Raphael Stevens

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Workforce Wire: Coronavirus

The World Health Organization finally recognized burnout as an occupational health issue in 2019.
Employers are making burnout and mental health more of a priority after 19 months of working from home during the Covid pandemic.

Work burnout is real, and during Covid, it only got worse. A survey from careers site Indeed conducted during the spring found more than half of workers saying they felt burned out, and more than two-thirds saying the feeling had gotten worse throughout the pandemic. 
The good news: the world of work is taking it more seriously.

While Sweden is the only country to recognize burnout as a disease, the World Health Organization added burnout as an occupational phenomenon in 2019. Research shows the condition is a lot more complex than just a heavy workload, but businesses, from Nike to online dating company Bumble, have recently offered office employees extra time off of work to support their mental health and address the issue of burnout.
How to deal with burnout — and prevent future burnout — is a challenge all businesses are now tasked with as many workers hit 19 months of working from home.

Research from work burnout expert Jennifer Moss finds that while the average person says they are “fine” 14 times a week when they are asked how they are doing, 19% of the time they are lying.
(Photo: Getty | Maria Korneeva)

Jennifer Moss, author of the new book, “The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It,” recently spoke with CNBC’s Workforce Executive Council about strategies employers and employees can implement to reduce burnout.   
“The future of work is here, and that means we need to test some new rules out,” Moss said. 

Burnout needs to be treated in the workplace  

Burnout is not considered a mental health illness, but it is a mental health issue, and needs to be treated as such in workplace environments.

Moss said that require leaders to “trust employees and create flexibility” in the workplace. Creating safe spaces, offering psychological safety and resources, and prioritizing employees mental health will benefit workers and business productivity, she said. And any effort made to invest in employee well-being will show up in business results, but it has to start from the top. A leader’s first task is to give permission to workers to make their mental health a priority. 
“The key to [creating] comfort inside organizations is being permitted to prioritize mental health,” Moss said. 
Her research finds that while the average person says they are “fine” 14 times a week when they are asked how they are doing, 19% of the time they are lying. 
Asking workers more specific questions to better assess how they are doing, will translate into their professional work. Moss says while most meetings go on for too long and harp on non-essential issues, a 15-minute meeting a week between managers and employees can pay off in terms of mental wellness and job productivity, and it should not only focus on work issues.
Among the key questions Moss says should be covered in a short meeting:

How was this week?
What were the highs and lows?
What can I do for you next week to make things easier?
What can we do for each other?

“It’s so simple,” she said.
Talking about mental health in the workplace establishes open communication and a safe environment for employees to feel connected to their work and to their leaders, she says, and also helps employees to reach their goals. It helps leaders begin to better understand what their employees need to be more productive.
“Simple actions done with repetition equal positive wellbeing outcomes,” Moss said.

Work stress, a new idea of success, and the Great Resignation  

More companies are worried about the “Great Resignation” impact on their workforce, and Moss said keying in on burnout and employee’s desire to better connect with their work and their values has to be part of the analysis in employee retention efforts. 
“The hyper use of technology, not meeting people in person disconnected [workers] emotionally from what we care about inside the organization,” Moss said.  
The past year-plus of the pandemic has allowed people to develop what Moss calls “cognitive gratitude” and that means employees are zeroing in on what matters most.
“That’s why we are seeing the mass resignations. I want more from my manager, more from my leader,” she said. Many people are making different life choices than they would have made pre-pandemic, and defining success in new ways.
In some ways, the pandemic also has dissolved the “we” versus “them” mentality between workers and managers, as organizations as a whole have faced the same challenges, and that is a positive, Moss said. It should also make managers more willing to be open with teams.
“Leaders should be transparent about their struggles as well,” she said. “It is not healthy to remain stoic.” 
Leaders are exhausted too — “exhausted leaders leading exhausted teams,” Moss said, referencing the name of a talk she gives. She added that interventions she has done inside organizations show that most managers right now don’t really know what their direct reports are doing given how busy they are themselves.
The transparency of the 15-minute meetings, “the constant communication,” is what prevents teams from being sent “off trajectory,” Moss said, and “that changes the inefficiencies that reduces the workload, which reduces burnout.”
Leaders also need to know how to direct employees to resources. Companies are prioritizing mental health because of the pandemic, but many organizations have had mental health resources available for years and had not taken advantage of them. Moss said it is important for leaders to communicate what programs and mental health resources are available to employees and should not feel that they need to be a mental health expert to do so. 
Moss said what she learned while interviewing managers is that they are often concerned about having a conversation with workers on the subject without being a mental health expert, and “that made them shut down.”
“I keep telling them you are not meant to be a mental health expert, but you are meant to know where those mental health experts exist in your organization. You are a conduit,” Moss said, adding that also extends to knowing about community resources. “Managers just need to be able to point people in the right direction.” More

