeeding, you’ll need to learn how to manage your remaining hours effectively. For many businesses, this will mean evaluating the value of meetings, and scaling them back if necessary. Establishing ‘non-meeting days’ is also a great way to allow for periods of uninterrupted, deep work.

When you choose to launch your pilot is important too. Opting for a quieter time takes a bit of pressure off employees, as John Lin, owner of Philadelphia-based JB Motor Works told us. When rolling out the four-day pilot for his business, Lin chose a slow period in his business cycle. “This helped to gauge the impact without too much risk,” Lin explained. 

It’s also important to remember that problems will undoubtedly arise throughout this period and that this is completely normal. Addressing these issues as they happen and learning from them will help strengthen your plan before it’s implemented for real.

6. Assess The Success of Your Pilot

After your four-day workweek pilot comes to an end, you’ll need to assess its results.

To do so you’ll need to compare data collected throughout the pilot and compare it to data from your typical four-day workweek. This information will help you to see how successful your pilot was at meeting your original goals.

Aside from quantitative metrics measuring the pilot’s impact on productivity and profit margins, it’s also important to gather qualitative findings from employees. This can be obtained through feedback surveys and in-person interviews and will help you to evaluate the success of the trial as a whole.

As John Lin tells us: “The best way to assess the success of the trial is multi-faceted.” 

“It doesn’t solely rely on productivity metrics such as the number of cars serviced, but also team morale, retention rates, and customer satisfaction levels. It’s a qualitative and quantitative process that requires open dialogue with the team on a regular basis”. – John Lin, owner of Philadelphia-based JB Motor Works

7. Set Your 4-Day Workweek Into Motion

If you’re happy with the results of your trial, well done! It’s time to officially implement your four-day workweek.

Right off the bat, you should communicate this success internally and externally to set expectations and prepare everyone for the next steps. Then you need to embed the four-day practices into your company culture. This means preventing old habits from creeping in and embracing the arrangement as part of your company image.

This process doesn’t stop here though. To ensure this transition is successful in the long run, collecting employee feedback through surveys, in-person interviews, or focus groups is a must. If your workforce has strong opinions about the rollout, or needs amendments to be made, it’s important for employers to act on this fast as well.

It’s also imperative that employees don’t drop the ball. Working a four-day week is a privilege, and just because the trial is over doesn’t mean it’s time to take the foot off the pedal. Rather than pushing staff to work overtime, building a culture of accountability and trust is a far more effective way to maintain productivity in the long term.

Rolling out a four-day week isn’t light work, and employers need to be aware of this before taking the idea seriously. It’s a process that requires continual trial and error and can sometimes take years to perfect.

“The bottom line is that implementing a four-day workweek isn’t an exact science, it’s a dance that pairs the unique dynamics of your business with the need to maintain or increase productivity.” – Wendy Wang, owner of four-day workweek company F&J Outdoor

However, navigating these challenges is a small price to pay for a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce. With several US states supporting four-day workweek trials and pledging support to the companies that decide to launch them, now is as good a time as any to take the plunge.

While lots of employers seem intent on bringing workers back into the office, there are still lots of well-paid remote jobs for professionals looking to bid adieu to the physical workspace.

Whether you’re after a warmer climate, lower living expenses, or a chance to finally put your Duo Lingo streak to good use, there are tons of reasons to jump on the digital nomad bandwagon. But with so many great locations to choose from, deciding on a country to relocate to isn’t always straightforward.

For US workers not bound to any physical location, we explore the best countries to work remotely from in 2024 — based on factors like their average cost of living, proximity to the US, and whether they offer that all-important digital nomad visa. Read on to discover our top picks.

1. Portugal

Located in the Southwest corner of Europe, Portugal is a vibrant country packed with architectural gems, sandy coastlines, and gastronomic delights. Boasting reliable network coverage, an excellent transport system, and an affordable cost of living, Portugal is frequently lauded as the best location for digital nomads and was even voted #1 best country to work from by the travel search engine Kayak.

