Here's what we emailed out the week of May 24, 2021. Sign up for updates directly in your inbox.
Award-winning hip hop artist J. Cole once sang that he wanted to see “you work out for me.” But now he’s the one working out for us to see, making his debut as a professional basketball player for Rwanda’s Patriots Basketball Club. While Cole has already begun scoring in his new role, today we’re exploring how some company leadership and long working hours are affecting careers around the world.
WORK LIFE
Long work hours are killing employees around the world at alarming rates
Mon May 17
Overworking does more to our bodies than we may immediately realize. A new study found that 745,000 people died from long working hours in 2016. More specifically:
- Working 55 hours or more per week (compared to 35-40) increases risk of stroke by 35% and death by heart disease by 17%.
- Roughly 75% of those who died were middle-aged to older men, even if decades had passed after their period of overwork.
- South East Asia and the Western Pacific were also among the most affected with high percentages of their populations overworking.
With concerns of overwork during pandemic-driven lockdowns, a number of other studies are resurfacing around the consequences of work-dominated lifestyles. One 2014 study showed that productivity plummets after 64 hours of work per week, and a recent study on frontline nurses found the stress of overworking can lead to depression, anxiety, and more.
What can be done? More and more employees are vocalizing their need for reducing work burdens and day-long Zoom calls. Meanwhile, companies and countries alike are looking into four-day workweeks to boost productivity and employee wellness. We covered this topic earlier this year when Spain became the first country to test a 32-hour workweek.
Some additional resources...
- Full coverage: BBC
- South East Asia’s long work days: HRM Asia
- Additional studies: Eat This, Not That
- Spain’s four-day workweek: Below the Fold
GUN (LEADERSHIP) CONTROL
Texas judge blocks NRA's latest attempt to escape lawsuit
Thu May 13
The National Rifle Association (NRA) declared bankruptcy back in January — despite having the funds necessary to pay off their debt. A Texas-based judge rejected this attempt, saying the bankruptcy law is meant to give corporations a chance to restructure, pay their bills, and still operate — not provide unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme. That said, it can take years of litigation to determine if the NRA can or cannot declare bankruptcy.
But why are they even declaring bankruptcy?
- NRA’s CEO Wayne LaPierre has been caught in a lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General since last August. It claims he spent upwards of $1.2 million on personal expenses, including over $500,000 on private flights for family members to NRA events and the Bahamas.
- While he initially denied these claims, a later tax filing led the organization to admit to a “significant diversion of its assets,” and only $300,000 has been reimbursed to the NRA for LaPierre’s travel expenses so far.
- The lawsuit calls for dissolution of the NRA, which would mean leadership’s loss of control over all NRA assets, including donor lists. With a successful bankruptcy, the NRA would be allowed to remove themselves from New York and re-incorporate in Texas, shielding the NRA from this lawsuit.
Some claim it’s unlikely the NRA will have major penalties imposed on them (such as dissolution) but that a change in leadership might be on the horizon. Even without cries of mismanagement, the NRA’s current organization is unusual. For instance, there are 76 board members for the NRA, which is nearly six times as many as experts recommend. These members are responsible for governing leadership and overseeing any inappropriate activity. Regardless of the outcome, the lawsuit is still disruptive to NRA activities in fighting gun control laws.
Some additional resources...
- Full coverage: Vox
- Nonprofit regulation: Board Source
- New York on dissolving NRA: NY.gov
- Federal judge’s dismissal: CNBC
- NRA as a case study for mismanagement: The Conversation
ASCII OF THE WEEK
+--^----------,--------,-----,--------^-,
| ||||||||| `--------' | O
`+---------------------------^----------|
`\_,---------,---------,--------------'
/ XXXXXX /'| /'
/ XXXXXX / `\ /'
/ XXXXXX /`-------'
/ XXXXXX /
/ XXXXXX /
(________(
`------' Steven Paul Adams
Did they find out we expensed this trip?
Not yet, dodged a bullet there!
Art Credit: Steven Paul Adams