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If everything is on the table when it comes to the future of work, should we be talking about having workers own the company – or at least own a bit of it? To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Elspeth...

The climate transition has huge implications for the future of work. We know that we need to develop 'green skills', although there is not complete agreement about how to define what those are. The  crux of it, however,  is that we are arguably moving into...

It is a complicated time in the work world right now as organizations grapple with policies around the return to the office or remote or hybrid work. As well, the unemployment rate is rising, managers are dealing with stress around the economy and workers are...

Awesome to be in Quebec City to present to the IIA Canada’s Audit Leader Event on the economic and demographic forces that will challenge leaders in the years ahead. hashtag#futureofwork hashtag#growthmindset hashtag#economy hashtag#keynotespeaker hashtag#technology hashtag#climate...

Always a pleasure to work with Fidelity on their Fidelity Connects webcast, had a great discussion  about the way that climate is changing the economy and the future of work.      ...

Behavioural science Guest: Adrian Camilleri Association Professor of Marketing University of Technology Sydney Business School Adrian Camilleri is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Business School. He uses experimental and survey research methods to understand, explain, and predict the cognitive processes underlying judgment and...

How can leaders develop the mental strength needed in today's work environment? To talk about that Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by  Scott Mautz,  author of the book  The Mentally Strong Leader. Guest SCOTT MAUTZ, author of THE MENTALLY STRONG LEADER, is the founder and CEO of...

Is Work Life balance a myth? On this episode, Linda Nazareth is joined by Dan Pontefract, author of the book Work Life Bloom. Dan believes that we need to move to  'work life bloom' rather than 'work life balance' and he has some ideas about...

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay and as well as changing and eliminating jobs it is creating new roles. On this episode, Linda Nazareth is joined by Cliff Jurkiewicz, Vice President of Global Strategy at Phenom to talk about why it is time for companies...

Remote work keeps evolving: organizations have been changing the rules around it, workers have been shifting their demands on employers, and the pieces keep shifting. To talk about the new trends in remote work, Linda Nazareth is  joined on this episode by Jelena Djordjevic, Vice President...

Everyone wants to be more effective and motivated at work, but doing that can be harder than it looks. To talk about how to revitalize your relationship with work, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Art Markman, Professor at the University of Texas...

Flexible work goes in and out of fashion, with always loving it and organizations being somewhat more skeptical. To talk about the state of flexible work, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Cali Williams Yost, CEO and Founder of Flex+Strategy Group. They talk about...

The pandemic has changed many things, among them the state of mental health in the workplace. Things were not perfect before the pandemic, there were definitely stresses and people under pressure, but lockdowns and having to manage a different way definitely took their toll. We...

So amazing to join International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) at their conference in Kona, Hawaii to talk about the global economic outlook Thanks to National Speakers Bureau for booking! (and decided to share a picture of view from my balcony rather than the...

The word 'networking' may seem a bit outdated, but perhaps it is time to update its meaning. To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Andres Lares, Managing Partner at Shapiro Negotiations Institute. They cover what networking means today and why and...

Workers want more than money when they accept a job and typical looking for things like a manageable commute and a good team to work with as well. Increasingly, they are also interested in working for mission-oriented companies, wanting to work for organizations that are...

At a time when the world of work is more stressful than ever, how can leaders avoid burning out? To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Lisa Earle McLeod and Elizabeth Lotardo, authors of the book Selling with Noble Purpose....

Artfiicial intelligence is changing the world, and it will inevitably change the world of work - but what will those changes look like? To tackle this huge topic, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Jason Brommet, Head of Modern Work and Surface at...

Workers want a certain amount of autonomy at work, but leaders have always been wary about providing it.  Finding the right balance is now more important than ever, and also more difficult than ever given that many workers are now working remotely. To talk about...

Such a pleasure to speak with American Express clients at their recent virtual event. Here is a short clip from the opening of my presentation on economics and the future of work. [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://relentlesseconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/amexclipshort.mp4"][/video]...

So happy to have been part of the recent 'Transformation' Professional Development Day at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. I spoke about the future of work and then enjoyed the Q & A from the very engaged audience....

Anxiety is everywhere, including in the workplace - but can it be used in a positive way? Better yet, are there ways that leaders and organizations can create an environment where anxiety is reduced if not eliminated? To talk about that Linda Nazareth is joined...