Aside from stunning countryside locations like Tavira, Averio, and Sintra, Portugal is home to Porto and Lisbon — two bustling cities that have become major hubs for digital nomad communities over the years. The European country also offers a “Short Stay Visa” that allows digital nomads to work there for up to a year. To be eligible for this Visa, however, applicants need to provide proof that they make up to four times Portugal’s national minimum wage, which equates to roughly $3,350 per month,

2. Spain

Portugal’s neighbor Spain is another hit among remote workers, thanks in part to its sunny climate, laid-back culture, and abundance of co-working spaces (790 to be precise). Just like Portugal, Spain features diverse landscapes — from the rocky Sierra Nevada mountains to the coastal plains of Valencia — and has a relatively low cost of living. This makes it ideal for wanderlust professionals looking to pack in exciting trips outside of their 9 to 5.

Spain is also home to a large community of digital nomads, making it easy for new expats to connect with like-minded individuals across different industries. Moving to Spain should be relatively straightforward too, due to the country’s newly released digital nomad Visa that allows foreign workers within its borders for up to a year.

3. Mexico

Mexico is a digital nomad haven for obvious reasons. Firstly, its close proximity to the US makes it great for workers after cheap flights or an opportunity to stay close to family and friends. Secondly, Mexico’s cost of living is significantly cheaper than what the average American is used to, with rent costing 71% less than the US average in certain regions and a standard take-out coffee costing as little as $1.50 a pop.

From the cosmopolitan cafes of Mexico City to the sun-kissed beach bars of Puerto Vallarta, the North American country isn’t shy of prime working locations. Unfortunately though, some areas of Mexico are still deemed unsafe for foreign tourists, and the country doesn’t currently offer a digital nomad Visa — requiring remote workers to use a temporary resident Visa instead.

4. Romania

While you don’t often find the words blood-thirsty vampire and digital nomad in the same sentence, Romania has consistently proven itself to be an emerging hub for international workers and even landed a top three position in Kayak’s Work from Wherever Index.

The Eastern European country, which sits to the right of Hungary and Serbia and to the left of the Black Sea, is one of the most affordable locations in Europe — with its cost of living undercutting Western countries like England and France by around 50%.

Aside from rock-bottom rent, utilities, and living expenses, Romania oozes natural beauty and features a number of stunning natural landscapes and medieval towns. Don’t let the country’s ancient charm fool you either, Romania also boasts a reliable internet connection and tons of modern co-working facilities in its capital Bucharest. Professionals can move to the country easily too, thanks to the nation’s new digital nomad Visa.

5. Georgia

Nestled in between the flat plains of Eastern Europe and the high mountains of West Asia, Georgia is another former Soviet nation with a lot of potential for curious professions.

From its hospitable population to its unique history and culinary culture, Georgia has long been a magnet for explorers and foodies alike. In 2024, the ancient country is also fast becoming a hotspot for digital nomads due to its low cost of living, high safety index, and an emerging bohemian scene in cities like Tbilisi.

If you’re looking to escape in the hustle and bustle, Georgia is also home to multiple geological wonders including hundreds of glaciers, stunning emerald mountains, and scores of therapeutic caves. Fortunately for US professionals, Americans can work and live in the country without a Visa for up to a year.

6. Ecuador

While it may not yet be as popular as Mexico, Brazil, or Costa Rica, Ecuador is another excellent country for digital nomads and a great option for travelers looking to remain off the beaten track.

Firstly, Ecuador has an Eastern Time Zone, which is ideal if your company requires you to operate on US hours. Secondly, it’s one of the cheapest countries to live in South America, giving foreign workers greater opportunities to save or enjoy a slightly higher quality of living.

Thirdly, Ecuador is a biodiversity wonder. In fact, due to the combination of the Galapagos Islands, the Amazon, and the Andes Mountain range, it’s one of only 17 megadiverse counties in the world, making it a dream location for nature buffs.