Assuming a 100% stock portfolio, the return on lump-sum investing outperformed dollar-cost averaging 75% of the time, according to research.
For portfolios with 100% bonds, the rate of outperformance was 90%.

Valeriy_G | iStock | Getty Images

If you have a big wad of cash to invest, you may wonder whether you should put all of it to work immediately or spread out over time.
Regardless of what the markets are doing, you’re more likely to end up with a higher balance down the road by making a lump-sum investment instead of deploying the money at set intervals (known as dollar-cost averaging), a study from Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management shows.

That outperformance holds true regardless of the mix of stocks and bonds you invest in.
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“If you look at the probability that you’ll end up with a higher cumulative value, the study shows it’s overwhelmingly when you use a lump-sum investment [approach] versus dollar-cost averaging,” said Matt Stucky, senior portfolio manager of equities at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management.
The study looked at rolling 10-year returns on $1 million starting in 1950, comparing results between an immediate lump-sum investment and dollar-cost averaging (which, in the study, assumes that $1 million is invested evenly over 12 months and then held for the remaining nine years).
Assuming a 100% stock portfolio, the return on lump-sum investing outperformed dollar-cost averaging 75% of the time, the study shows. For a portfolio composed of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, the outperformance rate was 80%. And a 100% fixed income portfolio outperformed dollar-cost averaging 90% of the time.

The average outperformance of lump-sum investing for the all-equity portfolio was 15.23%. For a 60-40 allocation, it was 10.68%, and for 100% fixed income, 4.3%.
Even when markets are hitting new highs, the data suggests that a better outcome down the road still means putting your money to work all at once, Stucky said. And, compared with investing the lump sum, choosing dollar-cost averaging instead can resemble market timing no matter how the markets are performing.
“There are a lot of other periods in history when the market has felt high,” Stucky said. “But market-timing is a very challenging strategy to implement successfully, whether by retail investors or professional investors.”

However, he said, dollar-cost averaging is not a bad strategy — generally speaking, 401(k) plan account holders are doing just that through their paycheck contributions throughout the year.
Additionally, before putting all your money in, say, stocks, all at once, you may want to be familiar with your risk tolerance. That’s basically a combination of how well you can sleep at night during periods of market volatility and how long until you need the money. Your portfolio construction — i.e., its mix of stocks and bonds — should reflect that risk tolerance, regardless of when you put your money to work.
“From our perspective, we’re looking at 10-year time horizons in the study … and market volatility during that time is going to be a constant, especially with a 100% equity portfolio,” Stucky said. “It’s better if we have expectations going into a strategy than afterwards discover our risk tolerance is very different.”

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Major reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which store water from the Colorado River, are experiencing a major decline in water levels thanks to a megadrought exacerbated by climate change.
The Bureau of Land Management projects 3% chance that Lake Powell’s water levels fall below the minimum level necessary for the lake’s Glen Canyon Dam to generate hydroelectricity next year. In 2023, the chance of a power shutdown jumps to 34%.
Other large bodies of water in the U.S. West have also hit record lows this year and triggered concern about power generation, including Lake Oroville in California.

Glen Canyon Dam is seen, behind which are record low water levels at Lake Powell, as the drought continues to worsen on July 2, 2021 near Page, Arizona.
David McNew | Getty Images

Falling water levels at Lake Powell, the massive reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border, could cause its dam to stop generating hydroelectric power in 2023, according to new projections by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the Interior Department.
Amid a historic megadrought and record-breaking temperatures in the U.S. West, exacerbated by climate change, Lake Powell and Lake Mead on the Colorado River are experiencing a record decline in water levels.