Awesome event yesterday at BDO Canada talking about the megatrends impacting the future of work and the importance of having a growth mindset. Challenging times ahead, but exciting times too. Happy to be part of the discussion!...

In the future will we all wear headsets and communicate through avatars with our work colleagues? The metaverse is changing much of how we communicate and that has huge implications for the world of work. To talk about the implications Linda Nazareth is joined on...

If you have a job and you have kids, you know that one impacts the other.  Logistics is part of it, but there is more as well. Our work impacts our life outside work, and our families, perhaps  more than we think. To discuss the...

Getting worker communication right is difficult, but it is at the crux of running an effective organization and the technology that is supposed to help sometimes seems to make things worse. To talk about effective ways to use technology to improve communication, Linda Nazareth is...

Was great to be in Ottawa to present to appy to be in Ottawa today to present to the Canadian Crops Convention #CdnCrops23 at their first in-person event in three years! We talked about the global economic outlook and about the megatrends that are shifting...

Workers are dealing with all kinds of traumas at present, both in their personal and in their professional lives. To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by by Katharine Manning, author of The Empathetic Workplace: Five Steps to a Compassionate, Calm and Competent...

A different episode this week as Work and the Future Host Linda Nazareth is interviewed about her just-released book Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redesigned World of Work.  Special guest Bridgett Anderson, President and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, talks...

Working and making decisions go hand in hand.  Every day we make dozens of decisions some thoughtful and good but others perhaps clouded by emotions or by haste. They are not all wise decisions – but maybe they could be, or maybe more of them...

So great to be in Banff (gorgeous in winter) to speak at the Western Connect event organized by BUKSA / Conferences + Associations . Thanks to National Speakers Bureau for booking!...

So great to present to #Cannexus23 this week (virtually!) about the themes in my new book 'Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work' - thank you to CERIC for the invitation! #futureofwork #keynotespeaker ...

If we are going to work effectively and have any kind of balance we need to set boundaries, but how we can we do that? In a world where work demands seem to constantly be rising, saying 'no' to anything sometimes seems impossible.  To talk...

Should organizations force workers to take vacations? With  workers increasing reporting that they are suffering from burnout, it might help if people took time off even if they are forced to do so. To talk about the issues around that, Linda Nazareth is joined on...

Amazing to be in Vancouver yesterday presenting to the Vancouver Board of Trade on the future of work and being part of the thoughtful Q & A session afterwards. Skills mismatches and shortages are everywhere and was awesome to be with a group so committed...

What an amazing event! Had the pleasure of both speaking and leading a workshop for advertising agency Dentsu on the future of work in finance. Great to be part of the discussion (and to enjoy their gorgeous workspace!).   ...

Great afternoon joining the Ontario Private Camping Association at their recent conference to talk about an economist's view of climate change. Important topic and awesome that this group is being pro-active about what comes next....

So great to join CPBI Pacific at their Vancouver event on climate change and the economy. Enjoyed doing the keynote on an economist's view of climate change, but was also cool to moderate the discussion afterward. ...

Just about everyone - even if they work independently or remotely -  has to collaborate with other people on occasion. Not everyone likes to do that and not everyone does it well, but when collaboration fails there are real business costs. To talk about how...

Awesome to be in Charlottetown this week talking to the Canadian Network of Agencies for Regulation about the about the future of work. Great group, important topic and gorgeous city!...

Awesome to be in Vancouver to speak to the MGI Global conference about the global economy and the megatrends that will shape it in the coming years. So great to be back in lovely rooms like this one at the Pan Pacific Vancouver!...

Always a pleasure to be on CBC Metro Morning as their future of work columnist. This week talked about the trend to being a 'digital nomad' and choosing to work somewhere sunny if you can! Listen here...

Despite the  inroads women have made in the workforce over the past decades, the progress may not be as good as it looks particularly when it comes to the C-Suite. On this episode Monika Hamori, Associate Professor at the IE Business School in Madrid joins...

Was awesome to speak to the Ontario Municipal Financial Officers in lovely Blue Mountain, Ontario. Yes, the discussion was about the economy but it was also about resilience and why it is more important than ever to develop it both from an individual and an...

The workplace is in a state of flux, and that includes the physical workplace.  It used to be the place we went to because that is where we could work – that was where the computers were and we had to sit in board rooms...

Is it time to deconstruct jobs and how do we do that? On this episode Linda Nazareth is joined by Ravin Jesuthasan, co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Work Without Jobs How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System. They talk about why it may be...