Ecuador’s digital nomad Visa offers an easy route into the country too, allowing expats to work in the country for up to two years before they need to reapply.

7. Indonesia

It wouldn’t be a list of the top digital nomad locations without Indonesia making an appearance, right?

The Southeast Asian country has just about everything a nomadic professional is after — including laid-back island life, an extensive network of ex-pats, and one of the lowest costs of living in Asia. The province of Bali is especially popular due to its scenic seaside villages, nature trails, and great selection of co-working facilities.

Indonesia’s new Second Home Visa lets foreigners work in the country remotely for up to five years too. However, for all of Indonesia’s strengths, its capital’s time zone is 11 hours ahead of Washington DC’s, making it an unviable destination for workers that need to work on US time.

As more and more countries open their doors to laptop-clutching nomads to boost their economy, now is an opportune time to find a better location for your 9 to 5. And if you haven’t secured a remote job yet, don’t worry. Learn about opportunities that are currently available this month in our guide to the top fully remote jobs, and if you’re loyal to your employer, find out how to ask your boss to work remotely here.

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Over the last few years, Slack has become synonymous with the business world. Hundreds of thousands of companies have adopted the messaging platform as the primary means of communication for their team, even to the point of killing email at many of them.

However, despite being released to the public in 2014, the average user isn’t taking advantage of all that Slack has to offer. In fact, the messaging platform offers a wide range of shortcuts that can save you some serious time when it comes to staying in touch with your team.

In this guide, you’ll learn some of the basic slack shortcuts, as well as some more advanced options that can help you format, navigate, and message in Slack without having to click around too much.

In this guide:

• What Are Slack Shortcuts?
• Basic Slack Shortcuts
• Messaging Slack Shortcuts
• Navigation Slack Shortcuts
• Formatting Slack Shortcuts
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Slack Shortcuts?

Slack shortcuts are keyboard commands that you can use to speed up your use of the popular messaging service. From composing messages to viewing conversation history, you’ll be able to access Slack quickly with your keyboard rather than having to click around the interface with your mouse.

Slack shortcuts work like standard shortcuts, in that all you have to do is press a few buttons on your keyboard to perform a particular task. Still, you have to know what the shortcuts are for them to be useful, which is where this guide comes in handy.

Basic Slack Shortcuts

Whether you’ve just installed Slack for the first time or simply never explored the shortcuts available to you, the reality is that your keyboard is a powerful tool when it comes to Slack, and you might be missing out if you don’t know the basics.

Fortunately, we’re here to help, with some basic Slack shortcuts that will get you acclimated to the desktop app in no time!

• Ctrl + / – View all shortcuts
• Ctrl + N – Compose new message
• Ctrl + Z – Unsend a message
• Ctrl + G – Start search
• Ctrl + F – Search in conversation
• Ctrl + U – Upload file
• Ctrl + , – Open preference
• Ctrl + . – Hide right sidebar
• Ctrl + Shift + D – Show or hide left sidebar
• Ctrl + Shift + Y – Set your status
• Ctrl + Shift + N – Create new canvas
• Ctrl + Shift + J – View all downloaded files
• Ctrl + Shift + Enter – Create a new snippet
• Ctrl + Shift + \ – Add emoji to message
• Ctrl + Shift + W – Reopen last closed window

Messaging Slack Shortcuts

As you know, messaging is the primary function of Slack. It allows you to create private and group messages, as well as communication in specific threads for particularly topics, which is why it’s become so popular in comparison to email.

However, if you really want to take your messaging to the next level, we can help. These Slack shortcuts are all about improving your messaging experience, so you can save a bit of time for more important work throughout your day.

Note: These shortcuts are enabled when you have clicked and focused on a specific message.