The Bureau’s projections show a 3% chance that Lake Powell’s water levels fall below the minimum level necessary for the lake’s Glen Canyon Dam to generate hydroelectricity next year. In 2023, the chance of a power shutdown jumps to 34%.
If water levels drop below 3,490 feet, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million customers in the inland West, will no longer be able to generate electricity. Lake Powell’s water levels are projected to drop to roughly 3,536 feet by the year’s end, according to the Bureau’s data.
“The latest outlook for Lake Powell is troubling,” the Bureau’s Upper Colorado Basin Regional Director Wayne Pullan said in a statement. “This highlights the importance of continuing to work collaboratively with the Basin States, Tribes and other partners toward solutions.”

More from CNBC Climate:

Other large bodies of water in the U.S. West have also hit record lows this year and triggered concern about power generation, including Lake Oroville in California. In August, the state shut down the lake’s Hyatt Power Plant because water levels fell near the minimum necessary to generate power.
The federal government also recently declared a water shortage at Lake Mead for the first time ever due to drought conditions. The declaration triggered water supply cuts that will mostly impact Arizona farmers starting next year.

The projections for Lake Powell come as Western lawmakers call on President Joe Biden and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to declare a drought disaster in the West, which would provide aid to states facing water cuts.
“There is little to no livestock feed available in the West, farmers are considering selling their livestock or land, and many species of wildlife are suffering from wildfires and lack of water,” Democratic Reps. Joe Neguse of Colorado and Jared Huffman of California wrote in a letter to the president in August.

In this aerial view, The tall bleached “bathtub ring” is visible on the rocky banks of Lake Powell on June 24, 2021 in Page, Arizona.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

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Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff speaks at the grand opening of the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco in May 2018.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Here are the stocks making headlines in midday trading.
Salesforce — The software company rose 6.4% in midday trading after raising its full-year 2022 revenue guidance to between $26.25 billion and $26.35 billion. Analysts expected $26.31 billion. The company also gave 2023 revenue guidance of $31.65 billion to $31.80 billion.

Darden Restaurants — The Olive Garden parent popped more than 6% in midday trading after reporting earnings of $1.76 per share, higher than the $1.64-per-share forecast, according to Refinitiv. The company said that 27% of its quarterly sales at Olive Garden were off-premise, showing that its takeout business is still a big part of the business even after health restrictions have been lifted for many restaurants around the country.
BlackBerry — Shares of BlackBerry surged over 13% after the software company’s quarterly financial results topped Wall Street expectations. BlackBerry reported a loss of 6 cents per share, compared with analysts’ expectation of 7 cents lost per share, according to Refinitiv. The company posted revenue of $175 million, topping estimates of $164 million.
KB Home — Shares of the homebuilder rose 2.1% despite the company missing estimates on the top and bottom lines for the third-quarter. Revenue guidance also came in under expectations, according to StreetAccount, but Wedbush Securities said in a note that the details of the guidance may lead analysts to raise the earnings estimates.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Carnival Cruise Line — Norwegian gained more than 6%, while Carnival was up 5.9% amid a broad risk-on shift in the stock market. Carnival also announced that it was track to be back at 50% fleet capacity by the end of October, putting it close to its previously stated goal of 65% by the start of next year.
Joby Aviation — The air taxi start-up’s shares jumped 7.9% after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of the stock with an overweight rating. The investment firm said in a note that Joby appears to have a head-start on getting its in-development vehicles certified by regulators compared to its competitors.

Liberty Global — Shares of the telecom conglomerate rose 4% after Jefferies upgraded the stock to buy from hold. The investment firm said in a note that it expects a significant increase in cash flow for Liberty over the next three years.
Roku – Shares of the streaming service gained 3% after Guggenheim upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. The Wall Street firm said Roku’s international expansion and improving advertising tools should help complement the company’s core business.
Biogen – The biotech stock rose roughly 2% after Needham initiated coverage on the stock with a buy rating. The firm is bullish on Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, saying it will be a blockbuster for the company in the long run.
Fisker – The electric automaker’s stock rose over 6% after Tudor Pickering initiated coverage of the stock with a buy rating a $19 per share price target. The investment firm said its rating was based on assumptions for production and sales, partnerships and meeting timeline targets on developmental milestones.