In my latest column for the Globe and Mail I look at the phenomenon of 'Quiet Quitting'. As much as it is easy to write off the Gen Z workers going this route as slackers, the reality is that they are sending a message that...

Great to speak with CBC Metro Morning about how organizations should be thinking about attracting Generation Z. They are not the Boomers or even the Millennials! https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-39-metro-morning/clip/15928598-what-canadian-employers-need-attract-gen-z-workers  ...

The heat waves in Europe this summer are a reminder that our planet is getting warmer and in turn that that will have an impact on the future of work. See more here  in my latest column for the Globe and Mail...

I now do a regular column with CBC Metro Morning discussing the economy and the future of work. This week I covered the new report from the World Economic Forum on the gender gap as measured by several metrics including health and labour force participation....

Was awesome to join the Canadian College and University Food Services Association at their at their recent conference at Casino Windsor. Great to talk about the megatrends changing the economy and how they will impact food service   ...

As we move to new models of work we have sometimes wondered whether remote workers are too isolated but are hybrid workers also isolated - and maybe even lonely? And if that is true, as some evidence suggests, what should organizations be doing to help...

How we work impacts many things including the environment and equity and income distribution as welI and there are indications that  moving more work remote could help us achieve our societal goals. To discuss why remote work could have so many spin-off benefits, Linda Nazareth...

The price of everything is spiralling which means all of the calculations that people made about retirement may need to be re-calculated.  That might mean staying in the workforce longer or maybe returning after you have exited it. Whatever decisions people make will have wide...

Two years ago, business travel ground to a halt and we learned to communicate with each other without getting on planes or driving for miles. Now, travel in general is coming back and business travel is as well.  That means we need to budget the...

Thanks to The Labour Market Group in North Bay, Ontario for having me kick  off their Future of Work webinar series. I am so happy that we now have so many discussions taking place around the future of work - we are transitioning into a...

Is leadership training going to the wrong people? Typically organizations give leadership training it either to very senior people or those who they have identified by conventional metrics as future senior people, but maybe that is not the best way to do things. On this...

Is hybrid work the best of both worlds or the worst of it? Even before the pandemic  organizations struggled to find  the right mix of having workers in the office or elsewhere and two years into it many are still trying to find the right...

Happy to be quoted in this article in Bloomberg Opinion on inflation and how that is impacting generational spending choices. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-01-02/millennials-are-finally-buying-houses-what-does-that-mean-for-inflation...

What are the trends around the future of work we should be watching as we get into 2022? I take. a look at them in my latest column for the Globe and Mail...

How do you not just accommodate hybrid work but actually create an effective hybrid culture? To talk about the effective strategies for doing that, we are joined on this episode by Carolyn Byer, HR Lead for Microsoft Canada who shares her experience of leading a...

Virtual meetings bring people together but as they do they also shift power dynamics as compared to live meetings. Who will be the winners and losers in this virtual world? As we virtually bring people into our homes, how are we changing our work lives?...

How do you bring together workers from different organization with different corporate cultures?  Combining organizations  may make sense from a business point of view, but when you do it you are often bringing together many disparate parts. Doing it effectively means crafting a communications strategy...

Even in a post-pandemic world, it seems unlikely that we will ever go back to an old-style workplace where everyone comes into the office on a daily basis. Work from home arrangements and hybrid workplaces will be the norm, which means we will lean on...

Frito-Lays workers have recently settled a strike (over appalling work conditions) but that is not the end of the discussion on the best way to get snacks into bowls.  Right now the answer is apparently to grind out shifts from human beings, but the next...

Was lucky enough to moderate an awesome panel on education and the future of work for D2L yesterday (virtually of course, but amazing how well it works). So many challenges ahead, but also so many great ideas and plans around how to meet them. ...

As we move towards the future of work, it is becoming increasingly clear that that  that might mean re-thinking education models. We tend to think of education as being a few years after high school then maybe the odd course to pick up new skills...

YOLO - you only live once. Coming out of the pandemic, a lot of people, and in particular younger people are taking that attitude and it may have economic implications. An eagerness to switch jobs or industries and to travel more could shake things up...

  How important will reskilling be to our economic future and what role should business play in making it happen? And what about continuous training? Business has always been reticent about training because there is always the risk that you could lose those trained at your...

Was an honor to speak to the recent 'Ahead of the Curve' event held by American Express for their Canadian team. I talked about the outlook for the global economy as we come out of the pandemic as well as the things to consider longer...