• E – Edit a message you sent
• Delete – Delete a message you sent
• T or → – Open a thread
• F – Forward a message
• P – Pin or unpin a message
• A – Save a message
• U – Mark all message above unread
• M – Create a reminder about a message
• R – Add an emoji to a message

Navigation Slack Shortcuts

If you’re just getting started with Slack, it can admittedly be a bit intimidating. Especially since the recent update that changed the interface, there are a lot of bells and whistles you need to keep track of to get the most out of the popular messaging platform.

With these shortcuts, you can more effectively navigate the Slack interface, allowing you to more easily access specific messages and conversations across the platform.

• Ctrl + K – Jump to a conversation
• Ctrl + J – Jump to most recent unread message
• Ctrl + Shift + 1 – Open the Home view
• Ctrl + Shift + 3 – Open the Activity view
• Ctrl + Shift + T – Open the Threads view
• Ctrl + Shift + L – Browse channels
• Ctrl + Shift + I – Open conversation details
• Ctrl + Shift + A – Open the All unreads view
• Ctrl + Shift + S – Expand/collapse workplace switcher
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab – Switch to previous workplace
• Ctrl + Tab – Switch to next workplace

Formatting Slack Shortcuts

As with any good business platform, Slack is customizable enough for its users to the exact kind of message they need to send, be it bold, underlined, hyperlinked, or anything in between.

Now, if you want to really speed up your messaging process, we’ve collected some of the most valuable formatting Slack shortcuts, so you can fire through your company-wide shout-out without too many clicks.

• Ctrl + Alt + 0 – Format text as paragraph
• Ctrl + Alt + 1 – Format text as H1
• Ctrl + Alt + 2 – Format text as H2
• Ctrl + Alt + 3 – Format text as H3
• Ctrl + Shift + 0 – Format text as checklist
• Ctrl + Shift + 8 – Format text as bulleted list
• Ctrl + Shift + 7 – Format text as numbered list

Slack Shortcuts: FAQs

Want to ask to work from home? That’s not surprising. Remote work has become one of the most sought-after perks for employees in the modern era, with the pandemic ushering in an era of flexibility that many workers are simply unwilling to part with.

Unfortunately, with return-to-office policies run amok, some employees are feeling left out when it comes to work-life balance. This has led to a wide range of consequences for managers and workers alike, further illustrating the value of remote work in the business world.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to ask to work from home, with a step-by-step plan that will have your manager begging you to ditch the commute and embrace the remote work lifestyle.

Here are the steps to ask to work from home:

1. Make Sure Remote Work Is Right for You
2. Create a List of Potential Remote Work Benefits
3. Speak in Person With Your Manager
4. Suggest a Trial Period for Remote Work
5. Collect Productivity Data During Trial
6. Turned Down? Apply to Remote Jobs Now

1. Make Sure Remote Work Is Right for You

Working from home sounds like a dream to those that have never experienced it. You get to sleep in, work in comfortable clothes, avoid the daily commute, and generally enjoy a more flexible schedule to accommodate other parts of your life beyond work.

Still, remote work is not necessarily for everyone. There are some pitfalls that you should consider before making the decision.

For starters, you could feel more isolated working by yourself all the time, removed from the company culture you’ve become accustomed to in the office. Working from home means that there are no coworkers to goof around with and no after-work happy hours to unwind from a long week.

On top of that, if you don’t communicate effectively via video meetings, you could be in trouble. Remote work is largely facilitated by video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet, which means that, depending on your role, you could be in back-to-back video meetings all day to keep you in touch with your team.

Other potential pitfalls of remote work include added utility costs, less feedback from managers, and blurred lines between work and personal life. Simply put, make sure none of these issues are dealbreakers for your everyday life, as it’s going to be pretty embarrassing to return to the office after going through all the following steps to set up your work from home life.

2. Create a List of Potential Remote Work Benefits

If you’re sure that remote work is what you want, the next step is making your case to work from home. Trust us, you don’t want to go into that conversation without being prepared, particularly because many CEO are dead set on getting employees back in the office.