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A key Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory group is meeting Thursday to debate and vote on exactly who should get booster shots of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The meeting comes a day after the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to administer Pfizer’s shots to the elderly and adults with medical conditions that place them at risk of getting severely sick or who are at risk of serious complications because of frequent exposure to the virus.
The agency also added people from 18 to 64 “whose frequent institutional or occupational exposure” to the virus place them at a high risk of getting Covid. That leaves enough room for the CDC panel to potentially recommend third doses for people in nursing homes, prisons, front-line health employees and other essential workers who were among the first Americans to get the initial shots in December.
If the CDC adopts that plan Thursday, booster shots could begin immediately.

CNBC Health & Science

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Sustainable Energy

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Swedish firm also says it wants a quarter of the material used in its new cars to “consist of recycled and bio-based content” by 2025.
Company will, however, “continue to offer wool blend options from suppliers that are certified to source responsibly.”

Volvo is one of several automakers looking to change the materials used in its vehicles.
Artur Widak | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Volvo Cars wants all the models it sells to be leather-free by 2030, a move which represents the latest example of how automakers are looking to make their vehicles more sustainable.
In an announcement Thursday, the Swedish firm also said it wanted a quarter of the material used in its new cars to “consist of recycled and bio-based content” by 2025.

One of the interior materials it will look to use, called Nordico, is made up of textiles derived from recycled materials like polyethylene terephthalate bottles as well as “material from sustainable forests in Sweden and Finland, and corks recycled from the wine industry.”
While it intends to scrap the use of leather in its vehicles, the company said it would “continue to offer wool blend options from suppliers that are certified to source responsibly.”

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

In a statement, Stuart Templar, Volvo Cars’ director of global sustainability, said: “Finding products and materials that support animal welfare will be challenging, but that is no reason to avoid this important issue.”
In March, Volvo Cars — which is headquartered in Sweden but owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group — said it planned to become a “fully electric car company” by the year 2030.
“There is no long-term future for cars with an internal combustion engine,” Henrik Green, Volvo Cars’ chief technology officer, said at the time. “We are firmly committed to becoming an electric-only car maker and the transition should happen by 2030,” Green said.

A number of automotive manufacturers have announced plans to kit their vehicles out with materials other than leather. Back in 2019, Elon Musk’s Tesla said the interior of its Model 3 was “100% leather-free.”
Other examples include Porsche — a brand owned by the Volkswagen Group — offering customers a leather-free option for the interior of the Taycan, an all-electric sports car.
As concerns about sustainability mount, companies from a range of sectors are looking at new ways of packaging and delivering their products in a bid to mitigate their environmental footprint.

More from CNBC Climate:

In June, consumer goods giant Unilever said a prototype of what it described as a “paper-based laundry detergent bottle” had been developed for its brand OMO and would be introduced to Brazil by early next year.
Earlier this month, online food delivery business Just Eat said it would work with CLUBZERO to trial reusable packaging in London over a three-month period.
In Feb. 2020, Just Eat said it had, together with packaging firm Notpla, developed a “fully recyclable” takeout box lined with seaweed. More

Target said it anticipates that current store employees will work about 5 million more hours this holiday season, as it trims back seasonal hires.
The big-box retailer has launched an app that allows workers to pick up an extra shift on demand.
Other retailers are asking workers to take on additional hours and even reducing store hours amid the tight labor market, according to a survey by talent consulting firm Korn Ferry.

A customer shops the holiday section at a Target store in Clifton, N.J.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Target said Thursday that it is taking a different staffing approach this holiday season as it gears up for a rush of shoppers at stores and on its website: It will trim back seasonal hires and give more hours to existing employees.
In all, the discounter said it expects current store staff — about 300,000 people in total — will work 5 million more hours during the holiday season. That translates into more than $75 million of additional pay, it said.