Should we be worried about pandemic graduates? If we are to go on the history, those who graduate during recessions tend to have a much harder go of it than 'luckier' cohorts, and the disruptions we have seen this time around could make things worse....

Our major economic problem right now is the pandemic and its offshoots, but that does not mean the economic issues we had before the pandemic have gone away. One of those issues is technology, or rather the speed of technological change and what that means...

Was privileged to moderate a great roundtable on 'New Approaches to Reskilling and Upskilling Displacd Workers' for th Business Council of Canada and the Public Policy Forum last week. Moderating by teleconference is a bit different than doing it in person, but takes me back...

Guest: Bretton (Brett) Putter is an expert in company culture development who is consulted by companies and leaders worldwide to help design, develop and build high-performing cultures. Company culture can be a fairly murky concept. Roughly defined as 'how we do things' it should be reflection...

Coming September 2021, my new book Where We Left Off: Ten Trends Changing the Post-Pandemic Economy. Looking forward to speaking on the topic in person then and virtually anytime! Contact speaking@relentlesseconomics.com to book. ...

If you work remotely you are not going to buy your usual coffee and sandwich near your office, and that is going to have economic consequences so someone should pay for that through higher taxes. That is the premise behind a suggestion from Deutsche Bank...

So much attention gets paid to the pandemic and how it is changing the work world that we sometimes forget how much disruption was going on long before we ever heard of Covid-19. The fact is, automation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution were already changing...

In a world where civility is in short supply, is there a way to keep our workplaces civil? These days, politics often divides us, with feelings running deep, and the extra stress of the pandemic can bring tensions to the fore. Still, there are ways...

The gig economy gets a lot of negative press, but is it actually a bad thing? Although some think it is synonymous with income insecurity and bad management practices, in fact for many it is the way they choose to work. For professional workers who...

  I am so excited to share that I will be speaking at Microsoft's Future Now event, to take place virtually October 27th and 28th, I will be one of more than 100 speakers talking about digital transformation, the future of work, and being primed to...

Another day, another virtual presentation! Thank you to CPA Ontario for letting me to speak to their conference today on the economy and where it is going, particularly with the uncertainty of the political environment. All live-streamed from my home studio, with cutting-edge production and...

Are you afraid of unemployment or are you sure you are forever employable? As the economic outlook becomes increasingly uncertain, many people would put themselves in the first category but would certainly like to be in the second. Our guest today is Jeff Gothelf, author...

We are re-imagining everything else, so maybe we need to imagine the office as well. The physical office we are familiar with has its roots in designs first imagined a hundred years ago, with a bit of a Dilbert-style reboot thrown in during the 1950s....

  Yes I miss in-person presentations, a lot actually, but cool that we can still keep the conversations going. Here I am on someone's laptop (you can see his coffee mug to the right) as I speak to the Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association fall conference...

  Six months into the pandemic and with  more months to come, most workers are coping but not without difficulty. Whether it is stress about being home and isolated, or stress about going back to work and possibly getting sick, a lot of people are under...

It may have been a bit of a struggle to make it work, but the pandemic has forced many companies to keep their teams intact even when they are not under the same roof.  As workers have de-camped to far-flung places, perhaps permanently, we are...

When we think about the words that go with 'leadership', 'heart' is rarely among them but perhaps it should be. The pandemic has shown us that business as usual is no longer going to get the job done, and as well we are all acutely...

Freelance work something of a controversial workforce trend. To some, it is the dreaded gig economy, those who are forced to work on contracts or driving ride shares because they cannot find that holy grail, the full-time job. To others though, it represents freedom, the ability to...

The pandemic has forced a giant-scale experiment in online education, and by many accounts it is going very poorly. From first graders to college students, everyone seems to be frustrated at having to take the classroom experience to a crowded space in the kitchen, and...

As the labor market goes through an evolution that started long before the pandemic, our communities are being transformed as well. In many cases that means good things, as when successful companies hire and prosperity increases. Other times there are less-positive spin-offs, with some people...

Ready or not, the world of work is changing. And, whoever you are, you need to figure out your place in the future of work. We need to re-imagine everything. Who are the workers that will be in demand in the future? Will robots take our...

Was so great to speak to Manitoba Tech's Disrupted Future conference last week..I spoke about the future of work, which is scary and challenging but something we need to come to terms with now. There is lots to be optimistic about, and I think people...