Fortunately, there is plenty of evidence that remote work is as good for business owners as it is for employees. Here are a few helpful work from home statistics that will help you make your case:

• 47% of businesses notice increased productivity levels amongst employees who work remotely (Tech.co)
• Employees that work from home are more optimistic about work (89%) than those working in the office (77%) (ADP)
• Remote workers could have a 54% lower carbon footprint compared to onsite workers (PNAS)
• Businesses experienced a 22% performance boost when launching a hybrid work model (Stanford GSB)
• US employers can save an average of $11,000 per year for every half-time telecommuter. Savings are based on increased productivity, cheaper real estate costs, and reduced absenteeism and turnover. (Global Workplace Analytics)
• 97% of employees say they don’t want to return to the office full-time (Forbes)

While all those statistics are very convincing, we don’t recommend copying and pasting that list into an email to your manager. The best way to ask to work from home is in a genuine, personal way that is backed up by evidence.

3. Speak in Person with Your Manager

Now, it’s time to actually make the ask, and we can’t emphasize this enough: If you want to convince your manager to let you work from home, we highly recommend doing so in person. It may seem counterintuitive, because the goal is to establish that you can work productively beyond an in-office setting, but you’re going to want to have a meeting at the office to start the process.

The reality is that in-person meetings are simply more effective when asking for something in return. In fact, one Harvard Business Review study found that in-person requests are 34 times more effective than emailed requests.

Beyond that, the meeting should be fairly straightforward. Be confident but polite, assertive yet even-tempered, convincing but not weird about it. The data is in your favor, so just stick to the facts, add a personal touch, and you’ll be getting work done in your pajamas in no time.

Also, while the meeting should be in-person, you’ll definitely want to get confirmation that you’re going to be working from home in writing. After all, you’ll want assurances that this kind of remote work arrangement will last longer than a few weeks.

4. Suggest a Trial Period for Remote Work

Commitment is hard for everyone, and not just when it comes to relationships. Even the best ideas, like the 4-day work week, typically require a bit of time to convince those in charge that it will actually be beneficial to employees and employers alike.

Subsequently, we’d recommend you ask to work from home on a trial basis, so that you can prove to them that you’re not only more productive at home, but that you can remain an active member of the team without coming into the office.

If they’re pushing back a bit on fully remote work, you could also suggest that you trial the process with a hybrid work schedule, in which you’re in the office some days and working from home other days. This will give you a bit of freedom while assuage their concerns about your participation in company culture.

5. Collect Productivity Data During Trial

Convincing your manager to let you work from home is hard enough, but the job isn’t done if you want to keep it up. After all, you can just rest on your laurels now that you’ve reached the peak of work-life balance.

To make sure your remote work future stays intact, you’ll want to collect as much productivity data as possible, so you can continue to convince your team that working from home is in their best interest, as well as yours.

If you don’t have access to this kind of data, your manager should be more than willing to provide it if you ask. If not, do your best to keep track of it yourself and present the findings if you’re ever challenge on your work from home efficiency.

6. Turned Down? Apply to Remote Jobs Now

So, it didn’t work out for you. Whether your boss is committed to their in-office policy or you’re simply too valuable to the company culture to spare a single day away from your coworkers, working from home at your current job isn’t going to happen.

Now, if you’re one of the large majority of workers that would rather quit than return to the office, we have some good news for you. While headlines are riddled with return-to-office policy updates, there are actually plenty of jobs out there that are still hiring remote workers like its early 2020.

Here’s a list of companies with remote work jobs that are hiring now:

• Microsoft
• AirBnB
• Disney
• Slack
• Spotify
• Dropbox
• Uber
• Dell

If you want a remote working job with no qualifications, that’s all right. There are actually a lot of jobs that are willing to train and onboarding new hires that are happy to work from home, like content writer, data entry professional, translator, virtual assistant, and many more.

How to Ask to Work From Home: FAQs