The Algorithm Age

Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on workplace, career and leadership in her advice column, Got a Minute? This week: handling difficult feedback, threats for failing security tests and redundancies for part-time contractors. I’m a senior manager in a job I really enjoy. However, it is very difficult to keep my boss happy. I get called out on many things that seem really minor, and my confidence has taken a beating. Recently, she gave me feedback that my team has felt disempowered and belittled by my management style, and that they don’t find me sincere. I found this devastating and humiliating. She said it was salvageable and that we could work together to rectify things. This is the first time I have been made aware of the issue and I wonder if there has been a bit of mud scraping in the background. I want to succeed in this role, but feel completely reduced by it. What should I do? How do I stop feeling so upset and taking it all so personally...

Talent shortages are the consequence of a hard-core push to a return to office, as we can see from Randstad’s latest “Workmonitor Pulse” report . The survey of 5,250 employees shows that 33 percent, a full third, rank remote work even above “employability” — meaning ongoing relevance, skills and job security — when forced to choose. Seventy-three percent of fully remote workers would surrender a pay bump to preserve flexibility, and 70 percent would forgo promotions. Among fully remote respondents, half would not surrender location freedom for employability. The same can be said for 37 percent for hybrid workers and 29 percent for those permanently on-site. The latter figure for on-site workers shows how many people are liable to be tempted by lower-salary flexible work, if given the chance. External evidence confirms this. FlexJobs’s Q1 2025 “Remote Work Economy Index” demonstrates that remote jobs remain an irresistible lure: 37 percent of job seekers rank location fl...

TOKYO — Shota Shimizu slid on his headset and dialed the human resources department at his client’s employer, a nursing care company. The client wanted to quit her job, and Shimizu was doing it for her. “There was a mismatch between her expectations and the reality of the job,” Shimizu told the HR representative. “She still has her uniform and locker key, and will return them by mail. Can we confirm your mailing address?” Shimizu works for Momuri, a Tokyo-based “resignation company” whose agents quit jobs on behalf of clients who want to avoid the uncomfortable conversation. Momuri — which means “I can’t take it anymore” in Japanese — is among a niche but increasingly popular industry offering “proxy quitters” in Japan, stepping in for workers who struggle to cut ties with their boss, for up to about $350 (50,000 yen). This service has grown since the pandemic, which disrupted Japan’s rigid work culture and challenged the traditional notion of a “salaryman,” an arche...

Ford CEO Jim Farley learned from older employees that some young workers at the carmaker were taking shifts at Amazon to make ends meet, he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Farley said he drew on founder Henry Ford’s decision to raise factory wages to $5 a day in 1914 to make temporary workers into full-time employees. Young people have previously eschewed manufacturing jobs due to low wages. Some economists credit carmaker Henry Ford for jump-starting the American middle class in the 20th century when, in January 1914, he hiked factory wages to $5 , more than double the average wage for an eight-hour work day. More than 100 years later, facing the reality of many employees “barely getting by,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said he took a page out of the founder’s playbook. The carmaker’s chief executive recognized the need to make a change in his workplace when he spoke to veteran employees during union contract negotiations and learned young Ford employees were...

Ford CEO Jim Farley learned from older employees that some young workers at the carmaker were taking shifts at Amazon to make ends meet, he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Farley said he drew on founder Henry Ford’s decision to raise factory wages to $5 a day in 1914 to make temporary workers into full-time employees. Young people have previously eschewed manufacturing jobs due to low wages. Some economists credit carmaker Henry Ford for jump-starting the American middle class in the 20th century when, in January 1914, he hiked factory wages to $5 , more than double the average wage for an eight-hour work day. More than 100 years later, facing the reality of many employees “barely getting by,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said he took a page out of the founder’s playbook. The carmaker’s chief executive recognized the need to make a change in his workplace when he spoke to veteran employees during union contract negotiations and learned young Ford employees were...

Do you have a work dilemma, career quandary, or are facing challenges in the office? The i Paper ’s work column answers readers’ questions with leading experts in careers and workplace psychology. Email questions to work@ The company I work for is notorious in my industry for many reasons. It’s fast-paced with lots of opportunities to learn and swift career acceleration, but it’s also known for being quite a toxic environment or an ‘old boys club’ as some people have put it. I knew this when I started, but I wanted to take on the challenge, and everyone who has stuck it out at this company has been able to pretty much go on and work anywhere. One of the senior members of my team is basically a bully – incredibly rude, swears a lot and is demeaning and intimidating. Every time I have flagged it, other members of staff have told me he just has “brash leadership style” and is “old school” and I just need to get used to it because I...

Do you have a work dilemma, career quandary, or are facing challenges in the office? The i Paper ’s work column answers readers’ questions with leading experts in careers and workplace psychology. Email questions to work@ The company I work for is notorious in my industry for many reasons. It’s fast-paced with lots of opportunities to learn and swift career acceleration, but it’s also known for being quite a toxic environment or an ‘old boys club’ as some people have put it. I knew this when I started, but I wanted to take on the challenge, and everyone who has stuck it out at this company has been able to pretty much go on and work anywhere. One of the senior members of my team is basically a bully – incredibly rude, swears a lot and is demeaning and intimidating. Every time I have flagged it, other members of staff have told me he just has “brash leadership style” and is “old school” and I just need to get used to it because I...

A few weeks ago, I got offered a job out of the blue. I turned it down because at the time, I loved my current role and had no interest in leaving it. I was flattered when the person who approached me said they would like me to reconsider and would be happy to wait if I needed more time. I said I’d think about it, but had no intention of reconsidering. Soon after, a colleague said something to me that felt like a punch in the guts. I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind since, and I’ve started to think seriously about calling the headhunter and having a chat. What is your advice? We won’t print what was said to you because it was very particular to your job and workplace. What I can say is that I was astounded when I read the words used against you. They would be considered over-the-top, even in the most high-pressure, high-expectation workplace. This was an attack on your work and your character, and I can see why it’s suddenly chan...

The Fair Work Commission has found a tradie was “forced to resign” from his job after his employer swore at him during a secretly recorded meeting about his performance. A workplace lawyer said the issue “cuts both ways” with both employees and employers potentially able to take action if they face swearing at work . Commissioner Susie Allison found that while swearing was likely to be a part of the “everyday work culture” of the tradie’s employer, Melbourne small business DMG Building & Electrical Services, the language and behaviour directed at him were “not appropriate or acceptable behaviour in any workplace”. She said the worker was “reasonably concerned for his mental and physical safety” and had no “real choice” but to resign. McCabes Lawyers principal Tim McDonald told Yahoo Finance the case raised issues for both employees and employers. RELATED Right to disconnect warning as worker sues former employer for $800,000 ...

Do you have a work dilemma, career quandary, or are facing challenges in the office? The i Paper ’s work column answers readers’ questions with leading experts in careers and workplace psychology. Email questions to work@ I used to say I had my dream job – great pay, interesting work and independence. But increasingly, one thing I can’t stand is that my boss is really pushy about us going back into the office. My commute is over an hour each way, it’s so expensive to travel into work, and I find it really draining when I’m there. When I get in, it’s completely silent with zero atmosphere, and there are barely any amenities in the office – basically a tea station and that’s it. What is the point of being here when I do my job more effectively at home, and I don’t have to sit in this depressing office all day? The worst part is, she’s barely in the office herself. And when she is in, she is constantly leaving early for parenting “eme...