I am excited about my upcoming speaking engagements in 2020, none more so than the presentation I will do to the Connect Travel Market Leadership Summit in February in Kissimmee, Florida. I will be talking about the megatrends for the travel industry and will be...

Let's face facts: tech is indeed replacing workers, especially at places like grocery stores where simple functions like scanning labels can be done without employees. A labor group in Oregon wants to legislate that away, but can you even do that? Read more here in...

Maybe we will have a recession, maybe we won't, and anyway by all means use a different word if you prefer.'Slowdown', 'Soft Patch', 'Downturn', any of them will do, and any might describe where the economy will be by next year. If we do hit...

One of the big worries regarding the future of work is that jobs are going to disappear altogether, replaced by breathtaking technology and clever robots. That is happening to an extent, but apparently some dregs are being left for humans, for better or work. 'Ghost...

Do not get me wrong, I love tourism as an industry and have huge respect for its economic force. I want to see it grow, and frankly I want to keep travelling myself. However, I cannot ignore the conflicts between tourism and climate change and...

Did a shift in corporate culture have anything to do with the issues with the Boeing 737 Max, the (now grounded) plane that was involved in two accidents in recent months? Maybe we will never know the truth of that accusation (which comes from a...

An hour to answer questions about the future of work - what could be better? I really enjoyed the hour I spent on CBC Radio earlier this week, supposedly talking about a re-think of the five-day work week but in fact covering all kinds of...

When I speak to employer groups about the future of work, they are often keen to know what they should do to both attract and hold on to workers. In tight markets, that often means attract anyone, anyone at all, they are not fussy. Still,...

The future of work is a huge subject, not one that can really be tackled by in a forty minute period, but we gave it a shot at the Globe and Mail's recent Future Forward conference. I was part of a panel that touched on...

Will cutting-edge layaway plans be the salvation of the retail sector and the broader economy, or are they a disaster waiting to happen? The newest experiments in making it consumer payments easy is creative, but may not bring the long-term results that retailers hope to...

Industrial revolutions are always kind of scary, at least for those who have to make a living. The idea that some crazy new technology can do your job, and maybe do it better..well who can blame the Luddites of the 19th century who took hammers...

Last week I had the chance to be a guest on my old colleague Bruce Sellery's podcast, Moolala. We talked about Income Share Agreements, about which I have kind of mixed feelings. They are a way to spread the risk for students, in that they...

Someone asked me about this the other day and I decided to share in a Linkedin article. See it here (and feel free to share the best advice you ever got in the comments) ...

It always happens the same way: the economy slow and births go down, and then it gets better and there is a mini baby boom. Except - not this time. It is ten years after the end of the recession and births in the U.S..and...

After I give keynote presentations at conferences, I often do a Q & A session, and inevitably people ask what they can do or what their kids can do to make sure that they are not left behind as the tech revolution (this one, we...

A big misunderstanding? Uber and Lyft drivers are protesting across ten U.S. cities this week, as well as in the U.K., South America and Australia, saying that the companies are treating them unfairly. The companies say that they are a great deal for the drivers,...

No one is saying central bankers ever had an easy job, but at least in days gone by it used to be a bit more straightforward.  If labor was in short supply wages went up and people had more money to spend and prices went...

Whenever I speak before an audience I inevitably bring up the subject of demographics, because to me it is the aging-elephant in the room. Whether I am engaged to talk about the economic outlook or about interest rates or about the future of work, it...

The 'nine-nine-six culture' (working nine to nine, six days a week) is something close to the norm for Chinese tech workers who are supposed to embrace it with no complaints. Now, some are pushing back on it, and employers are not thrilled (and are not...

Ugh, the college admissions scandal. Rich parents buying their kids into top colleges, coaches taking payoffs, entitled kids pretending to be athletes or scholars or whatever, and sometimes not even really wanting to go to school. It is all pretty distasteful - but is there...

After this Globe and Mail column came out, I had a friend call and ask whether he should re-jig his portfolio to get rid of his auto stocks. The piece is about demographics, and specifically about the implications of the fact that people spend differently...

Jobs come and jobs go, but are the ones that are coming as good as the ones that we are losing? I was taken by some new research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which looked at the job titles being added and found a...

I was intrigued when I heard about 'Income Sharing Agreements' which are basically a way share the 'risk'  of paying for an education between the student and another party.See my column for the Globe and Mail here ...