Target still plans to hire about 100,000 seasonal employees — but that’s smaller than the over 130,000 that it hired for each of the past two holiday seasons, the company said.
The big-box retailer, which has more than 1,900 stores and about 350,000 employees, launched an app this summer that makes it easier for store workers to pick up an occasional shift. It allows staff choose times or swap hours on demand, adjusting for other obligations like parenting or attending a college class.
“The pandemic highlighted our team members’ needs for flexibility,” said Target’s Chief Human Resource Officer Melissa Kremer.
Retailers, including Target, are preparing for a holiday season that’s expected to be both busy and riddled with complications. Sales in November and December are expected to grow at least 7% year over year, according to three different forecasts by Bain & Company, Deloitte and Mastercard SpendingPulse. However, industry analysts say customers should expect to see fewer deals, more out-of-stocks and shipping delays as pandemic-fueled supply chain challenges ripple across the globe.
Staffing has become a key challenge, too, as many struggle to fill openings and retain workers — a problem that could translate to emptier shelves, sloppier stores, longer checkout lines and other frustrations.

Korn Ferry, a talent consulting firm, earlier this month polled 176 U.S. retailers to see if the companies were having trouble hiring, and only 2% responded that it wasn’t an issue.
When asked what measures the companies were taking ahead of the holidays to staff up, 74 businesses said part-time workers were being asked to take on additional hours; 63 said full-time workers were being asked to take on longer shifts; and 34 retailers said the hours stores are open are being reduced. Only 15 businesses told Korn Ferry staffing wasn’t an issue.
Target’s Kremer said the strategy of providing more hours to existing staff is part of a broader push to attract and hold onto high-quality workers. She pointed to a multiyear effort to raise Target’s minimum wage, which began before the pandemic. Starting pay of at least $15 an hour went into effect in July.
This fall, Target also began a debt-free education assistance program, which covers college tuition and contributes toward graduate programs. Walmart already had a similar program and Amazon recently announced the creation of its own. Many retailers have also been hiking wages as well.
Target’s Chief Stores Officer Mark Schindele said the company has listened to employees and tried to cater to their preferences. He said many requested additional hours and more stable schedules, which in some cases qualified them for health insurance and other benefits. Another group sought more flexible jobs, so they could juggle child care, college classes or other aspects of life.
On average, he said, hourly employees are working nearly 15% more hours than they were a year ago.
Kremer said that over the past two years, turnover has fallen to a five-year low. The company declined to specify that rate, but said turnover is slightly higher this year versus 2020.
Schindele said about 24,000 of staff members are “on-demand employees” — a pool of part-time workers that he expects will grow.
Craig Rowley, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry and head of the firm’s retail practice, said he has spoken with a number of retail businesses recently that say they’re having less of an issue hiring workers permanently, but that it’s much harder to attract seasonal help.
That’s due to a number of factors, Rowley said, but largely because many Americans are flush with cash and don’t need to take on extra work to be able to afford gifts for their loved ones.
“I don’t think you’re going to see stores being open till midnight or one o’clock in the morning this holiday, when they can’t get staff,” Rowley said. “It’s hard enough to get people to work during the day, and getting people to work the overnight shifts is going to be even harder.”
Still, a number of retailers have laid out lofty hiring goals ahead of the holiday rush.
Macy’s said it aims to bring on 76,000 full- and part-time workers at its stores, call centers and warehouses, marking a return to the department store chain’s pre-pandemic levels of seasonal hiring. About 48,000 of those jobs are specific to the holiday season, the company said, while the rest are meant to extend on a permanent basis.
Kohl’s hopes to bring on roughly 90,000 seasonal workers. The company said it is offering a first-of-its-kind bonus, of between $100 and $400, for all hourly holiday employees.
Walmart has not yet announced seasonal hiring plans, but said it is seeking 20,000 employees for permanent, supply chain roles like freight handler and order filler.
But according to Joel Bines, global co-leader of the retail practice at consulting firm AlixPartners, it’s hard to keep a count of exactly how many of those positions end up getting filled.
“We don’t have a good accounting of companies that said [they] wanted to hire 100,000 seasonal workers. Well how many did you hire?” he said.
He also doesn’t think it’s a smart strategy to rely entirely on a retailer’s current workforce, as online orders come flooding in and shoppers pile into stores.
“You will absolutely exhaust your existing workforce if you don’t prepare,” Bines added. “The holidays are a eight- to 12-week season.”

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