It's a new year so how better to celebrate it than by throwing away all the junk you bought last year? And the one before that, and before that? Seems like so many of us have piles of unwanted 'stuff' and nothing feels better than...

I actually am a fan of the hashtag gigeconomy..in many ways it is a better way to get work done and for some workers it offers a ton of flexibility, or is at least an alternative to the traditional model of work. That said, not...

This is my latest article for the Globe and Mail..this time on 'Perennials' as older workers are sometimes called. Those over 55 now comprise about 23 per cent of the U.S. workforce and 21 per cent of the Canadian one, which should not surprise anyone....

I recently had the chance to do a great interview with Anne Gaviola of VICE on 'How Not to be Replaced by a Robot at Work'. For those of you who are not aware, VICE is a site that primarily attracts those under the age...

In my latest column for the Globe and Mail I write about the controversial subject of a robot tax. In one sense it is fair enough: if  you hire workers you have to pay a payroll tax, so if you go with robots (or cobots,...

Money is cool but workers need more than that: after all, there are droves of well-paid workers who right-this-minute are sprucing up their resumes because they feel like they cannot stand a single more day at their jobs. If you asked them why they are...

Work Is Not a Place (the new book) is officially out on December 9th which is exciting..has been a long process (but a fun one too. Some days.). In the meantime, I have been out talking about the subject of it, which is basically the...

We have kind of been moving to a winner-take-all world for a while, but a decade after the recession the trend only seems to be intensifying.  The McKinsey Global Institute did a pretty thorough job of looking at the phenomenon in a recent paper, making...

Seems like a ridiculous concept (at least in North America) but some British researchers say you should. I see it more as a sweetly retro concept, a last ditch effort to separate work and leisure. See my Globe and Mail column on the subject here ...

Here is my latest Globe and Mail column an d it is kind of radical. Given that lives are getting longer, should we think about starting careers later,  maybe as late as 40? Crazy right? Maybe, but maybe we need to at least open our minds...

Here’s a piece I wrote for the Globe and Mail on the way that demographics are affecting the supply of young hockey players. Millennials have provided lots of young players which have sped up the game, but that may change, You can read the whole...

Coworking spaces are springing up everywhere and attracting businesses of all sizes. That is good for everything from the bottom line of large companies to the lonliness epidemic, which is actually something with economic implications. See my Globe and Mail column on the trend here    ...

The Organisation for Economic Development has put some odds  on the you-vs.-automation battle for your job. The net net is that automation is coming and that Canada (and other countries) net a plan. See my new piece for the Globe and Mail here  ...

Due to popular demand, I've added a new speaking topic: The Side Hustle Economy. The Globe and Mail column I wrote on it garnered a lot of interest and I'm looking forward to expanding on it on the speaking circuit. Here is a brief synopsis...

Side Hustles are not just a tiresome millennial trend - they are how a lot of people are filling in income gaps. If you want to know what one looks like on a royal scale check out the Queen, who has made $9 million plus...

March 8th was International Women's Day and I had the good fortune to celebrate it in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, speaking to the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce. The occasion was their 'Trailblazers Lunch' which honoured high-achieving women in their community. It was a great event, and...

Canada just presented its Federal Budget, which was ostensibly about helping women's economic power. I'm kind of underwhelmed (and old-fashioned enough to wish they would just balance the books, for everyone's sake). Here is my piece on it for the Globe and Mail  ...

A blog that covers economic and labor market trends may seem to be a strange place for a fiction book review.  Then again, maybe not. The changes now going on in the workplace are saga-worthy, and there is something to be said for looking at...

Demographics always matter - even when we are talking about the Olympics. Here is my latest for the Globe and Mail, which talks [caption id="attachment_2029" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir carry the flag of Canada during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics...

Of all the things I do work-wise, one of my favorites is speaking to live audiences.  You cannot fake it: you are up in front of people who are investing their time and you have to give them something that makes them believe it was...

Walmart buying Modcloth? ‘Say it’s not so’ went the lament from Millennials and other assorted cool people earlier this year. After all, Modcloth is a cutting-edge, online retailer that offers funky clothes for those who consider themselves the opposite of everything the world’s biggest retailer...

North America is aging, and a lot of  the rest of the world is aging as well. It is something to think about as we consider where we are going to get the labor we need to grow our economies in the years ahead. That...

There are a lot of things robots can do, but they cannot make societies any younger. Canada and the U.S. are aging – there is little debate about that. What exactly that will mean for the labor force and the economy is a bit more up...

What if you built a wall to keep people out, and it turned out that no one really wanted to get in anyway? Okay, some people might still want to enter the U.S. from Mexico and other countries which have typically supplied low skill labor,...

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If I had to think of an industry prone to poisonous industrial relations battles I would probably think first or the auto sector, or maybe even something like education or health. The battles in those industries, however, are apparently being matched by orchestras (can I...

Collaboration, sharing ideas, boosting creativity, creating bonds – all of these are reasons that are typically given for having open plan workspaces. Sit next to your colleagues in an open plan office or cubicle, goes the reasoning, and productivity will rise. Not so, says new...

Sure you can go for a run for free, but if you did you would be off trend. That is one take-away from some new statistics on where people are spending their fitness dollars. According to this article from Quartz (which quotes data from the...

Maybe I’m late to the party, but it was only recently that I heard the phrase ‘side hustle’. Apparently it has been around a while: way back in 2013, Entrepreneur.com tacked up an online definition, calling ‘a way to make some extra cash that allows...

Robots, joined by Gig Workers, are now making Twinkies, and they are doing such a good job that their parent company is going public.  That’s a powerful statement about today’s manufacturing and economy, never mind our nutritional preferences. Twinkies, those flaky, cream-filled snack cakes that are...

Amongst the problems with the Sharing Economy – and its offshoot, the Gig Economy – is the fact that shares in it tend to be pretty unequal. In fact, even more than is the case of a usual employee-employer relationship, oftentimes the ‘employee’ in this...

Here’s a new one to me: the ‘divorce mortgage’. No its not some crazy, invented term to describe a financing vehicle (my mind went back to ‘plain vanilla swaps’ from the days when derivatives were the buzz), but rather exactly what it sounds like: a...

You might not have noticed it, what with one economic crisis and stock market meltdown after another grabbing your attention, but the last few decades have actually been great ones for investors. Thanks to a perfect storm of factors, investment returns for the period from...

Goodness knows, there is nothing better for the economy that productive workers. After all, an economy grows through having people working, and by having their hours at work be efficient. That can come through having them use the right equipment, or just by having them...

Billionaires are getting a bad rap these days. We would love to see the middle class (good luck defining what that is) expand, and the poor shrink in numbers. Even millionaires are more or less okay, since what with real estate wealth and all it...

We all know the how the narrative goes: manufacturing is dead, and those old cities known as industrial centers are as well. It is not a hard case to make it if you take a quick tour of places like Pittsburgh or Detroit in the...

Twenty and thirtysomethings would apparently rather buy experiences than things, and that has some very definite implications for retailers – or as least that is one theory. As this article from Bloomberg Business suggests, the stock market tells the tale of what is happening very...

Way back when I studied economics, I don’t actually remember learning what a ‘negative interest rate’ was. In fact, even a few years ago when I taught graduate-level economics (a whole other post), I don’t remember it being in the curriculum, or even being asked...

When people rhyme off the things they want to do in retirement, ‘pay off debts’ is never on the list. Nevertheless, it is something that baby boomers will have to do anyway, if data from the New York Federal Reserve (NY Fed) is to be...

Like it or not, the sharing economy is everywhere. I’ll go as far as saying it will be one of the big economic stories of 2016, although its influence will extend far longer than that. It’s a different way to do business, and it works...

The ‘sharing economy’ is apparently making inroads in the education field.  These days, savvy teachers are selling their wares on a site called TeachersPayTeachers.com, which is a kind of Etsy for teaching plans and the like. In fact, the CEO of the company is a...

We all say it, and we worry about it too: we are an aging society, and that’s going to have repercussions. In Canada, the median age of the population is now close to 41 while in the U.S. it is still-youthful 37ish but rising (according...

Is Mickey Mouse a snob? According to this article from the blog Theme Park Insider (reprinted by Quartz), while once Disney (NYSE: DIS)  was all about welcoming the middle class into its parks, these days you have to be rich to party with the well-heeled...

I admit, I have watched television shows set in law firms for a long time now. When I was young and impressionable, I watched the excitement on L.A. Law and was intrigued enough to eventually take the Law School Admissions Test (I did get accepted...

Everybody hates the suburbs right? Or at least all the cool people. They talk about a return to the downtowns, about walkable spaces, about riding bikes to work. It is all interesting stuff, but are people really rallying against the suburbs? Any look at population...